December 24, 2024

Another year is in the barn.?

I like this time of year, not for the hustle and bustle of Consumerism but for the quiet reflections. It's over. How did I do? How did we do?

Reflection is good, whether at the end of the day, the week, the month, or the quarter. No time lends itself to reflection and renewed commitments than the end of the calendar year.?

And here we are.?

Each year, I go through a series of questions that help me take an honest look back and a hopeful look forward.?

What were my top 3 achievements of 2024?

What made me most proud in 2024?

What was my biggest miss this year?

What needs to change?

Then, I complete something called the Wheel of Life. You can find it online (or if you respond to this email, I'll send you a PDF copy of the tool I use). At its essence, it's a self-evaluation of various areas of life (physical, intellectual, family, social, career, financial, spiritual).?

Then, I take on these questions:

What areas of your life do you need to grow in?

What are your top three goals for 2025, and when will you start?

What do you need to start and/or stop to achieve these goals?

What will prevent you from hitting these goals? How will you plan for that??

Specifically, what will happen when you achieve these goals (pleasure)?

What will happen if you fail to achieve your goals (pain)??

I find these questions very quickly connect me to themes and areas where I am missing the mark. And where I am on track.?

I'm a proponent of quarterly focus, yet this end-of-the-year exercise provides direction that helps me break things down into smaller pieces.?

I encourage you to spend some time reflecting on these questions.?

This will be the last Huddle for 2024. I'll be traveling and spending some off-the-grid time with family for the holidays. We'll be back in a couple of weeks.?

Have a great holiday season!?

?

The Huddle?is a weekly newsletter that is designed for leaders. Leaders must be learners. There is never a?moment?when leaders arrive. It's a never-ending growth process. I hope this can be a resource that you can use to stay sharp and share with your team.?

?

With that, here are some things I ran across this week.?

?

One Word -?Last week's opener sparked a lot of comments and feedback. It seemed like everywhere I went, I had someone tell me their One Word for 2025. I love it!?

I've heard words like overcome, proactive, intentional, grateful, resolute, persevere, bold, commitment, and consistent. A couple of folks said they are still pondering their Word for 2025.?

I told you I'd report back when I came up with mine. It is?Today.?

As a baseball coach, I often told my players that "today was the biggest game of the year." Sometimes, we'd be playing a team we were expected to clobber, and the game wasn't all that important in the grand scheme of things.?

Except it was. Why? Because it was the game we were playing today. If we treat every game—and every day—as the most important, we'll show up better. I always liked that mindset.?

My One Word led me to look up a few quotes. "The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." And "What we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows."?

Let me know if you come up with your One Word.?Here's a blog post explaining the concept if you missed it last week.?

Fix Your Meetings -?Nothing garners eye-rolls and dread like a good 'ol company meeting. Most of us have experienced our share of bad meetings.?

One good thought exercise as we start thinking more about 2025 would be to examine your meetings. Why do you have them? Are they still serving their purpose? Do we have people there that don't need to be there? Do they help us fulfill our mission? How can we make them better? If so, what steps are required?

I think that part of being a good leader is running good meetings. Do participants have the agenda 24 hours in advance? We are often asked for feedback and decisions in meetings, and giving people time to think about the issue will allow for better feedback and decisions. Do your meetings have good follow-up discipline? Do we record the agreed-upon action items and have a way of ensuring execution? Those are just a few fundamentals of making meetings a key part of an effective playbook.?

This article has several key questions?that will challenge you to be more intentional about the meetings you lead.?

Workplace Engagement -?What would be the impact on your business if?every?member of your team consistently put forth their best effort, cared about doing their very best, and performed at a high level??

My hunch is that it would be transformative.?

How often do you think about the engagement level of your team??As this article suggests,?there is a big gap between quitters and disrupters, as well as between reliable and thriving. It'd be a good thing to ponder: where do each of my team members fall on the scale??

Mastery -?Watch this video of the Blue Angels pre-flight briefing, and then tell me you are preparing for meetings, presentations, sales calls, and the like in a high-level way. Before I watched this video, I thought I was!?

Not even close.?

This is what elite preparation looks like—visualizing, practicing movements, and rehearsing. It's a masterclass. Elite preparation leads to elite performance.?

A quote to leave you with?

See you in the New Year! Have a wonderful holiday season and blessings to you and yours!