By completing the pre-session assignment at least 48 hours before our meeting, you'll provide crucial insights that allow me to tailor our conversation specifically to your leadership challenges, values, and aspirations.
The pre-session assignment builds toward creating a focused and productive coaching experience, culminating in a practical 90-day action plan aligned with your authentic goals and strengths.
To submit your pre-session assignment, reflect on each of the questions below in Steps 1-9. Then submit all of your responses in the form at the end. If you have questions or need assistance, please send a message.
Start Here: Begin the pre-session assignment by watching the short video below (if the video doesn't load, please refresh the page).
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You excel behind the scenes, producing exceptional work but rarely claiming credit or visibility. You may struggle with self-promotion and being recognized for your contributions.
You take on more than your share, stepping in to solve problems before others can. While highly capable, you may inadvertently limit others' growth and burn yourself out.
You analyze deeply before acting, considering all angles. While thorough, this pattern may lead to decision paralysis or missed opportunities when quick action is needed.
You prioritize harmony and others' comfort, often at your own expense. You may avoid necessary conflicts and struggle to voice your authentic opinions.
You excel at projecting confidence and competence, but may struggle with perfectionism and impostor syndrome. You may fear revealing vulnerability or mistakes.
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Identify the top 3 tasks in your current or past roles that genuinely energize you—the ones that make time fly when you're doing them.
- Example: Strategic planning sessions where I can think big-picture
- Example: Mentoring team members and seeing their growth
- _______________________________________
- _______________________________________
- _______________________________________
Identify the top 3 tasks that consistently drain your energy or feel like a burden when they appear on your calendar.
- Example: Creating detailed spreadsheets for routine reporting
- Example: Managing conflicts between team members
- _______________________________________
- _______________________________________
- _______________________________________
Look at both lists and consider:
- What patterns do you notice?
- What skills, environments, or interactions characterize your "love" list versus your "loathe" list?
- How might these insights inform potential career pivots or role adjustments that would increase your time spent in energizing activities?
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Significant moments in our careers often contain powerful clues about our purpose, strengths, and sources of fulfillment. By identifying and analyzing these peak experiences, we can extract insights to guide future career decisions.
Describe in detail a moment in your career or personal life when you felt a deep sense of pride, significance, or meaning.
Consider:
- What exactly were you doing?
- Who was involved?
- What made this moment particularly meaningful?
- What values were being honored in this experience?
- How did it impact others?
Recall a time when you felt completely "in your element"—confident, capable, and fully aligned with your work.
Describe:
- The specific scenario and your role in it
- The skills or strengths you were utilizing
- How your body felt during this experience
- The feedback or outcomes that resulted
- What conditions enabled you to thrive in this moment
"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." — Mark Twain
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How do you typically feel at the start of your workday? Energized and ready to tackle challenges, or already drained by anticipating what's ahead?
When do you hit your stride? Are there particular meetings, tasks, or interactions that consistently boost your energy rather than deplete it?
What parts of your work sustain your motivation even when fatigue might naturally set in? What consistently drags your energy down?
What leaves you feeling fulfilled versus frustrated at day's end? What determines whether you leave work energized or exhausted?
When do you feel most engaged, alive, and purposeful at work?
Consider specific:
- Activities or tasks
- People or collaborative dynamics
- Environmental factors
- Types of challenges
- Skills you're using
When do you feel most drained, disconnected, or disengaged?
Identify patterns around:
- Meeting structures or dynamics
- Specific role responsibilities
- Workplace culture elements
- Communication styles
- Types of deliverables
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Identify elements you'd like to increase in your professional life:
- Creative expression or innovation opportunities
- Strategic influence and decision-making
- Recognition for your unique contributions
- Collaborative projects with inspiring colleagues
- Learning and professional development
- Flexibility and autonomy in your schedule
- Direct impact on organizational outcomes
- Public visibility and thought leadership
Identify elements you'd like to decrease in your professional life:
- Micromanagement or excessive oversight
- Administrative busywork that doesn't leverage your talents
- Unproductive meetings that waste valuable time
- Workplace politics or toxic team dynamics
- Constant firefighting without strategic focus
- Isolation or disconnection from colleagues
- Unclear expectations or shifting priorities
- Work that conflicts with your core values
From the examples above and your own reflection:
- Identify your top 3 "More Of" items
- Identify your top 3 "Less Of" items.
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"The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams." — Oprah Winfrey
This step invites you to temporarily suspend practical constraints and explore what truly excites you. By removing self-imposed limitations, we often discover aspirations that are more achievable than we initially believed.
If there were no limits, no barriers, and no risk of failure, what bold career move would you make next? This could be:
- A significant role change or promotion
- Starting your own venture
- A complete industry pivot
- Creating a new position that doesn't yet exist
- Taking on a high-visibility project or leadership role
Describe this move in vivid detail. What would you be doing day-to-day? Who would you be working with? What impact would you be having?
What excites you most about this possibility? Identify the specific elements that create a sense of energy and anticipation.
What scares you most about this possibility? Name the fears, doubts, or practical concerns that arise when you consider this move.
For both excitement and fears, try to go beyond surface responses to uncover the deeper values, needs, or beliefs that might be driving these reactions.
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Using the Values List provided on the next page, identify and note your top five values that feel most essential to who you are and how you want to show up in your career and life. You'll input these in the form at the end.
Example:
- ___________________ (highest priority)
- ___________________
- ___________________
- ___________________
- ___________________ (5th priority)
Consider:
- How well are your current role and daily activities aligned with these core values?
- Where do you see conflicts or strong alignment?
Please note: The list below is a guide. You are not limited to only the values on the list, and you may input your own responses.
After you complete the form below, you will see your personalized professional growth and balance wheel.
Reflect on your highest and lowest areas of the wheel:
- What do these tell you about what's working well and what needs attention?
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- Accomplishment
- Accountability
- Accuracy
- Achievement
- Acknowledgment
- Adventure
- Authenticity
- Balance
- Beauty
- Belonging
- Boldness
- Calm
- Challenge
- Collaboration
- Community
- Compassion
- Comradeship
- Confidence
- Connectedness
- Contentment
- Contribution
- Cooperation
- Courage
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Determination
- Directness
- Discovery
- Ease
- Effortlessness
- Empowerment
- Enthusiasm
- Environment
- Excellence
- Fairness
- Faith
- Family
- Financial Stability
- Flexibility
- Focus
- Forgiveness
- Freedom
- Friendship
- FunGenerosity
- Gentleness
- Gratitude
- Growth
- Happiness
- Harmony
- Health
- Helpfulness
- Honesty
- Honor
- Hope
- Humility
- Humor
- Idealism
- Imagination
- Independence
- Innovation
- Integrity
- Intuition
- Joy
- Justice
- Kindness
- Leadership
- Learning
- Legacy
- Listening
- Love
- Loyalty
- Optimism
- Orderliness
- Participation
- Partnership
- Passion
- Patience
- Peace
- Power
- Presence
- Productivity
- Recognition
- Reliability
- Respect
- Resourcefulness
- Risk Taking
- Romance
- Safety
- Self-Esteem
- Service
- Simplicity
- Spaciousness
- Spontaneity
- Stewardship
- Strength
- Success
- Tact
- Teamwork
- Tolerance
- Tradition
- Travel
- Trust
- Understanding
- Unity
- Vitality
- Wealth
- Well Being
- Wisdom
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As we prepare to develop your personalized 90-day action plan during our coaching session, it's important to honestly assess your current readiness for change and identify the specific support structures that will help you succeed.
You're thinking about making changes but not yet ready to commit to specific actions. You need more clarity before moving forward.
You're actively planning and getting ready to take specific steps. You have some clarity but are still finalizing your approach.
You're ready to implement changes immediately with the right support and accountability structures in place.
You've already begun making changes and need support to sustain momentum and overcome obstacles as they arise.
Which stage best reflects your level of readiness?
- Contemplation
- Preparation
- Action
- Maintenance
What kind of support or accountability helps you follow through best?
- Regular check-ins with your coach
- Accountability partner or peer group
- Specific deadlines and milestones
- Public commitments to others
- Detailed written plans
- Tracking systems or visual progress markers
- Other: _______________________
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This comprehensive pre-session assignment guide is designed to maximize the value of your upcoming coaching session.