Fund Forum is designed to be a networking group for buy-side HR leaders to come together every quarter to support their development in a safe, collaborative space, and to exchange ideas and insights with peers across the industry.
On March 6th, the UK team, alongside our partners at Arcadia Consulting, ran the first event in this year’s Fund Forum series, ‘Mindset for Success—Setting Inspiring Goals’. The event saw buy-side HR leaders join together to discuss how they could elevate their careers in 2025, exploring the science of goal setting and how it enhances efficiency and effectiveness.
Setting goals forms a sense of purpose, makes it easier to manage expectations and ensures that you are aligning with your business goals. Arcadia Consulting facilitated the discussion around why goal setting is so important, with the somewhat shocking fact that after meetings, emails and direct messages we only have 1.7 days on average in a working week to get work done. So how can we ensure we are using this time to the best of our ability? The session ran through how to maximise the time you have by setting practical goals, this reduces lapses in attention and helps to keep us focused.
The conversation moved forward to discuss a 1953 study from Yale University where students were asked whether they had goals and if they had them written down; only 3% of those surveyed had their goals physically written down. Interestingly, when checked in 10 years later, those who had goals written down earned, on average, ten times more than those who didn’t. This reinforces the idea that everything starts with a visual image or picture in your mind, having a visual representation of your goals keeps you on track and prompts your brain to push forward.
Another great tool to keep track of your overall life goals is the ‘Wheel of Life’ which measures how satisfied you are with different aspects of life. The wheel is broken down into seven sections – health and energy, loving relationships, social, financial, career, personal development, peace of mind. If satisfaction has dropped in a certain area you can set some goals to improve that part of your life, this is a good way of keep balance in your life.
Lastly, Arcadia spoke about the stress test tool PACERS an acronym for Positive, Achievement, Control, Ecology, Reason and Step one, this helps you to set positive goals with the aim of achieving something realistic that you can control, then what you need to do to get there. This is a great place to start and goes hand in hand with the ‘Wheel of Life’ tool.
The Fund Forum sessions will be running throughout 2025 with a continued partnership with Arcadia Consulting, looking at executive presence, the rise of AI and the importance of critical thinking. If you are a buy-side HR leader and would like to join the Fund Forum network please sign up via the form below to be the first to know the dates for the next sessions.