Life by Design

A columnist for the Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently interviewed me as part of their Big Idea series “Advancing Black Leaders.” HBR quoted me about influence: “I’ve always believed the key to success has been my ability to design my career intentionally and not by default. I’ve found it useful to focus my energy on the things I could control which in turn allowed me to expand my influence.”

What do you REALLY want?

Around the same time, I was challenged by a professional development facilitator to answer a simple question. ‘What do you really want?’ Emphasis on “really” presented the challenge. Is there a more difficult question to answer? This question had depth. To fully explore my response was going to take time. I couldn’t ease into it under the weight of her waiting for me to say something profound. Many C-Suite executives, entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and others I know still can’t answer this question. My response took root in my desire to always move with purpose—intentionality is everything.

Intentionality 

Admittedly, many things in our environment are out of our control; there will be headwinds. Our response to these situations is totally within our control. The most important aspect of determining that response is to not get in your own way. Don’t defeat yourself. Be cognizant of what you’re saying to yourself about yourself. Do you have a positive inner motivation or do you talk yourself out of challenging tasks? How long have these limiting factors been a part of your narrative?

I’ve been able to create my own position within Fortune 500 companies on three separate occasions by delivering excellence in my core responsibilities and then adding value and driving impact by mobilizing people and resources around my ideas. “Carving my own path,” as HBR quoted me, has been an intentional objective throughout my career. I don’t share that to boast, but more as a challenge for you to determine where best to apply effective effort. It’s essential to know what we want.

Design vs Default Mentality

In his classic book, The Power of Choice, author Michael Hyter introduces the concept of efficacy as, “a set of thoughts and behaviors that give you the highest return on investment of your time and energy.” This is crucial. When you manage your career, time, and energy by default, you leave your destiny in the hands of others. When you design your career, you control the outcomes. You can’t deliver the outcomes you want in your subconscious, you must design your vision. When you’re clear about what you want, all your actions need to be aligned accordingly. A default mentality allows the stimulus to have a dramatic influence over our response—often unproductive. A design mentality remains focused on the desired outcome and calculates responses with that single focus in mind.

“Life by Design” Checklist:

I. Align actions and responses with desired outcomes

II. Move with intention and purpose

III. Have a design mentality 

The key is to implement bold moves and actions and behave with purpose and intent. We’ll explore these concepts in greater detail in future blogs. Have a joyous New Year!