Your Healthiest Career Goals for 2024, by DISC Type

Another year, another checklist. Whether your career grew exponentially in 2023 or not, the new year provides a blank slate to reassess your goals. However, not all goals are equal. You should avoid only trying to prioritize what you want and strive for what you really need to achieve a healthier work life.  

Here’s an example. Suppose the “want” is to get a promotion. That's great as a career goal, but what do you “need” to make your life healthier, more productive and more balanced in a way that sets you up for success (and might put you on the pathway for a promotion)? If you’re stressing about hitting the next ladder rung without a personal growth-minded focus, you might miss what you need. 

With that in mind, here’s a balanced list of career goals based on your DISC type. Hopefully, they will set you on a path that prioritizes your well-being as well as career milestones.

Career goals for Drive types - seek empathy and balance

Decisive, action-driven Drive types need results and struggle to perform when clear goals aren’t set, met or delegated. These types also find collaboration and communication the more difficult tasks on the job, which can lead to toxic workplace arguments when a Drive type feels stressed about murky goals.

To work on a healthier way forward, aim to:

• Practice active listening. This will help improve your communication skills and ability to understand conflicting viewpoints that arise.
• Raise your EQ. Increase your emotional intelligence and empathy to work better with others on collaborative goals and tasks. Our free emotional intelligence test is a good place to start. You'll get some baseline measurements so you can easily track improvements, and you'll be able to see which of the facets of EQ you need to work on most.
• Take short breaks to separate yourself from the team and the problem. This will help you create an action plan and better communicate your needs and goals outside of a knee-jerk reaction. 
• Implement a goal list that’s less “big picture” and more day-to-day. Your instinct is to focus on what you (or your team) haven’t accomplished yet, and you don't always recognize and appreciate your accomplishments as they come. This goal should keep you more focused on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour approach.
• Practice self-awareness during moments of stress. Your dominant personality can be a source of workplace disagreements if you engage in conflict, so remember to avoid these situations for your health and the health of your team.

Career goals for Influence types - seek productivity and follow-through 

Influence types may find saying no to new projects difficult, even when they have a whole load of work. Compounded by their struggle to stay on task, refusing to say no creates the perfect storm of imbalance, where your workload is so heavy that nothing gets done on time or to a high standard. The result, inevitably, is stress.

Healthy career goals for you to implement include:

• Learn to understand and accept your limits. Enforcing your boundaries might be uncomfortable, but pleasing people shouldn’t come at your own expense. 
• Break down a task into small, digestible goals that will motivate you. Smaller checklists can make your project feel less intimidating. 
• Foster workplace relationships to stay inspired. Try a weekly happy hour or activity to spark your creativity and help you feel refreshed when returning to work.
• Practice time management. Implement a time management technique such as Pomodoro, an interval-based time management technique that uses 25-minute spurts of work followed by short breaks. 
• Try an accountability partner. Find a workplace buddy who can hold you accountable to your goals for the day. This will motivate you to please them, and you’ll feel proud you completed your tasks.

Career goals for Support types - seek objectivity and confidence 

Cooperative, careful Support types tend to put others before themselves and make decisions cautiously. They feel pressured when they have to make a decision quickly, or when they feel the decision is not in the best interests of the team. Being asked to make a snap decision, an uncomfortable decision or sometimes any decision, is a recipe for overwhelm.

If you’re a Support DISC type, try these healthy career goals for 2024:

• Make decision deadlines. When a decision isn’t urgent, make a personal deadline. Give yourself enough time to feel comfortable, but don’t give yourself a long timeline that will prevent you from making up your mind. 
• Try making small decisions quickly. It sounds trite, but making tiny decisions with speed and efficiency can increase your confidence in making the right decision when a more significant matter comes up.
• Take “I” inventory checks when you’re feeling stressed. Remember that you matter, not just your team. Sometimes, you forget about your own needs and compromise too much to keep the peace. Taking an inventory of what you need at work can ground you in what you want, making you feel more centered and ready to make decisions.
• Get all the facts when confronted with a decision. You can still make a quick decision after analyzing the facts. Part of what overwhelms you about quick decision-making is the “what if” factor. Ask your boss or team member for the basic details of this choice so you can visualize what a yes or no would mean. Don’t be afraid to say you need until the end of the day (or week) to make the call.
• Practice assertiveness exercises. Learning to be more assertive will help you feel less stressed about making fast decisions and more empowered to address conflict if necessary.

Career goals for Clarity types - seek patience and adaptability

Clarity DISC types are excellent at pinpointing the details, but this can get them into trouble when they become perfectionistic and rigid in their thinking. This perfectionism can lead them to major stress when they, or someone on their team, does work poorly or wrong. 

Here are some goals to help lessen your stress:

• Make “win” lists to remind yourself of what you excelled at instead of focusing on what’s wrong. A quick list that shows your achievements on a project can separate you from putting your perceived failures under a microscope.
• Practice mindfulness. Stepping outside the moment and remembering to be present by doing a quick breathing exercise and tension stress check can help you regroup enough to clear your mind of negativity.
• Be kinder to yourself when a problem arises. Stress less, Clarity, and remember you’re your worst critic. When a negative thought arises, beat it down with something positive.
• Pencil in self-care and relaxation. Sometimes, the best way to stop dwelling on a task or mistake is to remove yourself from the situation, get your mind off work, and remember that your personal life is essential, too.
• Start making a Plan B to allow for setbacks. If you anticipate what might go wrong by brainstorming some work-around solutions, this might help you feel less stress when something does go wrong.

Summing it up 

Healthy career goals serve two purposes – they help you improve at work, and they help you balance your career with other important areas of your life. Remember, too, that your career goals are meant to be achievable, so don’t set the bar too high or create goals that are unrealistic for your job responsibilities and situation. These DISC-based goals should help you keep things in perspective. Let's all try to make 2024 the year we avoid excessive stress while staying motivated to achieve great things.