It’s already the middle of June, halfway through the year. The midpoint is a great time to check if you’re on track and what corrective actions you need to take to achieve or exceed your goals. If you’re meeting consistently with your team to review company goals and track key performance indicators, you’re already well aware of how you’re performing relative to your organization. It’s also important to make the time to do a mid-year check-in on yourself to examine your professional leadership and development goals.

Some questions you might ask:

• How am I doing against my goals?
• Am I focused on my Vital Few?
• How well am I investing in my development?
• What challenges have I overcome?

Like many leaders, you may find that you’ve gotten off-track in regard to any professional growth and leadership goals you established for the year. So set up a meeting with yourself, review all the facts, and outline steps for any course-correction you may need to make.

Click here to download our free professional development planning template to help you stay on track.

Need some additional prompts? Here are some aspects of professional growth you might consider assessing.

1. Modeling the key behaviors you expect of others.
Great leaders set expectations for others, but they also walk their talk, showing people through their own behaviors what they want them to do. As we discuss in MAP’s bestselling book, “The Disciplined Leader,” when you model certain behaviors and mindsets, those on your team learn effective strategies for management and professional self-discipline that connect to and strengthen your entire organization. For example, think of some behaviors that others may be struggling with at your company, such as communication, accountability to goals, and collaboration. One of the best ways to teach them how to manage these and many other behaviors for the better is to demonstrate your commitment to these activities, too. What could you do to show how you want your people to handle these things themselves? In terms of communication, perhaps you could listen more, talk less. Maybe you need to set up a daily system for checking in on your leadership goals to build greater accountability and to improve collaboration? Try being a better team player, accepting criticism as a learning opportunity, not a personal attack. Whatever the key behaviors you’ve identified for improvement in others, model what you expect in all you say and do, too. Set and then be the example that you want others to follow.

2. Maintaining your work-life balance.
The habit of overcommitting and overscheduling yourself with must-do activities creates a dangerous trap into which leaders commonly fall. Suddenly, you realize you have no energy, no enthusiasm—you’re practically inert—and it’s all your own doing. If you’re feeling like you’re in this trap, only you can get yourself out. Start by managing your commitments better, scheduling in personal time for you, your friends, family, etc. If you actually build personal time into your calendar, you will be more likely to take it. Also, learn to disconnect from technology and other distractions when you’re off the clock. Be present and live more in the moment. And finally, take care of yourself. Honor your health and wellness, getting good sleep, eating right, and building exercise and other great habits into your life.

3. Challenging yourself to do something new.
We all get stuck in occasional ruts but from a professional standpoint, tackling something new has the power to build your capacity for success and is a great discipline worth pursuing. If you made a commitment to do something beyond your comfort zone in early 2018, now consider taking that challenge to the next level. Or, identify something else you could do between now and the year’s end. Make a list of things you want to learn. For example, consider seeking more responsibility in areas you want to develop or try taking a class in a relevant field that will push you in new ways and/or sharpen skills. Whatever you want to do, choose it and then get to it! Incorporate your new goal into your active self-development plan and start taking those steps to achieve it.

Want to achieve your goals faster? Consider hiring an executive coach. Contact us to learn more about our coaching services.