How Leaders Can Prepare For An Even Better 2019
A New Year’s self-review
Posted on 01-03-2019, Read Time: Min
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If you’re like most good leaders, you’ve pondered both your accomplishments and shortcomings from 2018 and thought about how you can improve in the year ahead. As you think about 2019, consider formalizing such a review so you can start the new year with a bang.
One way to approach this is to categorize your self-review into three areas: leadership practices you want to continue, things that don’t work and you want to eliminate, and new ideas that you’ve not yet pursued.
This method brings into clear focus the aspects of your leadership style that excite or disappoint you as well as pondering new ideas. A self-review is a way you can create accountability for yourself and focus on improvement.
The best way to begin this exercise is to list your memorable leadership moments from the previous year. Don’t edit: include the good experiences, the ones you wish you could do over, and ones you’d rather not remember. Think about the times you may have wished for something that you weren’t doing or competency that you’d like to improve or add. After you’ve made this list, put each item into one of the categories.
Leadership Practices You Want to Continue
Not only should these be your “tried and true”, but the ones where you experienced your greatest leadership successes. Here are some prompts:
- How effectively did you articulate your vision to create a compelling new direction for your department?
- How did you inspire your team to complete a project with a particularly tight deadline?
- Think of how you effectively made the case to your management to receive additional budget for an unplanned project.
There are no right answers for what you should include in this category. What is important is that they work for you. You may recognize them as ones when you experienced high energy or felt “in the zone”. It’s important to understand that what works for a fellow leader isn’t necessarily what works for you. What works best for you is integral to your personal leadership blueprint.
Things That Don’t Work and You Want to Eliminate
In some ways, this category is a little easier to identify. Achieving leaders are quick to recognize what doesn’t work well and are eager to do something different the next time.
- Recall the impact from giving harsh feedback that demoralized your direct reports.
- Remember the stress from overcommitting to your boss when you knew from the beginning that the request would be nearly impossible to achieve in the allotted time. Delegating under these circumstances did not bring out your best side.
- You decided to take on an initiative that was not in the plan and took everyone out of their comfort zone.
We often recognize when we’ve made some decisions that bombed or backfired. You know that they didn’t work. Now, the key is to learn from what happened and to steer clear in the future.
New Ideas
What would you like to do as a leader that you haven’t yet had a chance to try? Are there areas of your style that you’d like to improve? Is there a course or program that you’d like to take? What might you want to do that excites you?
- Everyone can improve communication. Perhaps you’d like to take a comprehensive communication assessment to understand your own style better and learn how you can interact more effectively with colleagues.
- Could your leadership style be enhanced by receiving technical training in an aspect of the business?
- Perhaps you could benefit from becoming a more effective goal setter and achiever. Take some time to contemplate a new method, process or technique and how it can ultimately enhance your talent as a leader. Observe best practices from leaders you admire. This may be a source of new ideas you want to explore.
Underlying Leadership Traits
As you go through this self-review, consider some of the key competencies or traits that top leaders have mastered. Consider including these in your self-review to determine where you’re strong and where you can improve. You may find that you’re already great at some competencies, some of which may underlie those practices you want to continue. You may need improvement in others, which you may discover in your list of things that don’t work. Still, others may be new to you altogether.
The following five competencies are certainly not the only ones that leaders need to master. But they are fundamental for great leaders.
The following five competencies are certainly not the only ones that leaders need to master. But they are fundamental for great leaders.
- A clear compelling vision. Do your people know your vision? Can you express it in clear, understandable language? Are you able to adhere to it consistently?
- Future thinking. A strong leader ponders the future and how things are likely to change. For example, they look at changes in their industry, skills that will become more important, and job positions that don’t exist today that they need to anticipate.
- Goal achievement. Top leaders excel at setting and achieving goals. They adhere to these goals throughout the year and make sure that their daily, weekly and monthly actions align with them.
- Emotional intelligence. Increasingly, mastery of these characteristics separates ordinary leaders from great leaders. This is an area well worth exploring further.
- Communication. Leaders’ ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, is essential. You can never spend too much time improving your communication style.
Don’t make this self-review a “one and done.” Be proactive by continuously checking your progress. Answer two questions at the end of each week: what worked well and what didn’t work well. This simple exercise will help you reflect and think, and you will be more proactively conscious of your actions as a leader.
As the year unfolds, you’ll find that your leadership style will strength and expand. It’s not unusual that your list of leadership practices that you want to continue will expand.
Concurrently, the list of leadership practices that aren’t working will decrease. And, as you work to continuously improve your leadership talent, you’ll continuously discover things to add to your new idea list. Enjoy the process!
As the year unfolds, you’ll find that your leadership style will strength and expand. It’s not unusual that your list of leadership practices that you want to continue will expand.
Concurrently, the list of leadership practices that aren’t working will decrease. And, as you work to continuously improve your leadership talent, you’ll continuously discover things to add to your new idea list. Enjoy the process!
Author Bio
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Lisa Aldisert is an NYC-based business advisor, trend expert, speaker, and author. She is president of Pharos Alliance, Inc., an executive advisory firm specializing in strategic planning, organizational and leadership development. Her most recent book is Leadership Reflections. Connect Lisa Aldisert Visit https://pharosalliance.com Follow @LisaAldisert |
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As a leader, are you prepared for a better 2019? https://web.hr.com/njpa
As a leader, are you prepared for a better 2019? https://web.hr.com/njpa
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