Leadership Insights: A New Year’s Resolution for a Leader

Leaders set lots of goals for themselves and for their organizations. Here’s a new year’s resolution for a leader. Focus on accomplishing the goals you’ve already set!

Goal setting is a common new year’s activity. Typically, those goals appear as resolutions that are quickly forgotten. For example, by one estimate, published in Forbes, resolutions last less than a month.

Similarly, another estimate says January 12 is the drop-dead date for most resolutions. Thus, not very encouraging!

Conversely, for-profit and non-profit organizations set goals that are carried out as part of their strategic plans. Or not! Because sometimes strategic plans are made, then shelved and forgotten.

Goal Selection

Before we discuss goal execution, here are some insights about goal selection:

• First, before I set goals, I must take a hard look at who I am. Why? Because my character is the core from which I work toward goal accomplishment. Thus, I should protect my character above all else. Why so? Because, without that sound foundation, a leader’s goals will be self-serving.
• Second, consider each goal individually. Why have a selected this goal? Who does this goal serve? Do I really understand the place I will be in if I accomplish this goal? So, consider Why, Who, and Where before acting.

The Role of Desire

Desire or motivation can be internal or external. Regardless, desire drives me toward goal accomplishment. Thus, one way to view desire is to see it as the touch point between my character – who I am, and my life goals – what I want to accomplish. In this way, desire reflects what I value most in my life. As it turns out, motivation can vary from leader to leader. However, it’s often wrapped up in career accomplishment.

Desire, when accomplished, brings deep, inner satisfaction. Conversely, when goal accomplishment is delayed we can become frustrated.

Therefore, I should carefully select my goals and check my motivations about reaching those goals.

That brings us to goal execution, a new year’s resolution for a leader.

A Model for Goal Execution

Although goal setting is important, this post focuses on the process that follows goal setting. In other words, the emphasis here is on execution. That said, a framework for goal execution could be the following:

• First, focus on the goals you’ve set already.
• Then, use careful deliberation as to how you will reach those goals.
• Finally, be very persistent in execution of actions toward reaching the goals.

Thus, Stay focused! Be deliberative! Execute persistently!

This framework is easy to understand. Also, it’s not complex to put into practice.

Goal Execution – Stay Focused

This three-step goal execution model is very direct. First, it orders me to look straight ahead. Ahead at what? Well, at the goal. Thus, at the end-point. Yes, this is simply “begin with the end in mind.”

"People are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren’t getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope with all of their might."

Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Goal Execution – Be Deliberative

Second, I’m told to think carefully – to ponder – about how I will get to where I want to go. Thus, I’m to be deliberate or thoughtful in my actions. I’m to be proactive. In short, think before you act toward accomplishing a goal. In fact, it’s good to have a goal. However, it’s not good if I’m careless about identifying the steps needed to accomplish that goal.

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”

Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Goal Execution – Execute Persistently

Third, don’t get distracted. Therefore, don’t turn to the right or to the left. Instead of being distracted, I’m to persist toward executing the goal. In other words, put first things first. Although it’s good to have a goal, it’s not good if I’m easily distracted away from working toward that goal.

“Putting first things first means organizing and executing around your most important priorities.”

Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Leadership Insights

If you’re in a leadership position, I’ll bet you can think of dozens of really good reasons why you get distracted from your goals. For example, the press of daily emergencies – say, in the form of personnel conflicts – are just one. Another? How about new initiatives handed down from on high! Maybe you even have initiative fatigue!

So, how does a leader maintain focus? And, find time to think. Plus, persist toward goals in the face of so much noise? Worst yet, what do you do when annual performance expectations have not changed. However, your priorities seem to be at odds with the individual you report to?

If there were easy answers to these types of questions there would be no leadership consultants! And no leadership books! Or blogs! Or podcasts!

Some Suggestions

What follows are some practical suggestions for managing the stress of balancing focus – deliberation – execution. However, note that I’m not a “time-hacks” person; you can find plenty of those efficiency suggestions elsewhere.

A Suggestion – Professional

Block time for what’s most critical in your professional life. This means putting a time block on your calendar. Then, have an understanding with your admin that the time block is not to be moved. When is that time block? That’s your call, but I suggest finding time when you’re at your best in regard to being able to think strategically. That time may be 7:00 AM, depending on the severity of your time demands.

Similarly, if you started your career in sales, don’t you remember the golden hours? Likewise, one simple version of this method is to check and answer email in set blocks of time during the day instead of on-demand as they arrive. Also, another variant is to delegate, delete, or delay so that everything isn’t Priority One. Unfortunately, I once had a supervisor who was criticized, correctly, for not being able to prioritize anything. The person was nice, but was totally ineffective as a leader. As you would expect, the results for the business unit were not good.

A Suggestion – Operational

Track, Report, and Review. Nothing beats working with your leadership team to track progress toward each goal on the strategic plan. That reporting gets down to the level of Who, When, and How. Then, share that progress with your entire business unit. Also, share with your board.

For example, I’m in higher education. My business unit has a specialty accreditation. Instead of just reporting in five-year cycles, our management team lives with and reports the accreditation goals every year. Thus, our accomplishments are treated much like a continuous process. Similarly, if you’re in sales, you know all about daily tracking of sales calls, and closes, and monthly quotas.

Therefore, these two are simply examples of breaking a big problem into manageable chunks. In both cases, the outcome is goal accomplishment.

A Suggestion – Personal

Block time for what’s most critical in your personal life. There’s no payback for long-term neglect for your family, your physical health, or your spiritual development. You know this, right?

I’m an early riser because I go to bed early. Thus, for me my personal growth time is the first hour of each day. I get it – such a time block doesn’t work for everyone. However, if you don’t find some time, then the time for yourself and your family never gets done!

A Suggestion – Practical

Recognize that no schedule is absolutely fixed every day. Leaders must handle interruptions, but not as problems. Instead, see them as an opportunity to have an impact on the life of someone else. Remember, if you’re absolutely inflexible about your schedule, hence laser focused, you’re in for lots of frustration!

Make Use of This Today!

1. Leaders who live in the weeds of distraction, or in the world of small things, are going to struggle with goal focus.
2. Leaders who are hard-headed and are poor listeners, thus unable to sense what’s happening on their team, are going to struggle with goal execution.
3. Like it or not, goal execution is tied directly to who I am as a person.
4. Who I am as a person, and what I desire to accomplish, will help me write my professional goals. Unfortunately, if those goals are all and only about me, my career and my personal life will both suffer.
5. A worthy new year’s resolution for a leader is goal execution. As a leader, I’m paid to produce. I’m expected to make decisions. I get that. However, a better new year’s resolution for a leader is to make certain his or her goals reach hearts and not simply heads.

One last word. Guess what, this three-step model of focus, deliberation, and execution was shared by Solomon 3,000 years ago in Proverbs 4.25-27. Thus, it’s hardly something that’s ground-breaking or new! But, I believe, it’s certainly of great practical value as leaders execute strategies in the coming year.

For a more detailed version of this posting, please visit: https://proverbsforprofessionals.net/a-new-years-resolution-for-a-leader/ 

Dale Young is dean in the J. Whitney Bunting College of Business at Georgia College, Georgia’s public liberal arts university. Learn more about Georgia College at: https://www.gcsu.edu/