I’m as guilty as the next person of finding the impending resetting of the calendar a cathartic cleansing, where the failures of the past year are suddenly washed away and replaced by the empty and unknown space filled with promise and time stretching out in front of us.
There is something remarkably powerful and alluring about the chance to start-over, right wrongs and vow to do things right the next time around.
Resolutions start out as good intentions early in a new year and often end up as regrets later. At some point during the year, we cross a threshold where we mentally give up on the resolutions for now and resolve to succeed next year.
Full disclosure, I live in Chicago, where the saying “wait until next year” (Cubs) is slightly more commonplace than, “vote early and vote often.” Waiting until next year is a part of the genetic make-up for anyone born north of Adams.
Real Time Resolutions are Fuel for Effective Leaders:
As a leader, you cannot afford to fall victim to the boom and bust cycle of annual resolutions. Rather, your challenge is a daily one, requiring you to manage your practices and habits in a program of perpetual self-improvement. Of course, identifying the right improvements requires you to have a real-time feedback system and the ability to keep your ego in check while as objectively as possible processing the daily evidence on your own performance.
While the simple act of even contemplating the need to improve requires a great degree of self-awareness and emotional intelligence on the part of the leader, remember, we are talking about effective leaders. Ineffective leaders are blind, deaf and dumb to these issues.
Effective leaders teach themselves to think and observe with the following questions in mind:
- How am I positively and negatively impacting the performance of my team members?
- What are people telling me (directly and indirectly) about my performance?
- Are people comfortable offering suggestions on how I can help?
- How do people respond to me? Do they shrink or grow in my presence?
- What is the quality of my various interactions? Are we tackling or skirting the tough issues?
- Do people treat me with deference or respect?
- Do my practices stimulate creativity or drive compliance?
- Are there new ideas and suggestions for improvements flowing from the team?
Armed with insights and feedback, the effective leader strives to improve his/her performance daily, creating a kind of Leader’s Muscle Memory where good habits become ingrained and second nature and bad habits are constantly exercised away.
Rather than annual resolutions to improve, the time for reflection is during the drive or plane trip home, at night before going to sleep or in the morning armed with that fresh promise of a new day…not dissimilar from the promise of the new year.
Effective leaders operate with a constant sense of renewal, driven by an intense desire to succeed and to help others succeed. While not every effective leader thinks in the exact language and terms of the questions above, they do think in terms of the same issues: What’s working? What’s not? What can I do better?
The great news about being a leader is that you alone control the ability to do the right things and every day….and every encounter provides the opportunity to improve.
No more “wait until next year” for you. Your next year is right now and every minute thereafter. Resolve to use those minutes wisely and leave no regrets in your leadership wake.
Thank you for this timely post. It can be so easy for all of us to become permanent residents of “Someday Isle” (Dennis Waitley – I think). The real question is, What are you doing now, in this moment, to move you closer to where you want (need) to be? You’ve captured it!
Excellent points, Art. As I reflected on your words, I was thinking that self-improvement needs to be the goal of every person in an organization, not just leaders. The questions you posed could be considered by every level of employee because no one works in isolation. Of course, leaders set the standard so they need to be keenly aware of the impact they have on others. The sad thing is that only a small percentage of people are willing to do the work; many hope everyone else will change to better suit their desires – and get frustrated when they don’t.
The key, as you point out, is self-awareness – a willingness to look within to examine our attitudes, beliefs, assumptions about ourselves and others. ASKING is so important to help us keep our perspective about ourselves accurate since we often don’t see ourselves the way others do.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post.
Cathy and Meredith, thank you both for your thoughtful comments. I had not heard the “Someday Isle” description before, but that fits so well for too many people in life and in the workplace.
Meredith, I love your addition of “everyone” to my encouragement for continuous self-improvement. Of course, as we both point out, self-awareness is the issue. Without inviting the nature/nurture debate from readers, I do wonder if we can begin to encourage and teach the benefits of self-awareness as parents and even in our education system, instead of waiting until everyone hits the workforce and hoping that they magically become self-aware.
Thanks to both of you for reading and commenting! -Art
I absolutely believe parents and teachers can help children create greater self-awareness. But it requires adults who are themselves self-aware and possess the necessary maturity. It’s hard to teach something you don’t know…
Also, that kind of teaching takes time and patience. We get busy in the doing of things at home or in the classroom, and some of these life-lesson teaching moments pass us right by. I’ve been both a parent and elementary teacher, so I know the demands, but we have opportunities every single day if we have our eyes open.
[…] I expressed my opinion on the ineffectiveness of making annual resolutions in January in a recent Leadership Caffeine post entitled, “An Effective Leader’s Resolutions are Calendar Blind.” […]