Becoming a better leader takes time, and time isn’t always easy to find.

Rather than burn yourself out trying to squeeze professional development onto your already-overflowing plate, you should think strategically about how to prepare yourself for new leadership opportunities, says Kellogg professor and trained executive coach Sanjay Khosla.

In a new article in Insight, the former president of Kraft Foods International (now Mondelez International) walks us through his five-step coaching model that helps leaders hone their leadership chops. Here are a few highlights.

Know yourself

Before you can grow, you need a good sense of your own strengths and development needs, as well as what you actually enjoy doing. It is helpful to get continuous feedback from others, including your manager, and then compare that feedback against your own self-reflection.

When Khosla began coaching Maya (not her real name), a senior computer scientist at a large multinational company, she aspired to be the Chief Digital Officer of the company. Based on feedback from her manager and colleagues, she realized that before she could be a strong candidate, she would need to be perceived as more than a technical expert, which would require better business and commercial understanding.

Moreover, after some self-reflection, Maya realized she was spread too thin—both at work and at home, where the demands of her job made it hard for her to spend quality time with her two children. This meant she would need to develop her skills while simultaneously freeing up time in her schedule for her family.

Once you’ve developed a full picture of where you are today, and what needs to change, you can more clearly prioritize your next steps.

Manage your energy

The next step is to make sure you are spending time on the right things.

“When you’re stressed out, there’s a mismatch between what you want to be doing and what you’re actually doing,” Khosla says.

To address that mismatch, Khosla recommends stepping back and evaluating what’s important to you. Think of this as an “energy audit,” he says, because “time is a surrogate for energy.”

“Look at your calendar over the last six months, and divide how you spent your time into a few themes,” Khosla says. “Then ask yourself: From this list of themes, what is working for me, and what is not? What are the things that really get me excited and engaged?”

Once you’ve answered those questions, you can determine where you should focus your time and where you can cut back.

Build a circle of influence

Khosla also recommends building what he calls a “circle of influence” to help you identify and take advantage of leadership-development opportunities. If you communicate your strengths to this circle of influence, they can help you position yourself for projects that may have seemed inaccessible before.

“As a growth-oriented leader, you need to take an active role in expanding your options,” he says. “To do this, you strategically assess where you want to go, who can help, and how you can approach them.”

Your circle of influence should include colleagues and managers both inside and beyond your company, and ones who can help you make an impact.

For example: Maya was interested in building experience working directly with customers. It made sense, then, that her circle of influence included a senior sales leader at her company, who looped her into some customer projects.

“Maya is developing new skills, gaining more exposure, and has a deeper appreciation of the levers of business,” Khosla says. “She’s learning by doing.”

You can read the full piece at Kellogg Insight.