This blog post is an ongoing series featuring speakers from the 2014 Net Impact Conference.

Imagine this: You return home from an important conference inspired and energized, excited to incorporate all of the new ideas sparked by your experience. But the dust settles and you fall back into your daily routine, consumed by your to-do list, projects, deadlines, and meetings. All of the new ideas and people fade silently into the background of your busy life.

To avoid this common pitfall, stop and remember the reasons you went. Those probably were about gaining new skills, discovering projects that you’re passionate about, or meeting people who are making a difference. Bottom line, you went there to further yourself. So how can you lose focus so easily? The simple answer is you can’t, or at least you shouldn’t, if you want to make a difference. 

To maintain focus on your own personal growth, generate new energy that rebalances your work priorities. Here's where the surprises begin.

1. To Focus on Self, Focus on Others

Paradoxically, I have found that an easy way to refocus on personal goals is to focus on people or things outside yourself. In other words, become a servant leader. Robert Greenleaf said it best:

"The servant-leader is servant first ... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead ... It is not about being servile, it is about wanting to help others. It is about identifying and meeting the needs of colleagues, customers, and communities."

The shift from self-focus to other-focus does a curious thing. It brings a larger sense of responsibility and importance to your actions. It might be easy for you to delay a personal goal so that you can accomplish work or school priorities. It’s more difficult to delay a goal in which you have committed to do something for another person. After all, they are counting on you. Playing your small part in their success will be gratifying, and you’ll have positive energy to redirect back to yourself and your own goals.

2. Try a Virtuous Accountability Circle

When you think of the word “accountability,” what other words first come to mind? Responsibility and duty, right? The next surprise happens when you shift the energy surrounding accountability to that of empowerment.

Here’s an example we used at the recent Net Impact Conference that you can replicate. We asked participants to commit to three actions to push their workshop learning forward: two accomplished at the conference itself, and one larger commitment to personal change, due a month later. Each participant selected an accountability buddy, shared their action items, and committed to follow up with each other in one month.

Just imagine yourself as one of these participants. Selecting three personal action items is easy enough. Offering to connect with another person a month later and knowing that someone is going to follow up with you ramps up your commitment.

When you know someone cares about you enough to follow up on your progress, it creates a shift -- it’s a virtuous circle, moving both of you from duty and responsibility to empowerment and confidence. This practice works for professional development as much as it works for exercise or weight loss.

3. Cultivate a New Way of Listening

Here’s another example of how serving another can promote your own goals. My former CEO, Jack, came up through the sales force of his company, until he earned enough money to buy his original boss out and take over the company. His personal mentor was none other than Sam Walton. 

As Jack mentored me through the years, his most memorable story is what he did after meeting a new contact. Whenever Jack met someone, he would listen attentively to pick up important details about the person -- what they were interested in or working on. He cultivated this skill in his sales career and turned it on its head to make a big impression. After the meeting, he would make notes about those personal details and log his notes back at the office. Then Jack would go one step further. 

A few days after I first met him, I received a special book, signed by the author, based on an interest I had shared with him offhandedly in our first meeting. Now that made an impression! I immediately considered Jack a good listener, a thoughtful and generous person, and someone who acted quickly. I felt honored to receive his gift. Clearly, Jack had two purposes in mind: to flatter and make an impact on his new contact and to build his own personal brand.

Just imagine if you did this the next time you attend a conference. Take a few minutes to record a few notes on your phone with the genuine intention to be of service to others. You don’t have to go to the expense of purchasing books as Jack did. Just remember what they’re interested in and take a few minutes to link them to a person in your network or a relevant article or website. In today’s fast-paced world, if you simply demonstrate that you listened, you’ll immediately build your personal brand as someone of impact.

The big surprise about the good energy you’ve just created is that it will continue to build. You'll continue to develop personally and profesionally, and your impact on the world will grow, too. And that is the best virtuous circle of all.

About Beverly

Beverly Winterscheid, Ph.D. is Founding Partner at the Center for Nature & Leadership. She spoke at this year's Net Impact Conference at a session called The Road Less Traveled: Clarify Your Passion, Maximize Your Impact. Did you miss the conference this year? You can watch video of several sessions on our website, including keynote speeches! Watch now.