The Ladder Becomes the Path

Unleashing Your Professional and Personal Opportunity

Brian FishboneGlobal Training Specialist

Adjunct Professor of Management BFish@aol.com

www.linkedin.com/in/brianfishbone

Purpose and Process

Purpose:

Learn from stories of professional and personal change and growth; identify and unleash opportunities in our lives

Process:

• Listen to a story of change and growth and reflect upon how the lessons apply in your own life

•Explore and unleash your own potential

•Think about what you want to do next, based upon what you learn today

The Seeds of Change

• The Catalyst: Partner Leaves; Brian Evaluates His Portfolio

• The Process: Creative Thinking Leads to Sabbatical

• The Action: Enabling Change and Letting Go

• The Experience: A Bounty of Personal and Professional Growth

Lessons Learned in a Faraway Land

• We all need to be foreigners at least once.

• You can build community/network anywhere.

• Take the big risk.

• We can do anything we set our minds to (why put a lid on your container?).

• Replace the ladder with a path.

Discussion Questions: Applying Lessons to Your Own Life

1. Do you want more or less of what you have now, personally and professionally? If no, who and/or what can you become instead? What’s missing?

2. How can you step outside of what you know? What benefits might it bring, and what might you learn?

3. Is there a big risk you have thought about taking? Or perhaps just an incremental change you want to make in your life? What’s holding you back?

4. What can you set your mind to? What previously unexplored possibilities exist for you?

Discussion and Q & A

Let’s Get Practical: Exploring and Unleashing Your Potential

You can do more than just look for a new job in this period of economic uncertainty. Instead, which of the areas of potential below would you like to explore? Select a few and then write some goals designed to unleash your potential in those areas.

Profession

Health

Family

Spiritual

Finances

Recreation

Friends

Personal

Discussion and Q and A

• Which areas were most important to you in this chapter of your life? Why?

• What are some goals you would like to set?

• What have you learned from this exercise?

My Action Item: What Would You Like to Do Next?

Tying It All Together

• What’s Next for Brian• Questions, Answers, and Final Reflection

Closing Quotes

“All meaningful, lasting change starts on the inside and works its way out.”

(adapted from Albert Einstein)

and

“It’s not what you have: it’s what you do with what you have.”

(Unknown source)

The Ladder Becomes the Path

Unleashing Your Professional and Personal Opportunity

Brian FishboneGlobal Training Specialist

Adjunct Professor of Management BFish@aol.com

www.linkedin.com/in/brianfishbone