It is about this time each year that leaders reflect on the past 12 months and start building clarity regarding what the future holds. Although this is an important process, leaders tend to forget 3 essential points that will ensure greater success for themselves and their people.
Three keys to ensuring greater success
-
Be honest with yourself
Before committing to new goals, strategies and processes, it is essential that you are honest about what you’re aiming for. There are a lot of things that can be done and seem important, although subject to greater scrutiny, these ideas tend to be more about want than need. An example that I heard recently during a coaching session was that the leader set a goal around “open and honest communication” with his team. When asked whether they were prepared to undertake the possibly exhausting process to get there, the team members’ response was a contemplative silence followed by a shrug of the shoulders, finished off with: “It’s probably okay the way it is.” This leader knew it would be great to have better communication within his team, but when it came down to doing work, their goals changed quickly.
It is better to be honest with yourself about what is crucial to you at the beginning of the year, rather than go through the motions of pursuing a poorly conceived goal that will only end in frustration for you and your team.
-
Ask the most important question first
This is a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario. It could easily be placed at point one.
The most important question leaders need to ask themselves when making any decision about their team is: “What’s best for the business?” This simple yet essential question takes the emotion out of the decision-making process and imposes a business perspective. Ask yourself: “What is going to move the business forward?”
There are many decisions leaders can make that will make their own world a lot easier. But leaders aren’t there to make life easier for themselves; their job is to make the business healthier. If the established goal is not in the best interests of the business, then another decision needs to be made.
-
Construct a compelling future
Leadership is about establishing and selling a vision. This can be done on a larger or smaller scale, depending on your yearly goals. When a new direction is established, the leader needs to develop a clear picture of what the end point will be. Take the example of the leader in point one, the man whose goal was “open and honest communication”. What will that look and sound like when it is successfully achieved? Once the goal is explained to the rest of the business, everyone will have a clear target to aim at. Furthermore, that target will be the same for everyone. Without including this step, a leader may have a business that is working towards a different outcome.
Implementing these simple yet often forgotten steps in your yearly plans will significantly enhance your level of success.
