How To Really Screw Up 2022

As we leave 2021 behind and stride boldly into 2022, I’d like to share some tried and true guidance on how you can really mess up this brand-new year.?

Fear not: I know from personal experience (as well as from coaching and advising many hundreds of senior leaders) that the following seven specific and actionable pieces of advice are guaranteed to stunt progress, diminish returns, decrease performance, and generally make things worse.??

If you?really?want to get off on the wrong foot, limit your chances of success, or just plain ruin the year ahead, below are seven things I recommend you focus on over the next 365 days.

(Some of you, of course, may not be up to the challenge of failing miserably. For those of you who actually want 2022 to be a great year, after each “how to mess up big time” heading below I offer a few ideas for how you can actually succeed. You choose your path. Read just the headline and fail with the crowd … or follow the details and rise to the top.)

1.??Don’t waste time building meaningful, dialogue-based relationships across the organization (and in your life) with a primary focus on helping others. Instead, be "me first" with a small group of people that look and think like you.?

This one is the most important.??Smart successful people build, actively manage, and give selflessly to diverse networks of colleagues and friends who are willing to be sounding boards, share good advice, and flag potential issues. As you build and strengthen your network, make a genuine effort to help others succeed in their goals. If you strive to help others first—to make people feel heard, understood, and valued—they will almost always commit to helping you succeed in return.??

2. Avoid defining "what success looks like" with your key stakeholders.??

Your stakeholders must clearly understand and support your goals. Here’s a critical question that you, and all of your stakeholders, must be able to answer—and answer in the same way: “At the end of this year, what two or three things will you have accomplished such that everyone will say, ‘this was a great year’?” Failure to clearly define success together with your stakeholders results in poor prioritizing, misdiagnosing situations, and deploying resources in suboptimal ways.??Remember:??You need to set clear goals at the beginning so you can then manage to those goals during the year and be able to declare victory with confidence at the end.?

3. Short-shrift your relationship with your boss.?

Your boss is the one of your most important people.??We all have multiple “bosses,” and all our “bosses” are busy and under a lot of pressure—and none of us wants to be a burden.??Whether at work or at home the following kind of thinking is a good intention that will almost always end with a bad outcome: “I’ll leave my ‘boss’ alone and she’ll reach out when she needs me—I don't want to be a bother.”??When your “boss” does eventually reach out, it will probably not be the conversation you were hoping for.??Your relationship with your “boss” is a multi-dimensional one, and it’s a dance you need to lead.??Of course, doing so starts with clear goals and then frequent and open discussion about them (See #1 and #2!).

4. Make significant changes without gaining input from key people and your team.

Many of us feel an urgency to make major changes quickly—to make a mark and show people how smart or valuable we are. The reality is there’s a lot of risk in acting too quickly.??Take the appropriate time to assess how various stakeholders and constituents see the issues and understand what success will look like to them, as well as to you.??Look at things from multiple perspectives; share your ideas in draft; get input and buy-in.??Taking that time and making that effort will almost always result in better decisions and changes that stick. (Again, see #1 and #2!)

5. Disregard your team.??

As with our families, we don’t always get to choose our teams—but in both cases you have to make it work, and yes that burden is on you. Apply the guidance from #1 in a focused manner here. Take the time to learn about your teammates as people. Listen to them, validate them, engage them. Just as you are “managing your boss,” if you manage people yourself, you should ensure that your direct reports are managing?you, and that requires investing in them.??Encourage them to be open with their feedback to you. Be vulnerable. And then, when they provide suggestions and advice, respect and honor them and put what they tell you to use.

6. Assume that whatever worked for you in the past will work now too.?

Nobody likes to hear it, but “What got you here may not get you there.”??We should all tap into our strengths and learn from the past, but a small warning light should go off in our heads when we find ourselves mindlessly recycling approaches from prior situations.??Sometimes those ideas will work wonderfully, but many times you’ll miss opportunities to create a better solution.??Of course, if you’ve done the right things in #1 through #5 above you should have the advantage of excellent clarity on the best way forward.??Build on what you know, but also seek to deepen new learning:??technical/functional (what we do); cultural/organization (how things work here); and power dynamics (how things?really?work here).

7. Be rigid and unwilling to adapt.

Not adapting your style or strategy in response to new challenges and changing times is one of the surest ways to fail.??The easiest way to avoid making this mistake takes us back to #1: constantly engage in dialogue with a diverse group people and be willing to question your own assumptions.??One of the clearest signs of self-confidence, and the surest path to success, is asking for advice when you’re stuck.??The most successful people are the ones who have the courage to realize that something has to change, and who recognize that sometimes that something is you yourself.

There you go. A simple easy to follow path to the worst year you have ever had. Spectacular failure awaits!??Or, for something completely different, the very best.

Please do try out these seven simple rules as you dive into 2022.?I’d love to hear how it goes ?for you and which path you choose.

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