Your Personal Power-Up: Five Steps to Take Control of Your Life and Career

Your Personal Power-Up is about navigating life s varied changes through finding and connecting with the potential of your true self . The book is designed to help the busy professional use change to take control of your emotions and realize personal and professional success through purposive striving.

The book puts into action five coherent, easily understood steps illustrated by workplace vignettes. Then you are strategically and succinctly guided through them.

Step 1 Know Yourself: Identify who you are, and who people think you are. Begin aligning yourself with who you want to be (your authentic self). This means changing your behavior to accord with this discovery.

Step 2 Resolve Contradictions: Identify who you are, who people think you are, and resolve the contradictions. Identify your roles and labels. Try to resolve the contradictions between who you believe yourself to be and who people think you are (this process leads to an identification and alignment of your authentic self).

Step 3 Embrace Change: Enable Yourself and Others: Do not stand opposed to change. Accept change by learning to take risks appropriately. Work to understand differing cultural contributions, and accept them through facilitating working with diversity. Paradoxically, this facilitates self-understanding.

Step 4 Get Comfortable: Identify a context in which you can strive (even if it s theoretical), and find your rightful place in your organization. Round up strategic allies, resolve personal conflicts with coworkers, identify political sensitivities, understand both the written and unwritten rules of your business, know when to collaborate and when to compete, enable and empower others, and sweep away the roadblocks that have prevented you from thriving on the job. Move from a place of conflict to one of cooperation, from what may be a sense of paralyzing stress to a refreshing sense of optimism and confidence.

Step 5 Carpe Diem: Seize the day and take control of your life by creating and claiming a workplace environment where you can succeed.