Leadership Resolutions

A new year, and in this case a new decade, often finds us looking back on our lives and thinking about what we’d like to be different in the future. I always get intensively reflective around this time, looking at past mistakes and bad habits, but quickly shifting my focus to the year ahead and setting new goals and commitments.

I’m fascinated to learn about the New Year resolutions my friends and family make. This year, hearing about their intentions to lose weight, quit smoking and exercise more, my thinking went to a new place: how can leaders apply the same concept of making resolutions to their leadership?

Many of the leaders I work with share the on-going challenges of truly leading versus managing. They struggle to achieve goals they recognise as important when their time and energy is easily distracted by shorter-term urgent tasks and demands. As a result intentions such as focusing on their own leadership development; growing the talent of their teams and seeking to improve collaboration within their teams and across stakeholders, all end up in the later pile.

So, given that we also make many of our personal New Year resolutions around intentions that also end up in the later pile – healthy eating, exercise, cutting down spending – it would seem appropriate for leaders to commit to some specific leadership resolutions in 2010.

What will your 2010 leadership resolutions be? You’ll find a few suggestions to prompt your thinking below – based on some of the areas that can make the biggest difference for leaders and teams in terms of performance and results.
When you’ve identified them, make a public declaration to help hold you accountability and jot down what you’ll need to do more of, less of, or differently this year to follow through and have your best year as a leader yet!

1. Commit to Be True To You

What do you need to be at your best as a leader? How are you going to get more of what you need so that you can operate in a way that keeps you motivated and in-stride and enables you to give your best leadership performance? Are you aware of your natural talents? We don’t usually see what comes naturally and effortlessly to us as talent, so ask others what they value about your leadership. Where can you use these talents more? Do you need to promote them further?

2. Commit to Leverage the Natural Talents of Your Team

Guess what, your team will have different natural talents to you, but complimentary to your own, and discovering and using them is one of the best strategies a leader can employ to fast track team performance…and manage his or her own vulnerabilities! How will you uncover these talents? How will you engage the team in aligning roles and activities that take advantage of them? Where will you delegate and coach more and do less to increase your team’s capability and give them opportunities to step-up and grow and realise their potential?

3. Commit to Improve Collaboration Within your Team

What does your team need, individually and collectively to build relationships that lead to innovation and continuously improving results? How can you engage the team in looking at the members’ different needs and communication preferences? What simple protocols can the team put in place to make sure that there are no duplications or inefficiencies in the way they set out to meet joint goals and objectives? Are the team clear and aligned in the first place about those things they are trying to achieve together?

Your Leadership Resolutions…
So, get making them and get declaring them – build them into your personal development plan and team agenda and start to see the results.

Best of luck!