I am delighted to have this opportunity to write this inaugural entry for my new CLO Media blog, “Your Career.” The purpose of this blog is to provide CLO’s with information you can personally use to enhance your own leadership journey.
We will cover ways to grow your leadership influence, thoughts on development, share best practices from other CLO’s and, most importantly, talk about how you can build your own support system for aligning your energies to truly be in the zone of your career’s passion and purpose.
A Little Background
I started in the learning profession way back in 1980 when I had the opportunity to teach income tax preparation courses to would be tax preparers who wanted to work for H&R Block. From there, I spent three years as a high school teacher in South Florida (where I grew up) before being called upon to move to New York in 1984 to develop and teach courses to IBM employees on the newly released IBM PC XT desktop computer. In 1987, I moved back to Florida where I ran a computer training company.
From there, I went on to lead learning in several organizations including having the top learning spot at Booz Allen Hamilton, Satyam Computer Services and HCL Technologies. I have had the great fortune of leading two organizations to the number one rank for learning — Booz Allen achieved number one on both the Association for Talent Development (formerly American Society for Training & Development) BEST Awards and Training Magazine’s Top 125, and Satyam achieved number one on the ATD BEST list. Since 2012, I have been a partner in Nelson Cohen Global Consulting providing executive coaching for leaders and CLOs as well as leadership development and learning strategy services.
Let’s Talk about 2015
Here’s my first question for you to contemplate … do you want this year to be a continuation of the vicious cycle of the past or are you ready to break the cycle?
Last year, I had the opportunity to receive some excellent coaching on energy management from Executive Stamina. One of the greatest lessons I learned from them:
“If it’s really important, then it should be on your calendar (and that includes things like taking time for self) because if you don’t plan your time, someone else will.”
By now, your budgets and strategies for your departments should be in place, but what about your own plan? How will you spend your time in these first few months? Bottom line, how you begin the year will set the tone for how you will spend your year.
Rather than taking on the daunting task of planning your entire year, I find it much more realistic and simpler to take 20-30 minutes each month to reflect and plan. Start by thinking about how you have spent your time over the past month and how you want the next month to look. Then write down the answers to these questions:
- What two or three things do you want to personally accomplish in the next few months?
- What two or three things do you want to professionally accomplish?
- Who will you spend your time with, to enjoy life, to work with, to learn from, to teach?
- How will you align your life including the time you spend at work and outside of work (remember, if you do not plan your time, someone else will)?
I am sure there are other questions you will want to ask and answer, however, the answers to these few questions will ensure stay on track in 2015.
To ensure you continue the process each month, go ahead and setup a recurring meeting for yourself right now on your calendar. Schedule 30 minutes for yourself on the first business day of each month. Take it seriously. Do it at work. This activity will result in your ability to be a much better leader for yourself and for others so go ahead and invest the time.
Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and ask your questions. Let’s make this a space where we can all learn and grow with each other.
