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STRATEGIC PLANNING, LEADERSHIP, AND MANAGEMENT
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CENTER
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Peter GIlliam, MD
"Dorian helped me to get clarity on what I valued and develop
The modern job search is not a passive activity. It is a strategic campaign. If your current LinkedIn strategy consists only of uploading a resume and clicking 'Apply,' you are missing the platform's true power. LinkedIn is not just a digital resume; it is the world's largest professional networking platform. The market is increasingly focused on what you can do (your skills) rather than just where you've been (your title).
To transition from a hopeful applicant to a highly visible candidate, you must shift your mindset from merely browsing to building. Success comes to those who engage with intent.
Here is a direct, actionable, and essential guide to activating your LinkedIn job search right now, drawing inspiration from high-engagement career strategies:
1. Own Your Narrative on LinkedIn
In the age of AI-powered recruitment, your visibility depends on how well you communicate your value. Recruiters are using skills-based searches, so your profile and activity must clearly demonstrate that you are a valuable contributor to your field. Here are some tips we provide our career coaching and business coaching clients.
Create Value Through Content: Challenge yourself to make a post about a key takeaway from industry news, a webinar, or a professional development session you attended. Posting regularly, even just once a week, establishes your intellectual curiosity and personal brand.
Optimize for ATS and Recruiters: Ensure your profile summary and experience section are keyword-optimized for your target industry. Your profile is your 24/7 pitch deck, and keywords help the algorithm find you more easily.
The Completed Profile is Your Sales Deck: Ensure your experience section highlights verifiable accomplishments. Profiles with multiple skill endorsements receive significantly more recruiter views.
Example of a well-developed LinkedIn profile
2. Move from Passive Scroller to Active Networker
The path to your next role is often through people, not algorithms. Don't wait for recruiters to find you; identify and connect with the professionals who can help shape your future.
Connect with Intent: Make a habit of connecting with people after professional events or conversations. Focus on quality over quantity. Send a personalized connection request, mentioning the opportunity to set up a 15-minute discussion.
Leverage Groups: Join one LinkedIn group relevant to your industry, target role, or alma mater. These groups offer you the opportunity to connect with others who share your interests. Don't just join the group. Post, comment, and request to connect with others in the group.
Engage for Visibility: Like, comment, and share content from the people and companies you follow. When you comment thoughtfully on a post by a hiring manager or a company's CEO, your name and profile are instantly placed in their immediate professional circle.
Join conversations related to topics that interest you.
3. Research is Your Edge: Identify the Opportunity
The most successful job seekers are also the best researchers. They know where the opportunities are before they are even widely advertised.
Target Your Companies: Actively search LinkedIn for companies that are currently offering internships or full-time opportunities in your desired location. Look for signals of growth, such as frequent announcements about new locations or initiatives.
Analyze the Hiring Manager: Before applying, look at the profile of the person who posted the job or the likely hiring manager. What is their background? What are they posting about? This can inform how you prepare for an interview.
Prioritize New Hiring Trends: Be aware that remote work has become increasingly challenging. While a remote job might be your dream, you may need to build your resume to qualify for those opportunities.
Your job search requires deliberate action. By moving beyond the basics and incorporating these active, engagement-focused strategies—networking, posting, and researching—you immediately elevate your candidacy.
Stop waiting for opportunities to find you. Activate your search today and start building the path to your next professional success.
Nearly every teacher, coach, therapist, consultant, and boss emphasizes the importance of setting goals. Goal setting is preached because it is effective.Research shows that setting goals can improve performance, focus, motivation, self-determination, collaboration and well-being. Despite over 70 years of research on the efficacy of goal setting, nearly everyone you know has goals that they are not reaching.
This is not because they lack goals. Everyone has goals. One of the primary reasons people struggle to achieve their goals is that they lack proficiency in the goal-setting process. Throughout this article, I will review the SMART goal-setting process and offer suggestions on how to utilize it more effectively to achieve your professional and business objectives.
The SMART goals setting process was introduced to the world in 1981 by Dr. George Doran. He was a consultant and former director of corporate planning for Washington Water Power Company, and published a paper called “There’s a SMART way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives. In his paper, he proposed that taking the time to define your goals in a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound manner could increase goal achievement. Over the years, colleges, universities, and corporate trainers have taught SMART as a goal-setting process.
Learn more about SMART Goals.
Why are SMART goals effective?
The SMART goal process is effective when used correctly because it encourages individuals to slow down, think critically, and establish realistic goals and plans for achieving their objectives. People commonly fail to achieve their goals because their goals are unclear, they lack a way to measure progress, the steps required to achieve their goals are undefined, they fail to connect with the goal on an emotional level, or they do not have a clear timeline for completing their goals. The SMART goal-setting process requires you to identify and map out all common obstacles to achieving your goals, and then design a strategy for navigating those challenges.
Try this job aid for setting SMART Goals.
What to do when you are not achieving your goals.
The Co-Active Coaching model teaches that achieving your goals requires a combination of doing and being. Doing is all about defining the actions that you plan to take. Being is all about how you will show up when completing those tasks. For example, I frequently work with business owners who aim to increase social media engagement. They set specific goals, establish measurable targets, design action steps, connect with the purpose of being on social media, and develop time-bound objectives, yet still do not achieve their desired outcome. Typically, when we explore why they are not successful, we uncover that they both lack the necessary skills and mindset to achieve their goals. The problem is not the goal-setting process. The problem is that they lack a clear understanding of who they are and what it takes to be successful. The solution is acquiring the skills and mindset you need to be successful.
The path forward
Understanding your constraints is the first step in overcoming the obstacles that are preventing you from achieving your goals. We all have weaknesses and shortcomings. Some of those weaknesses and shortcomings are due to a lack of knowledge, skill, and experience. Others are linked to our personality and preferences. Getting in touch with who you are can help you pursue the right goals and design effective strategies to help you thrive. Within the business world, companies use a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to understand their current situation better, enabling them to select objectives and goals that align with their capabilities and the world around them. SWOT analysis can also be completed at the personal level, providing the same benefits of clarifying what your objectives and goals should be.
Research and commit to action
Goal setting is very similar to roadmapping. When you go on a road trip, you know where you are. You type into the GPS where you want to go, pick a route, and head out to your destination. Sometimes you stay on the path that is laid out for you. Sometimes you get redirected, but if you follow the instructions provided by the GPS, you will eventually end up at your destination. In a perfect world, there would be a GPS for achieving your professional goals. You could type in information about yourself, state your goal, and a path would be given to you. One day, AI may improve to the point of providing reliable growth paths, but for now, we need to chart our own path, much like our parents once had to read a paper map when they wanted to go on a road trip. The good news is that there are people who have achieved the goals that you have, and if you do research, you can replicate the success of others, provided that you are willing to make similar tradeoffs and sacrifices.
Seek help when change is hard.
Our biggest limitation as humans is that we can only see the world from our own perspective. We live our lives, forming beliefs and assumptions about who we are and the world around us. Those beliefs and assumptions serve who we are now, but can be obstacles in our becoming who we desire to be. An example of this is a person who has had a heart attack, but continues to eat an unhealthy diet. Despite their desire to live, their beliefs and assumptions influence their habits, and their habits keep them stuck doing the behaviors that cause them cardiac disease in the first place. In this situation, the problem is not a lack of goals, but a lack of SMART goals. The antidote for limited perspective is knowledge. Knowledge can be found in many ways. It can be found through books, movies, podcasts, articles, workshops, seminars, or working with an expert. If you feel stuck and are unsure why you are not making the progress you desire, seek knowledge and be willing to solicit help in achieving your goal.
About Your Path Coaching and Consulting
Ready to take your leadership or organization to the next level? Your Path Coaching and Consulting empowers individuals and organizations to reach their full potential through personalized coaching and consulting services. We specialize in Executive Coaching for leadership development, team building, and communication skills, as well as Business Consulting for strategic planning and organizational development. Our mission is to inspire and empower you to create positive change and achieve sustainable success.
Connect with us: Schedule afree consultation today to discuss your goals, or visit our website to learn more about our holistic approach to personal and professional achievement. Follow us on LinkedIn for insights and updates.
SMART Goals Frequently Asked Questions
What are SMART goals, and why do they matter in business?
SMART goals are:
Specific: Clearly defined and focused.
Measurable: Quantifiable to track progress.
Achievable: Realistic given resources and constraints.
Relevant: Aligned with broader business or personal objectives.
Time-bound: Set within a defined timeframe.
They matter because they transform vague intentions into actionable strategies, improving performance, motivation, and accountability.
Why do professionals often fail to achieve their goals—even when they use SMART?
Common pitfalls include:
Lack of emotional connection to the goal.
Undefined action steps or unclear measurement criteria.
Misalignment between the goal and personal strengths or values.
Absence of the right mindset or skills to execute effectively.
How can I make my SMART goals more effective?
Pair goal-setting with self-awareness: Use tools like SWOT analysis to assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Clarify both the “doing” (actions) and the “being” (mindset) required to succeed.
Connect goals to a deeper purpose to sustain motivation.
Break goals into micro-steps with checkpoints for reflection and adjustment.
What should I do if I’m not achieving my SMART goals?
Revisit the relevance and achievability of your goal.
Assess whether you’ve developed the necessary skills and mindset.
Seek feedback or coaching to uncover blind spots.
Utilize the Co-Active Coaching model to strike a balance between execution and personal growth.
How can I utilize a SWOT analysis to enhance my SMART goals?
Conduct a personal SWOT to:
Align goals with your strengths.
Anticipate and mitigate weaknesses.
Leverage external opportunities.
Prepare for potential threats or constraints.
This ensures your goals are not just SMART—but also strategic and self-aware.
When should I seek help with goal-setting?
If you feel stuck, lack clarity, or repeatedly fall short of your objectives, it’s time to:
Consult a coach or mentor.
Join a workshop or mastermind group.
Explore educational resources, such as podcasts, articles, or seminars.
Sometimes, the missing piece is perspective—and that’s where outside support can be transformative.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Feel free to email executive coach Dorian Cunion at dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com. If you are interested in seeing additional content related to leadership and business, follow me on
If you've recently been promoted to a management role, you might feel like you're caught in the middle. You're no longer just an individual contributor, but you're not yet at the top. You're the crucial link between senior leadership and your team—a position that coach Laura Lily Goodridge calls the "sandwich layer." Being a middle manager can be challenging, especially when you are trying to find your path to success.
Coaching Gold
Find Your Path to Being a Leader
In a recent episode of the Coaching Gold podcast, hosts Dorian Cunion and Dr. Rudy Jackson sit down with executive coach Laura Goodridge to unpack the unique challenges and opportunities of middle management. The conversation reveals why this "sandwich layer" is responsible for an incredible90% of a company's output, yet often gets the least amount of support.
This is precisely why your personal and professional development is so critical right now.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
The #1 problem hurting teamwork (and it’s not what you think). Hint: It’s the top reason people seek coaching.
The powerful difference between influence and manipulation, and how to build trust with your team.
A simple framework to help you communicate more effectively and get your message across every time.
Why self-reflection is your most valuable leadership tool and how to use it to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Laura, Dorian, and Rudy get right to the heart of what it takes to succeed in a leadership role, offering practical advice and actionable takeaways that will surely benefit readers. They don't just discuss leadership theory; they provide real-world tools that you can use to start creating a better team culture and a more effective work environment right away.
This conversation is a must-watch for any new or aspiring manager who wants to build confidence, gain clarity, and unlock their full potential.
Don’t just manage your team—empower them.
Watch the full episode now on YouTube, or listen on Spotify.
