The Personal Business Plan

Plan for success

No one would embark on a business venture without a thorough and coherent plan. So why are so many of us happy to stagger through life with no real plan – just going with the flow, seeing what happens? It’s time we gave our lives the same importance we give to our business exploits. The Personal Business Plan offers a practical, field-tested method for effectively planning out what you want from life and exactly how to achieve it. It will change the way you look at yourself, your job and your career. This is an essential toolkit for all ambitious career professionals who want to know how to thrive in their job and simultaneously become a happier and more effective person. Creating your own personal business plan will help you to define your purpose, plan your actions, break through limiting beliefs and reinvent yourself.

• Written by a top executive coach and head-hunter with the world’s leading Talent Management and Executive Search firm who has changed the lives of thousands of people
• A field-tested methodology for identifying your mission, setting your critical success criteria, defining your agenda, keeping to the point and become more fulfilled and happier
• A complete life view – how to excel in your chosen career and simultaneously enjoy a happy personal life

List of Figures and Tables in The Personal Business Plan vi

Introduction: What Can I Use The Personal Business Plan For? vii

What Was Your Question? xi

How Is This Book Structured? xiii

What Do You Do? xix

1 What is My Situation? 1

What Baggage from the Past Must I Let Go Of? 7

What is Meaningful to Me Right Now? 8

How Can I Move Forward? 10

2 How Can I Thrive? 13

What Do I Like Doing? 21

What Don’t I Like Doing? 23

How Can I Learn to Trust My Intuition? 25

3 When Do I Perform at My Best? 29

What Does Success Look Like to Me? 34

What is My Deep Down Motivation? 38

What is My Worst-Case Scenario? 41

4 What Energizes Me? 45

What are My Strengths? 48

What are My Weaknesses? 57

What is My Passion? 61

5 Where am I on My Personal Journey? 67

Where am I in My Life? 68

What are My Personal Priorities? 74

What is My Potential for Personal Growth? 74

6 How Do I Become Happy? 79

What is My Challenge? 87

Why Must I Do Something Now? 91

How Can I Obtain 20/20 Vision? 96

7 How Do I Reinvent Myself? 101

What am I Willing to Sacrifice? 107

Who Can I Turn to for Help? 109

What is My Life Ambition? 111

8 How Do I Differentiate Myself from Others? 125

What am I Better at than Anybody Else? 129

What Else Differentiates Me from the Rest? 133

How Good Do I Want to Be? 135

9 What is My Personal Business Plan? 141

How Can I Reinvent Myself in Order to Remain Relevant? 143

What is My BATNA? 146

Am I Happy Now? 148

10 What Have I Learned? 153

What is My Time Horizon? 156

How Far Can I Go? 157

What Would I Attempt to Do if I Knew I Could Not Fail? 158

Epilogue: What Now? 165

Your Personal Business Plan Toolkit 171

Notes 189

Top 10 Recommended Reading 197

Bibliography 199

About the Author 205

Index 207

"Whether looking at how to approach developing new competencies, what factors differentiate you from those around you or how to realise your true brand value, there is plenty to be gleaned from the pages of this guide." (Elite Business, August 2013)

Stephen Bruyant-Langer is a senior partner with Korn/Ferry International - the world’s leading Executive Search and Talent Management firm. He has successfully transformed the lives of hundreds of top-level executives through his world-class Executive Coaching Program. For more than 15 years, he worked as a marketing executive for global market leaders such as L’Oréal and The Coca-Cola Company before reinventing himself as a headhunter and executive coach in 1996.

For more than 17 years, he has in parallel pursued an academic career as an external lecturer at Copenhagen Business School, focusing on Strategic Market Management and Corporate Communication. He has published more than 400 articles and columns on leadership and is widely used as a keynote speaker at conferences. In March 2012, he published his Danish bestselling leadership book Your Next Career - the Headhunter’s Guide to Lifelong Success.

Stephen Bruyant-Langer is happily married to Mette, who is a Vice President in a publicly listed company. Together they have four grown-up children. The family lives in Denmark, near the sea and the forest. Stephen enjoys dual French/ Danish citizenship, has lived in Belgium, France and Denmark and is fluent in English, French and Danish.

Find your life ambition and plan for success!

You’d never think to embark on a business venture without a thorough and coherent plan. So why do so many people stagger through life with no real strategy - just going with the flow, seeing what happens? It’s time we gave our lives the same importance we give to our business exploits.

What you need is a compass - a tool which helps you when you’re unsure which way to go and enables you to answer all the questions in your life. The Personal Business Plan will help you to understand and adapt the patterns in your life, so that you can feel free and focus on the future.

This essential guide offers a field-tested framework to help you define your purpose, plan your actions, reduce life’s complexity and create order from chaos. You’ll develop an ambitious attitude that will enable you to turn thoughts into action - and action into value. With a rich array of tools, techniques, templates, exercises and case studies along the way, you’ll learn how to become the best version of yourself and live a life that reflects who you are.

Experience the online toolkit at thepersonalbusinessplan.com