# How to Take Personal Development Off the Backburner — Tactical Frameworks for Leveling Up

Building better teams and companies starts with working on yourself. But for startup leaders, making time for personal development is usually last on the list. Here's a collection of tactical tips from the Review archives for getting started.

We’ve long believed that building better teams and companies starts with working on yourself. But for founders and startup leaders, making time for that self-work is often last on the list — especially these days. At a time when interactions with the outside world have shrunk dramatically, it’s natural to feel increasingly untethered and overwhelmed by all of the uncertainty.

A theme we’ve noticed in our last several pieces here on the Review is that it’s important to push back against these feelings by setting aside the time for critical reflection. Whether it’s an introduction to [the concept of emotional fitness](/content/review/hit-the-emotional-gym-the-founders-framework-for-emotional-fitness/?ref=review.firstround.com), a guide for managers [leading their employees through a crisis](/content/review/weathering-the-emotional-storms-of-a-crisis-a-tactical-guide-for-individual-contributors-and-managers/?ref=review.firstround.com), or our most recent article on building a [vulnerable culture where you can truly be yourself at work](/content/review/the-managers-guide-to-inclusive-leadership-small-habits-that-make-a-big-impact/?ref=review.firstround.com), we’ve found time and time again the importance of tapping into that inner voice of strength and resilience. That work hinges on a resolve to deeply introspect about where you’ve been, where you’re headed and how you can seek self-improvement, even in the midst of stormy weather.

But it’s hard to know exactly how to approach this vital work. Often, personal development and self-improvement gets lumped together under the umbrella of “self-care.” But we think there’s an important distinction to make here. [We like to think of self-care](/content/review/our-6-must-reads-to-make-self-care-your-competitive-advantage/?ref=review.firstround.com) as the practice of harnessing healthy habits that boost your productivity and give you a competitive edge. Personal development strikes us as more expansive — the ongoing work to uplevel yourself in pursuit of learning and creeping ever closer towards those ambitious goals. It’s about understanding your triggers, unblocking what might be standing in your way, and taking on the steady, day-in-day-out work that will make you a better leader, teammate and overall more pleasant human to be around.

## 1. [Why the ‘It,’ the ‘We’ and the ‘I’ are the most essential items on your to-do list.](/content/review/the-most-dangerous-leadership-traps-and-the-15-minute-daily-practice-that-will-save-you/?ref=review.firstround.com)

As an executive coach for two decades, **[Chris Holmberg](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-holmberg-a9042b/?ref=review.firstround.com)** has worked with leaders from tiny startups and multinational corporations alike. While it may seem like this work requires some secret sauce or magic leadership formula for building rocketship teams or tripling ROI, Holmberg likes to think of it as building mindsets that can handle anything. Holmberg is a firm believer that coaching is about looking beyond solving short-term problems and instead training people to uncover their own self-limiting mental habits, because only then is true, long-term transformation possible.

If you’re not working with a coach, you can tackle this work on your own, starting with a simple daily practice — **regularly reviewing your behavior and interactions to identify how and when you’re standing in your own way**. But this doesn’t have to be a pie-in-the-sky, impractical exercise. Holmberg’s prescription is shockingly low-lift. “ **Spend 15 minutes a day in reflection — true reflection, in a quiet space, with your inbox closed.** Take these 15 minutes to review the events of the previous day and make plans for the one coming up,” he says. “Whether it’s taking a look at your calendar to prepare for what’s coming up or jotting down a few notes, ground yourself in the ritual of being mindful of successes, missteps and opportunities for growth.”

To really level up, Holmberg suggests running the same exercise for an hour at the end of every week, reflecting on the past week more thoroughly and considering the challenges and opportunities of the week to come...

## 2. [Lean on this prioritization matrix to beat burnout before it sets in.](/content/review/practical-frameworks-for-beating-burnout/?ref=review.firstround.com)

There’s no shortage of advice about managing burnout, with often easier-said-than-done tips like “Take a vacation!” or “Stop checking email after dinnertime.” But right now, with virtually [no separation of work and home life](/content/review/weathering-the-emotional-storms-of-a-crisis-a-tactical-guide-for-individual-contributors-and-managers/?ref=review.firstround.com), and no fun vacations on the horizon, these common suggestions seem even further out of reach — and the risk for burnout has shot through the roof as a result. Startup founders and leaders might find themselves enveloped in the short-term thinking of, “I just need to get through the next two weeks, or the next month,” instead of trying to focus on more sustainable, long-term solutions.

Creating better boundaries at work and recognizing burnout takes skill — one that most of us could stand to improve on. It’s a lesson **[Roli Saxena](https://www.linkedin.com/in/roli1/?ref=review.firstround.com)** learned the hard way. Saxena came up through the ranks at LinkedIn, overseeing its largest North American sales division.

To help stop burnout in its tracks before she gets to the hide-in-the-bathroom stage, Saxena now comes equipped with tools to handle stress. The overarching theme: “ **Do fewer things, but do them extremely well**.”

### The Prioritization Matrix

All of the projects and activities on your plate have value — an impact they are ideally making for the company. This can be seriously quantitative (like active users gained) or softer (more positive sentiment on Twitter, for example). They also all have a likelihood of success. Some will yield easier wins. Others will be hard-won. Using this attributes, you can plot all your projects on this two-by-two matrix:

This is a framework executives at LinkedIn used all the time, and now, as Saxena puts it, “Everything in my life revolves around this.” She turns to it regularly to decide how to handle various tasks ahead of her.

- **Quadrant 1**: Tough important stuff, requiring creative strategic thinking (where you as a leader should spend your time).
- **Quadrant 2:** High yield, more straightforward projects. This is your home run quadrant. You can outsource this stuff to your highest performers as stretch goals that will be super empowering when they work out.
- **Quadrant 3:** Low value, low likelihood of success. This stuff should get nixed. Maybe it’s a meeting you don’t need to have, or emails that don’t merit a reply, a coffee meeting with someone less relevant to you or the company. When you’re busy, it’s the first to go.
- **Quadrant 4:** Low value, high likelihood of success. These are your housekeeping tasks. Activities in this quadrant might be best delegated or done at the end of the day.

“Anytime you’re feeling overwhelmed, just draw it out. It’s therapeutic, and will give you a much clearer sense of your options and what’s truly important.”

## 3. [Get better at making your case with these two meta models.](/content/review/the-science-of-speaking-is-the-art-of-being-heard/?ref=review.firstround.com)

Plenty of folks make personal development goals to become a better speaker or communicator — whether that’s on a big keynote stage or in the meeting room. Often driven by feedback from annual [performance reviews](/content/review/the-power-of-performance-reviews-use-this-system-to-become-a-better-manager/?ref=review.firstround.com), people sign up for Toastmasters, throw their hat in the ring to speak at conferences and look for more executive facetime opportunities. But **[Khalid Halim](https://twitter.com/khalidhalim?ref=review.firstround.com)** **,** founder of coaching company **[Reboot](https://www.reboot.io/?ref=review.firstround.com)** — encourages you to think deeper, beyond getting more comfortable using your own voice. “ **Communication is not just about what you say, it’s about the reaction it causes in the listener.”**

As a sought-after professional coach and former turnaround CEO, Halim specializes in untangling complex communications to help organizations move faster and more aligned. His unique approach draws on work with Carl Buchheit of [NLPMarin](https://www.nlpmarin.com/?ref=review.firstround.com) and expertise in [neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming?ref=review.firstround.com) to reform the way leaders communicate with their teams — and vice versa. Here, he dissects two meta models that have proven to be especially effective for the leaders he’s coached.

### Toward vs. away from.

This particular meta model determines motivational direction — specifically whether a person is predisposed to focus on goals to be achieved or problems to avoid.

- **“Toward” people** are motivated to achieve and attain goals. They have trouble recognizing problems, and are adept at managing priorities.
- **“Away from” people** are motivated to solve problems. They focus on what may be going wrong.

## 4. [Repair and strengthen relationships with this trust equation.](/content/review/use-this-equation-to-determine-diagnose-and-repair-trust/?ref=review.firstround.com)

Whether you’re at a brand-new, fledgling startup or one of thousands of employees, doing your work (and doing it well) relies on relationships. It’s well understood that relationships are at the root of networking and getting ahead in your career. Yet, while people often have personal development goals around career-advancement or [becoming a better networker](/content/review/reach-out-stay-in-touch-and-deepen-your-connections-with-this-essential-networking-advice/?ref=review.firstround.com), they often overlook just [how critical it is to build trust](/content/review/our-6-must-reads-for-creating-and-accelerating-trust-on-teams/?ref=review.firstround.com) when forging these relationships.

To expand a bit — essentially, the amount you trust someone is the sum of how credible you believe they are on a subject, how reliable they’ve proven themselves to be over time, and how authentic you think they are as a person, divided by how much you think they’re acting in their own self interest.

## 5. [Focus on the past, present and future of your career with these three prompts.](/content/review/three-powerful-conversations-managers-must-have-to-develop-their-people/?ref=review.firstround.com)

As a manager, you’re hopefully focused on the trajectory of your direct reports’ careers and how you can help them develop into better leaders and contributors. But too often leaders fail to apply a similar wider-range lens to their own career arcs, letting their personal development simmer on the backburner.

## 6. [How to start (truly) embracing criticism.](/content/review/what-your-startup-can-learn-from-astronauts-the-daily-show-and-the-coach-of-the-boston-celtics/?ref=review.firstround.com)

When New York Times bestselling author **[Adam Grant](https://www.adamgrant.net/?ref=review.firstround.com)** created his podcast “ **[WorkLife](https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife?ref=review.firstround.com)**,” he wanted to immerse himself in some of the world’s most unconventional workplaces and uncover some of the unexpected insights that the broader work culture can learn from.