We’ve created an artificial divide in our objectives. Professional goals in one column, personal goals in another. Development plans here, life aspirations there. But what if we stopped splitting our goals and started seeing the bigger picture?
As someone who’s spent years helping professionals craft meaningful objectives, I’ve noticed something – our best work happens when our personal and professional goals align. When your objectives support both business success and personal fulfilment, that’s when the magic happens.
Breaking Down the Artificial Divide Between Personal and Professional
Think about it. When you’re learning to be a better listener for your team, aren’t you also becoming a better friend? When you’re working on your presentation skills, isn’t that helping you speak up more confidently in all areas of your life? Your goals shouldn’t compete for your attention, they should complement each other.
Personal objectives help you improve on weaknesses or compound your strengths, and those strengths and weaknesses apply equally to our professional lives and personal ones. By combining the two you compound your scope for growth.
Creating Aligned Objectives
Here’s how we create objectives that serve both you and your business:
Instead of:
“Improve stakeholder management” (Professional)
“Spend more time with family” (Personal)
Try:
“Schedule all stakeholder meetings between 10-4 to protect family time while delivering excellent results”
Instead of:
“Complete leadership course” (Professional)
“Get healthier” (Personal)
Try:
“Lead the company’s well-being initiative, developing my leadership skills while creating healthier habits”
Every time you have a personal goal in mind, you should think about how you can complete it alongside a professional objective, and vice versa. This is the ultimate method by which you can not only kill two birds with one stone but also create much more tangible and actionable objectives.
Practical Tips for Setting Aligned Goals
1. Start with the Sunday Night Test
Before writing any objective, ask yourself: “Will achieving this goal make both my Sundays and Mondays better?” If it only serves one part of your life, rethink it.
2. Use the Three-Way Win
For each objective, identify how it benefits:
– Your professional development
– The business
– Your personal growth
If you can’t find all three, keep refining until you do.
3. Make Your Goals Visible
Create a simple one-page plan that you can check daily. Look to include:
– Your aligned objectives
– Key milestones
– Quick wins you can achieve this week
– Long-term aspirations
4. Set Regular Check-ins
Schedule a monthly review to assess your progress and adjust your goals. Ask yourself:
– Are my objectives still serving both personal and professional growth?
– What obstacles am I facing?
– What support do I need?
– What’s working well that I can build on?
5. Make It Work
Your objectives should reflect your whole contribution to the business while supporting your personal growth. Some practical examples:
– Combine your passion for mentoring with the business need for talent development
– Align your interest in sustainability with the company’s ESG goals
– Match your desire for work-life balance with improving team productivity
6. Create an Implementation Plan
Weekly Planning
Take 15 minutes every Monday to:
– Review your aligned objectives
– Identify one action that serves both personal and professional goals
– Schedule specific times for key activities
Celebrate Progress
Track your wins in both areas:
– Note how professional achievements contribute to personal growth
– Recognise when personal development enhances your work
– Share successes with your manager and team
Adjust and Evolve
Every quarter:
– Review the balance between personal and professional benefits
– Update objectives based on changing priorities
– Identify new opportunities for alignment
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
1. Don’t force alignment where it doesn’t exist
2. Avoid making one aspect dominate the other
3. Remember that not every goal needs to serve both purposes
4. Don’t overlook small wins in favour of big achievements
Personal and Professional Objectives Working Hand-in-Hand
Stop seeing your objectives as either personal or professional. The best goals serve both purposes, making you more valuable to your business while helping you grow as a person. When your objectives align this way, you’re more likely to achieve them, and more likely to feel fulfilled doing so.
Remember: Great personal objectives aren’t about choosing between professional success and personal growth. They’re about finding ways to achieve both at once. By aligning your goals, you create a more meaningful and achievable path to success, one that benefits both you and your organisation.
The next time you’re setting objectives, challenge yourself to find the sweet spot where personal aspirations meet professional growth. That’s where true development happens.
As Maya Angelou once said: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” When your personal objectives align across all areas of your life, that’s exactly what you achieve
If you would like help in creating your personal goals or a development plan check out our careers and performance pillar, our coaching services or grab a pack of our career coaching cards.