4 things most leaders don’t consider ✅
While I am definitely a southern girl at heart and LOVE the warm weather, there are two things I really appreciate and enjoy about this time of year:
(1) celebrating the holidays with friends and family, and
(2) pausing to reflect on and gather insights from the previous year as I plan for the new one to come.
Here’s a coaching exercise I use for myself—and with leaders we coach—to extract value and key insights from the current year before looking ahead…
- Carve out 1–2 hours of quiet time
- Grab your laptop, ipad, or a journal
- Label four pages with the following titles:
- My Accomplishments
- What I Learned
- What I Think Now
- What’s Next
STEP 1 ~ MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Think back over the year from January through December and ask yourself:
- What did I accomplish this year?
- What goals did I achieve?
- What obstacles did I overcome?
- What real results did I achieve in my life and work?
- Are these in alignment with my life purpose and the long term vision for my life and work?
Most leaders I coach continually drive toward greater and greater success.
While this drive is one of their greatest assets, the weakness of their strength is that they often do not slow down to…
ACKNOWLEDGE or CELEBRATE SUCCESS (for themselves or for their team).
This tendency will often spill over into their personal life as well.
As important as it is to accomplish,
it is equally important to take the time to
- enjoy what has been accomplished,
- celebrate it, and
- appreciate who you’ve become in the process…
…as well as appreciating others who participated in the journey with you.
STEP 2 ~ WHAT DID I LEARN?
Both successes and failures present wonderful learning opportunities.
We can collect intellectual capital from reflecting back on how we accomplished what we did.
And, we can accumulate wisdom from areas where we missed the mark.
Ask yourself:
- What did I learn this year?
- Why is this learning important?
- How did it cause me to grow?
- What blessings did I receive?
- How did I effectively leverage my areas of strength?
- In what areas did I miss the mark?
- How will my thinking, behaviors, decisions or actions be different as a result?
- Is there a common theme?
STEP 3 ~ WHAT DO I THINK NOW?
Consider what you’ve written so far (in Steps 1 and 2) and ask yourself:
- What do I think / how do I feel about this year overall?
- Compared to where I’d like to be, how would I rate myself this year in each area of work and life?
How you answer these questions will help you as you look ahead to next year.
STEP 4 ~ WHAT’S NEXT?
Before setting a plan for 2024, consider these final questions:
- What is my long term life vision and the legacy I want to leave behind?
- What are my core values?
- What worked well in 2023?
- What was missing?
- Am I investing time, attention, and energy on what matters most?
- What beliefs, obstacles or excuses might sabotage my success in 2024?
“The secret to success is focus of purpose.”
-Thomas Edison
Wishing you, your family and your team a 2024 filled with purpose and success!🎉