Skip to main content

Time To Check In On Your 2021 New Year's Resolutions

Now that we are halfway through 2021, it's time to check in on your progress with your 2021 New Year's Resolutions. As a reminder, here is a list of 70 possible resolutions for leaders. 

Congratulations if you selected some of these earlier and are making progress on them. Feel free to select some additional ones now to complete throughout the rest of the year. 

  1. Don't micromanage
  2. Don't be a bottleneck
  3. Focus on outcomes, not minutiae
  4. Build trust with your colleagues before a crisis comes
  5. Assess your company's strengths and weaknesses at all times
  6. Conduct annual risk reviews
  7. Be courageous, quick and fair
  8. Talk more about values more than rules
  9. Reward how a performance is achieved and not only the performance
  10. Constantly challenge your team to do better
  11. Celebrate your employees' successes, not your own
  12. Err on the side of taking action
  13. Communicate clearly and often
  14. Be visible
  15. Eliminate the cause of a mistake
  16. View every problem as an opportunity to grow
  17. Summarize group consensus after each decision point during a meeting
  18. Praise when compliments are earned
  19. Be decisive
  20. Say "thank you" and sincerely mean it
  21. Send written thank you notes
  22. Listen carefully and don't multi-task while listening
  23. Teach something new to your team
  24. Show respect for all team members
  25. Follow through when you promise to do something
  26. Allow prudent autonomy
  27. Respond to questions quickly and fully
  28. Return e-mails and phone calls promptly
  29. Give credit where credit is due
  30. Take an interest in your employees and their personal milestone events
  31. Mix praise with constructive feedback for how to make improvement
  32. Learn the names of your team members even if your team numbers in the hundreds
  33. Foster mutual commitment
  34. Admit your mistakes
  35. Remove nonperformers
  36. Give feedback in a timely manner and make it individualized and specific
  37. Hire to complement, not to duplicate
  38. Volunteer within your community and allow your employees to volunteer
  39. Promote excellent customer service both internally and externally
  40. Show trust
  41. Encourage peer coaching
  42. Encourage individualism and welcome input
  43. Share third-party compliments about your employees with your employees
  44. Be willing to change your decisions
  45. Be a good role model
  46. Be humble
  47. Explain each person's relevance
  48. End every meeting with a follow-up To Do list
  49. Explain the process and the reason for the decisions you make
  50. Read leadership books to learn
  51. Set clear goals and objectives
  52. Reward the doers
  53. Know yourself
  54. Use job descriptions
  55. Encourage personal growth and promote training, mentoring and external education
  56. Share bad news, not only good news
  57. Start meetings on time
  58. Discipline in private
  59. Seek guidance when you don't have the answer
  60. Tailor your motivation techniques
  61. Support mentoring - both informal and formal mentoring
  62. Don't interrupt
  63. Ask questions to clarify
  64. Don't delay tough conversations
  65. Have an open door policy
  66. Dig deep within your organization for ideas on how to improve processes, policies and procedures
  67. Do annual written performance appraisals
  68. Insist on realism
  69. Explain how a change will impact employees' feelings before, during and after the change is implemented
  70. Have face-to-face interaction as often as possible

Comments

  1. I am finishing my doctorate degree in business psychology and the focus of my dissertation is leadership styles. I hadn't thought about resolutions related to my professional development as a consultant but this list really helps. Some items on this list can be applicable both professionally and personally. I appreciate this.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leading With GRIT

Feelings of being stuck, overwhelmed and frustrated plague too many of our workplaces says Laurie Sudbrink , author of the new book, Leading With GRIT . So, drawing on her over 20 years of coaching a wide range of organizations, colleges and Fortune 500 companies, Sudbrink provides in her book a road map to improve individual and organizational health . That road map includes teaching readers the principles of GRIT : Generosity Respect Integrity Truth Laurie Sudbrink "It is not only the concepts of GRIT, but how they are combined, that make them so effective," shares Sudbrink. Divided into three parts, Part I of the book is geared toward the individual, and is foundational to your success as a leader. Part II focuses on communicating with GRIT -- making communication easier, more enjoyable and more productive. Part III is how, in our role as leaders, we apply and sustain GRIT in the workplace, creating systems that help keep everyone on track....

Nelson Mandela Leadership Quotes

Here are my favorite  Nelson Mandela  leadership quotes: "Lead from the back--and let others believe they are in front." "The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall." "It always seems impossible until it's done." "I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles." "I've learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.  The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." "Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."

Use TIPS When Providing Feedback

Eric Harvey and Al Lucia wrote a booklet called,  144 Ways To Walk The Talk . They provide the following great advice about giving feedback: 1. Make it  timely  -- give your feedback as soon as possible to the performance. 2. Make it  individualized  -- tailor your feedback to the feedback receiver. 3. Make it  productive  -- focus your feedback on the performance and not the  performer . 4.  Make  is  specific  -- pinpoint for the receiver observable actions and behaviors.

The 6 Questions Marshall Goldsmith Recommends You Ask Your Emplolyees

As explained in John Baldoni's, book, Lead With Purpose , Marshall Goldsmith suggests all leaders make it a habit to regularly ask their employees these six questions : Where do you think we should be going? Where do you think you and your part of the business should be going? What do you think you're doing well? If you were the leader, what ideas would you have for you? How can I help? What suggestions or ideas do you have for me?

How To Lead With Deep Purpose

Having conducted extensive field research, Ranjay Gulati , author of the book, Deep Purpose , The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies , reveals the fatal mistakes leaders unwittingly make when attempting to implement a reason for being.   “My interviews with well over 200 executives across 18 firms revealed the secrets of these companies—not the usual facile frameworks, but new ways of thinking about business that allow leaders and companies to operate with heightened passion, urgency, and clarity,” shares Gulati. “I call this, deep purpose .”   Furthermore, Gulati explains that most leaders think of purpose functionally or instrumentally, regarding it as a tool they can wield. On the other hand, deep purpose leaders think of it as something more fundamental; an existential statement that expresses the firm’s very reason for being. These leaders project it faithfully out onto the world.   “Rethinking the nature of purpose should prompt you in turn to re-imagine ...

How To Use Improv In Business

"It is a driving passion of mine to get people to understand that improv skills can be effectively translated into the business world with powerful results," says  Bob Kulhan , veteran improv performer, university professor, and author of the fascinating book,  Getting To "Yes And": The Art of Business Improv . And, "Nope, improv isn't just making stuff up," explains Kulhan. "Preparation and awareness are critical to successful improvisation." He further explains that improvisation takes technique, training, practice, thoughtfulness and intelligence. "Improvisation at its most effective is a deliberate strategy that draws on intelligence in concert with instinct. And, in business, improvisation thrives at the pivotal intersection where planning and strategy meet execution." Kulhan, who was trained in improv by notables including  Amy Poehler  and  Tina Fey , also teaches you in his book the powerful difference between  "Yes, an...

How To Demonstrate Your Leadership Credibility

  Demonstrate your leadership credibility by: Practicing what you preach. Walking the talk. Ensuring your actions are consistent with your words. Putting money where your mouth is. Following through on your promises. Doing what you say you will do. Good, quick tips from the book. The Leadership Challenge .   Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me a copy of the book.  

How To Build Resilient And Thriving Teams

  Wellbeing At Work is an essential read for leaders who want to create a thriving and resilient workplace culture. Doing so is critical when you consider Gallup’s research of a few years ago that found that one-third of Americans have shown signs of clinical anxiety or depression.   To strengthen wellbeing in the workplace the book provides leaders various solutions, including a new metric to track suffering, struggling, and thriving — Gallup Net Thriving .   In addition, the book covers:   The five elements of wellbeing: career, social, financial, physical, community. Why career wellbeing is the foundation of the best possible life. How net thriving teams can improve businesses, neighborhoods, and governments. Why wellbeing initiatives work substantially better when people have great managers who engage them in their work first and establish trust. Why the fastest road to net thriving is playing to each individual’s strengths.   “As workplaces aro...

How To Step Up During Six Critical Leadership Moments

The book,  Step Up , shows readers how to step up to the plate during  six critical leadership moments .  Readers learn how to: Use anger intelligently in the workplace. Recognize and deal with terminal politeness. Make decisions when no one else is making them. Take ownership when others are externalizing a problem. Identify and leverage pessimism. Inspire others to take action. And, before you start to read the book, you can take (via a QR code in the book) a  fifteen-minute online Step Up Leadership Assessment , which will give you instant feedback on your  leadership readiness  and point you to the most relevant chapters in the book. The book's two authors recently shared these insights with me: A Conversation with Henry Evans and Colm Foster, authors of  Step Up What is a “leadership moment”? These are moments when leadership is required in order to see a problem solved, opportunity seized, momentum changed, rela...

Leadership Development Tips

The authors of the pictured book suggest that readers don't read their book cover to cover.  But, if you're like me, you'll read the book that way. That's because I found,  The Little Book of Leadership Development , by Scott J. Allen and Mitchell Kusy, a compelling read, packed with practical tips and techniques for both leading and helping others to learn how to lead effectively. What you'll find is basically 50 one- to two-page chapters, each highlighting a leadership tip. Some tips seem easy and no-brainers. Others are more difficult to implement. But, even the "easy" ones are surprisingly absent from many organizations, so they are well worth a reminder of what to do and how to do it correctly. Here are some of my favorite parts of the book that highlight the keen observations by the authors: As a leader,  if you are active, involved, and perceived by members of your team as an individual who care about their development and growth , you will...