Strategies for Success: A CEO Coach’s Guide for Students
Interviewer: We are sitting down today with Marcus Thorne, a premier executive coach who has spent the last twenty years helping CEOs and high-level managers organize their lives and lead their companies to success. Marcus, middle schoolers might think that the world of corporate boardrooms has nothing to do with their world of lockers and lunchrooms. Is that true?
Marcus Thorne: Not at all. In fact, the challenges a CEO faces are surprisingly similar to those a middle school student faces. Both are dealing with a lot of information, tight deadlines, and the pressure to perform. The scale is different, but the brain works the same way. Whether you are launching a new tech product or trying to pull up your history grade, the mechanics of achievement are identical. I often tell my clients that if they can’t master the basics of goal setting, they’ll never master the market. The same goes for students.
Interviewer: You often talk about the 'SMART' framework with your executive clients. Can you break that down for a middle school audience?
- Acronym:
- A word formed from the first letters of each word in a series of words.
- Habit Stacking:
- A strategy of starting a new habit by attaching it to an existing habit you already do.
- Pivot:
- A change in strategy or direction without changing the overall goal or vision.
- Accountability:
- Being responsible to someone else for your actions or for completing a task.
- Fickle:
- Changing frequently, especially as regards one's loyalties, interests, or affection.
- framework:
- A structured set of ideas, rules, or guidelines used to plan or organize a process.
- setbacks:
- Unexpected challenges or obstacles that slow down or interrupt progress toward a goal.
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- 1According to Marcus Thorne, how is a middle school student's life similar to that of a CEO?
- 2What specific words do the letters in the SMART acronym stand for?
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About this interview / q&a passage for Middle School
“Strategies for Success: A CEO Coach’s Guide for Students” is a interview / q&a reading passage about Goal Setting, written for Middle School. It takes about 7 minutes to read (1,061 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.