Early in his career, Doug Conant was unexpectedly fired from his job. He felt blindsided and was devastated. It didn’t make any sense to him. He’d been working hard, putting in extra hours, doing everything he thought he was supposed to. Then, bang! A young family, a mortgage, and no job.
With hindsight, Doug says it was one of the best things that ever happened to him.
A gritty outplacement counselor helped him realize that he hadn’t done anything wrong, he simply hadn’t been doing enough right. He had siloed his “work” self and his “real” self and the two were at odds. When Doug came to that realization and brought his true personality to the workplace, his career took off like a rocket.
If there were a Hall of Fame for business executives, Doug Conant would be a member. He served as president of Nabisco Foods, President and CEO of Campbell Soup Company, and then chairman of Avon Products. Doug is the only former Fortune 500 CEO who is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellng author … who has been a Top 50 Leadership Innovator … a Top 100 Leadership Speaker … and twice named one of the 100 Most Influential Authors in the World. Doug’s most recent book is titled The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights.
There’s a danger in regarding your “work life” and “real life” as two separate identities. You can’t realize the full expression of your leadership if you’re bringing only part of yourself to it.
The path to self-development is in finding a way to build a bridge between your résumé (your skills) and your eulogy (your legacy)—who you want to become and how you want to be remembered.
Effective leaders make decisions with logic and mental toughness while always operating “with heart”—considering the impact on people.
What can you do to achieve a higher level of self-awareness and self-knowledge?
Even if you don’t write 30,000 thank-you notes, how can you acknowledge and celebrate the good performance of others?
How can you make better decisions by realizing that your sphere of influence extends across three times zones—the Past, the Present, and the Future?
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