Stop running harder on banana skins; start aligning strategically and make your impact personal.
Early in my career, I was laser-focused. A JTC scholar with big ambitions, doing exciting and impactful strategy work for the nation. My boss was brilliant, the work important, and the hours? Well, let’s just say I barely saw the sun set for a couple of years. Every day, I’d step out of the office into darkness, thinking, This is how success is built.
But not everyone was so impressed by my all-in mentality. My then-boyfriend had his own opinions about my work-life balance. “It’s not about working harder — it’s about working smarter,” he would tell me. Honestly, it made me reconsider the relationship — because clearly..... one of us didn’t understand what ambition looked like.
It took me 20 years to truly understand the wisdom in that sentence.
Nothing wrong with good old hard work. The problem comes when it’s misdirected. You can spend endless hours perfecting every detail, meeting every deadline, and still find yourself stuck in place, wondering why your impact feels limited. The missing piece? Strategic impact. It’s not just about putting in the hours; it’s about making those hours count toward what truly moves the needle for your organisation — and for your career.
The Unseen Problem: When Hard Work Doesn't Work
Picture young, ambitious Sophia, the ultimate dependable rockstar: always the first to volunteer, the last to leave, and never one to miss a detail. But what if Sophia kept her head down, stuck to the safe lane, and missed the memo on working smart? Promotions would waltz right by. Not for lack of effort — she’d be there, perfecting financial reports that senior management skimmed at best while they secretly plotted their next big strategic move behind closed doors.
Rookie Sophia's hustle was impressive, but she was running on bananas. Her dedication made her reliable but not pivotal, capable but not transformational. If nothing changed, Sophia would see her peers (and said boyfriend) leapfrog in their careers, and Sophia would be right where she’s always been — dependable, diligent, and one power move away from stepping out of the shadows.
I've been working with ambitious, dominant Type-A personalities for a long time, and I see this pattern... everywhere. This is the Achilles heel of overachieving workaholics: when we are stuck, we just keep going. Feeling overwhelmed? Nah… there’s just a lot happening right now. Don't be lazy. Get back to work.
The Solution: Strategic Impact
In 2016, we asked 100 senior HR and business leaders a tricky question: What's your biggest hurdle in advancing leadership? Their answer: Aligning personal and organisation's vision.
Enter the idea of strategic impact: not just knowing how good you are at your job, but knowing how your job fits into the bigger picture. This is the difference between a player who makes moves and one who understands the bigger game.
Scaling your impact starts with a mindset shift. It’s about asking questions like:
What are the top goals of my organisation? And how does my role align with those needs?
What are the most pressing objectives for my company right now? And how can I align my projects, even my conversations, to echo those priorities?
This subtle yet powerful awareness turns every ounce of your effort into real impact. Suddenly, your actions aren't just tasks. You are not your tasks. You are part of something bigger, something extraordinary. That's the power of alignment, where even the smallest tasks become acts of greatness.
Greatness Requires a Personal Commitment
Strategic alignment means owning how your role and contributions fit into the bigger picture, making your work impactful and relevant. It’s about blending your strengths, values, and unique perspective with what the organisation needs most, ensuring your work is distinctively yours.
When your ideas resonate—not because they’re louder, but because they’re real and rooted in who you are—everything changes. You gain clarity and energy, knowing your work isn’t just effective but an authentic reflection of you. Your contributions draw the right attention, not just because they fit company goals, but because they’re genuine and purposeful.
This doesn't happen by chance. Getting that alignment requires a personal commitment. And it’s sustainable. You’re not burning out trying to be someone else; you’re thriving by being true to yourself and aligning where it matters most.
Why This Isn’t Your Average Leadership Program
Traditional leadership development often feels like learning the mechanics of a sport without ever stepping into a real game. You’re taught skills in isolation—how to communicate better, how to manage time, how to inspire a team. But if those skills aren’t aligned with what the game needs at that moment, you end up working very hard, going nowhere (ever watch your kids playing soccer?).
Strategic alignment coaching takes a different approach. It positions you as a player who not only knows how to move but knows why and when those moves matter most. This isn’t about the mechanics; it’s about mastering the strategy that makes the mechanics relevant. It’s about preparing you to lean into urgent initiatives, the kind that are directly tied to solving immediate, tangible issues with a measurable impact on the bottom line. This alignment ensures your actions aren’t just impressive but essential, placing you at the centre of decisions that drive real results.
The 3 Tiers of Personal Impact Coaching Programmes
1. ALIGN: For professionals seeking to connect their strengths with company goals.
Discover your edge. Know your worth. Align it all. This programme strips down the noise to reveal what makes you invaluable. You’ll map your strengths to company priorities and find your spot in the spotlight—no guesswork, just clarity and purpose.
2. AMPLIFY: For experienced individuals ready to expand their influence and strategic presence.
Move from silent contributor to strategic force. This isn’t about blending in; it’s about standing out in all the right ways. Master the art of positioning yourself as indispensable, aligning every move with the bigger game. Influence becomes your currency, and you learn to spend it wisely.
3. COMMAND: For senior leaders aiming to drive strategic initiatives and elevate their influence across the organization.
Lead like your legacy depends on it. For those at the top, impact isn’t just expected — it’s demanded. This programme shapes you into the kind of leader whose presence commands a room and whose decisions shape strategy. Every action is aligned, every move deliberate. Here, you don’t just lead — you lead with impact that resonates.
Why It Matters
There’s a saying in the sports world: Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Those are for rookies. In the world of strategic impact, the saying shifts: Clarity beats hard work when hard work doesn't work. If you’re putting in the hours and not seeing results, it’s time to shift the way you play.
The world is full of frustrated, burnt-out Sophia's working harder than ever, wondering why they’re stuck. The question is: Will you continue running on bananas, or will you step into your real power?
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At Personna, we are redefining what it means to scale strategic impact within organisations. Since 2010, we’ve been helping ambitious leaders and their teams to scale impact by aligning their personal vision with corporate objectives. Through executive coaching, impact index assessments and targeted strategic alignment workshops, we focus on how your unique strengths can be leveraged for greater strategic contribution.
Partner with us to harness strategic alignment, magnify personal impact and elevate the collective success of your organisation.
If you are curious to learn more drop us an email at hello@personna.me.
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