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The Strategy Diamond and Your Personal Growth and Development
Strategy
The strategy diamond is a useful professional and personal tool for managers.
How might it benefit them personally? Well, in the same way it can benefit you—the

following figure maps out how your strategy fits in the planning aspect of P-O-L-C.
Remember that, like in P-O-L-C, your personal strategy should be guided by your
own mission and vision. Let’s look at how you might apply the strategy diamond to
your personal growth and development objectives.
Figure 5.18 Planning and Your Personal Growth and Development Strategy

Personal Arenas and Differentiators
Your arenas and differentiators will answer such personal growth and
development questions as:

• What type of work do I want to do?
• What leisure activities do I like?
• Where do I want to live?
• What capabilities (differentiators) do I need to participate in these
arenas?

• What organizations value these capabilities (differentiators)?
• What capabilities (differentiators) do I want to have and excel in?
Your personal arenas can be an activity you want to do, a specific job, or
simply a geographic location. For instance, do you want to be a store manager, an
accountant, an entrepreneur, or a CEO? Or do you want to live in a certain locale?
For instance, I will do anything just as long as I can live in Paris! It can also be a
combination of several. For example, perhaps you want to be a software designer for
Google and live in San Francisco.
The more specific you are about the arenas in your strategy, the better you will
be able to plot out the other facets. Going back to our Google example, your personal
differentiators would likely have to include the demonstration of excellence in
software design and an affinity for the Google corporate culture. More broadly, the
differentiators facet of your personal strategy should map on to your arenas facet—
that is, they should clearly fit together. Also, recognize too that your differentiators
are subject to VRIO, in that where your capabilities are valuable and rare, you may be

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