How Leaders Can Set Themselves Up For A Successful New Year
Originally posted in Forbes: How Leaders Can Set Themselves Up For A Successful New Year
As a new year draws closer, leaders across industries are turning their attention toward self-improvement and professional growth, and January is an opportune time to lay the groundwork for a year brimming with accomplishments and progress. Whether you’re at the helm of a multinational corporation or leading a small team, the initial steps you take during the first month of the year can set the tone for the next 11.
Here, 20 Forbes Coaches Council members recommend steps for leaders to take in January to ensure they can navigate the year ahead with purpose and efficacy. Follow their tips to set yourself up for success in 2024.
1. Remove One Thing From Your To-Do List
Subtract instead of add. So often, we think we need to do more, but what if this year you let something go? Success is often about shedding old ways of doing things so that we can step into a more effective way of being, working and leading. Remove one thing from your to-do list and create space for your best thinking to emerge this year. - Heathere Evans, Pivot, Inc.
2. Select Your ‘Word Of The Year’
Each year, I select one word; it’s a word that will become my theme of the year—something I want more of in my daily life. I have clients who select “doing” words, such as “focus,” “time” and “leader.” I have other clients who select “being” words, such as “present,” “calm” and “trust.” This word becomes the anchor for the year ahead, a theme to direct our actions. - Sara Gilbert, Strategist Business Development
3. Create A List Of Desired Connections
List out leaders you would ultimately love to connect with (or have a stronger relationship with), such as a company executive, industry expert or thought leader. Next, identify your power capital, including expertise, experience and relationship capital, that each leader values. Then, you can create strategic win-win connections and transition into the role you really want to have in this world. - Sherri Thomas, Your Leadership Lab
4. Set Intentional Time Aside To Set Goals
I recommend all leaders set intentional time aside to set goals. First step: Take inventory of their accomplishments over the last year and genuinely celebrate those wins. Second step: The goals they didn’t achieve can be evaluated, and a decision can be made whether those are carried forward or expired for the year to come. Third step: Create new goals to strive for in the coming year. - Alecia Wellen, Alecia Wellen Coaching
5. Conduct A Comprehensive Assessment Of Your Team
Begin the year by conducting a comprehensive assessment of your team’s strengths, weaknesses and dynamics. This can involve individual assessments, team surveys and feedback sessions. Identify any challenges or gaps that may have arisen during the previous year, especially considering the unique dynamics of a hybrid work environment. Remember, what brought us here won’t lead us there. - Weixi Tan, Workplace Asia
6. Reset Your Mindset
Global instability, inflation and interest rates will impact our business outcomes. With all of this “in play” and working against us, it is easy to develop self-defeating thought patterns. It is up to each individual leader to ensure their personal mindset is operating at the highest strategic problem-solving level possible, and then help their teams do the same. - Marti Evans, Leap Dialogues
7. Set Personal, Professional And Financial Goals
The biggest priority for leaders in January should be goal setting. Goal setting for executives and leaders is a crucial aspect of leadership and strategic management. Leaders should make sure to set targets personally, professionally and financially. These goals should be supported by the inner workings of their organizations. - Kristina Madden, Executive Career Upgrades
8. Identify Your Purpose And Measure Your Successes
First, identify your purpose. What is your “why”—why do you do what you do, and why now? Second, measure backward. Measure your successes that got you where you are today. Third, set quarterly goals that tie to your yearly goals. Focusing on 90 days is less overwhelming than focusing on 12 months. You’ll accomplish more when you take on 90 days rather than a full year. - Stacey Hanke, Stacey Hanke Inc.
9. Reflect On What’s Important To You
Be yourself! Take time to reflect on what’s important to you and how you want to spend your time. Write it down. Once you’ve done this clarifying exercise (which is easier said than done), promise yourself you will regularly look at what you wrote. Ask yourself: “Am I embodying my values? Or have I succumbed to ‘busyness’—doing without intentionality?” Course-correct repeatedly, iteratively. You’ll be a lot happier. - Nadine Hack, beCause Global Consulting
10. Integrate Learning Into Your Daily Life
Incorporate activities that will enable you to reflect on and learn from past experiences, leverage your strengths, move beyond your comfort zone to confront weaknesses and set an example for continuous learning. You will see yourself cultivating an environment where learning is not just encouraged but celebrated. - Priya Kartik, Enspire Academy
11. Take Stock Of Your People
As a new year approaches, it is a good time to take stock. What worked this past year, and what did not? Strategy, products, finance, technology—all are so important. But, what I would humbly suggest is most important is to take stock of your people. How are they feeling? What issues are they facing, and how can you help them? That is what true leaders can do, as I tell my executive coaching leaders. - Ash Varma, Varma & Associates
12. Focus On Your Relationship Capital
Think about your relationship capital—with whom do you need to build or develop trust? Trust is the currency of success between individuals and among teams. Without trust, the best systems and goals will only go so far. Start the new year planning for projects, engagements and your relationships. - Julie Holunga, Chinook Executive Solutions
13. Write A Letter To Your Future Self
Look forward—clean slate, new day. Remembering the phrase “the sun will rise tomorrow” enables leaders to intentionally take a growth-mindset approach to what can be. Write a letter to your future self. Describe how you feel, what you achieved and who you interacted with, and then ask a trusted person to mail it to you in one year. Your heart and mind will act on this vision. - Linda Allen-Hardisty, Allen-Hardisty Leadership Group
14. Focus On Retaining Your Top Talent
During the first few months of the new year, upwardly mobile professionals tend to evaluate their past performance, future trajectory and job outlook. It’s important not to simply go through the motions during performance appraisals, but to integrate talent planning and development into conversations. Let your people know they have a promising future. - Scott Singer, Insider Career Strategies
15. Make Time For Self-Reflection
Leaders can set themselves up for greater success when they have a better understanding of their personal and professional realities—their successes, struggles and future opportunities. Intentional self-reflection provides the opportunity for increased self-awareness and situational awareness for more informed and aligned decision-making. - Dennis Volpe, LRI
16. Start With The End Of The Year In Mind
Articulate your strategic vision, or co-create it with your executive leadership team. This exercise coalesces you and your team around a shared vision that everyone is mutually accountable for achieving. Once the vision is (co)created, the leader and team can identify and execute the strategic and tactical actions that support achieving the vision. - Lisa Walsh, Beacon Executive Coaching
17. Ask Yourself Three Questions
Ask yourself three questions in relation to professional growth and business success: 1. How can I describe my current level of performance? 2. What will define my success in the next 12 to 18 months? 3. What actions and initiatives must I pursue to achieve this success? Shape the answers into a plan that is yours, and relentlessly execute the plan with the highest degree of discipline. -David Liddell, Liddell Consulting Group LLC
18. Do A Personal ‘Start-Stop-Continue’ Exercise
In a similar vein to the “start-stop-continue” exercise, I recommend that leaders reflect on the past year and identify what worked well for them and what didn’t by asking, “What should I start, stop or continue?” The “start” part of the exercise is about looking ahead and thinking about what you want to do or accomplish in the new year, as well as who you want to be as a leader; then, plan accordingly. - Sharissa Sebastian, Leadership Mastery Alliance
19. Imagine Looking Back On Your Future Growth
Instead of focusing on the past or the new year, imagine that it’s December 2024 (a year from now). Identify the accomplishments you had in 2024 as you approach 2025. These can include business accomplishments, improved teamwork, greater work-life balance, improved personal relationships, and the personal and professional growth you experienced. What was most important to you? Achievements, peace and joy. - Mark Samuel, IMPAQ Corporation
20. Unplug And Reflect On How You Prioritize Your Time
Take time to unplug and to think about what you will do differently to ensure greater impact and a more efficient use of your time. How did you prioritize your time in 2023? We could all do better. Be selfish of your time; it’s your most valuable resource. - MK Palmore, Apogee Global RMS
