Hi there,

Ever set career goals only to find yourself in the exact same spot months later? You're not alone.

As a leadership coach I've discovered that the reason most personal development plans fail isn't lack of time—it's strategy.

The three biggest mistakes I see that keep ambitious managers stuck are:

• The Knowledge Trap: Chasing more knowledge isn't always the answer to leadership success, as so much of great leadership is in behaviours, habits and skills that you learn faster in the day to day action of work.
• The Clarity Trap: Development goals are often too vague, the art is to turn goals like "be more strategic" into a clear outcome and actionable steps to get there.
• The No-Time Trap: Many people separate ‘work’ and ‘development’ and think the need ‘extra’ time for the personal development. A simple way to solve this is turn your daily work into your development gym. Find ways to practice your leadership skills, little and often, like strength reps in the gym.

The answer to make sure you don’t fall into these traps and can maintain focus on your career strategy is to have a system to keep you on track.

This is where my 10-minutes a week personal development system comes in, I’ve shared it in this week’s video.

It starts with my One-by-Three Framework—a practical approach that takes just 10 minutes a week to maintain.

The "One" - Is to choose a single skill or competency to work on for an entire quarter. This focused approach prevents overwhelm and ensures you make meaningful progress in one area before moving to the next.

The "Three" - Reflects the different learning methods

1. Learn: Dedicate a little time to understanding the theory and best practices through resources like books, videos, podcasts or your AI tool of choice. This gives you a solid foundation of what ‘good’ looks like.

2. Ask: Connect with someone who excels in your focus area. Go ask them for advice. This will give you real-world insights and shortcuts your learning curve.

3. Apply: Put your learning into practice through deliberate action. Use your regular meetings and projects as opportunities to implement what you've learned.

Once you have set your plan for the quarter I recommend a 10-minute tracker where each week you record in a notebook, a doc or as in my case Notion, what you did, what you learned, and where your micro practice moments are for the following week.

The power of this framework lies in its simplicity and practicality.

The best part? You don't need to clear extra time in your calendar or sign up for expensive courses. These are strategies you can start implementing today, using the meetings and projects already on your plate.

If you want to know exactly how to do it, watch the full video here, its just 10 minutes and will dramatically enhance your leadership skills.

If you recognise this challenge let me know what skills or topics you are going to focus on, you can reply to me here.

Until next week,

Cheers, Helen

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