Mike Pelfini — 03 January 2025
New Year Resolutions offer us a chance to accomplish goals in the coming year. How do leaders follow through and achieve those goals?
The time for New Year’s resolutions is upon us. We love them, we hate them, we mostly ignore them once we’ve made them. Let’s see if we can do better this year.
Research shows that one-third of Americans will make a New Year resolution. And while four out of five people feel confident that they can keep their resolutions, only about 6% will actually follow through for an entire year. About one-quarter abandon their New Year resolutions during the first week.
While those aren’t promising odds, the change of year is a good time to reflect on things we would like to improve. For leaders, an end of year review and a New Year resolution offers an opportunity to recommit to our teams. This article offers some suggestions for making and keeping meaningful New Year resolutions.
Make a New Year resolution you can keep
The saying, “New Year, new you” sounds full of hope, but it can be a trap. We are tempted to take on more than we can reasonably manage, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. The perception that we need to make “sweeping changes” often dooms the effort.
The prospect of having to learn a new, healthy routine, and then maintain it year after year, can feel overwhelming. The goal itself may be intimidating, or we may tell ourselves the timing needs to be better before we can start. We may spend our time “preparing” for the challenge ahead without actually tackling it.
In goalsetting, instead of radical change, we should embrace “radical doability,” say the authors. Accept the achievable, with all the limitations that life and its obligations place on us. “Radical doability” has several components:
“Daily-ish” changes: Make changes on a “daily-ish” basis, instead of on a rigid schedule, so the occasional missed day won’t derail the whole effort.
Limited number: Pick just a few goals. If one goal is especially demanding, focus on that one first.
Motivation: Ask what you want to do differently, not what you “should” do. Pick goals that are personally meaningful and fulfilling to keep yourself motivated.
Start now: Accept that there is never a perfect time to start something new. Start wherever you are and take the first step to move toward your goals.
People centered New Year resolutions for leaders
We often get so caught up in the day-to-day details of managing a business that we lose sight of the people around us. Here are suggestions for people centered New Year resolutions.
Know your team members. Developing personal connections with your team members should top the list of New Year resolutions for leaders, according to an article in Forbes. Getting to know the background, interests, aspirations of each team member is a great way to build cohesiveness and help motivate each person to be at their best.
The single most effective step a leader can take is to have regular conversations with each member of the team. Asking questions and really listening to the answers is key to forging deeper connections and greater cohesiveness. Allow yourself to discover what the people you lead think, feel, and want.
Involve the team. Help your team develop by involving them in planning and decision making. Leaders from a more traditional command-and-control background may find it challenging but it pays dividends in many different ways.
First, involvement gives team members a personal stake in decisions. People are more likely to be enthusiastic about a project if they’ve had a voice in shaping it. Crucial for cultivating emerging leaders, involving the team also helps team members develop analytical and decision making skills for future growth.
Most importantly, learning to trust the collective wisdom of the group is essential when facing disruptive changes. When there is no playbook and there are no “experts” to solve a problem, leaders need the courage to “lead without authority” by seeking input from the entire team or organization. Taking the first steps now will lay the foundation needed when the unexpected arrives in the future.
Create a cycle of growth. A leader’s greatest strength lies in empowering others to do their best. That’s the central message of servant leadership, a philosophy that puts the needs of the group above all else.
Instead of a top-down power structure, servant leadership imagines a cycle in which leaders (1) listen to the needs of their team members, (2) help them grow and develop, and (3) share power as they become ready. Done well, the cycle will become self-perpetuating to help the entire organization to grow and improve.
The New Year presents us with opportunities to evaluate where we are and where we’d like to be. For leaders, New Year resolutions can help focus attention on people centered growth. While learning new habits and skills can be overwhelming, embracing “radical doability” can ease the transition.
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