Reflections to Resolutions: Your Path to an Inspiring 2021

Inspiration. When was the last time you felt truly inspired? Perhaps it was on a recent Zoom meeting where a team member shared a new idea. Maybe it was during your morning walk as you witnessed the changing seasons. As we look to close out what has been a challenging year in our personal and professional lives, let’s consider all we’ve learned and use these lessons to jumpstart the New Year.

Businesses of all sizes from around the globe have had to pivot and pivot again during these last months. The degree of our resiliency is directly linked to our company culture and core values. If your culture muscles were weak in the beginning of the year, you may have struggled for a time. However, if these critical ingredients were worked out daily, you and your team were able to rise above the external mayhem.

Looking Back to Look Ahead

During the month of December, it is customary for CEOs and executives to review the year’s progress, whether it be for budgetary or performance review purposes. Taking a look at achievements and celebrating them is key to building our path forward as the clock strikes midnight on December 31st.

For my organization, we have learned so much about our business and ourselves this year. These lessons and new habits will be the foundation of what will inspire us as we move forward in service to our customers and community.

Practicing What We Preach

Every day, our team exhibited our core values in the interactions with our clients, vendors, community, and each other. I’m proud of all we have accomplished, yet I’m most proud of their dedication to remain committed to our core values that have guided our organization for the past seven years.

• Be Dedicated: Demonstrate loyalty to colleagues and clients. Even with a reduced staff, we delivered on time and on budget services to our multi-site facility clients.
• Be Altruistic: Always give freely for the better of society. We flexed our creative muscles and launched several successful virtual give-back events, including our Virtual 5K and Adopt a Family initiatives.
• Be Honest: Be true to yourself and the organization. We conducted our annual Employee Engagement survey and are implementing our team’s feedback, including new task forces and communications initiatives.
• Be Adaptable: Approach change with flexibility and open-mindedness. Within 24 hours of closing our office, we were able to move to a 100% virtual working environment.
• Be Humble: Approach every situation knowing that there is always something new to learn. Putting our own needs aside, we reached out to our team members to offer support and friendship with our BeBetter Program and BeBetter Breaks.
• Be Better: Strive to be better for yourself, the company, the client, and the community. Through the ever-changing business climate, we put self-care, continuous learning, and our giving attitude on our list of priorities so that everyone could succeed personally and professionally.

When You Know Better, You Do Better

Moving into 2021, we will take all we’ve learned and continue to BeBetter. My recent “Be Better with Michael Kurland” podcast guests, Allison Holzer and Sandy Spataro, co-CEO’s of InspireCorps, and co-authors of their book, “Dare to Inspire,” have encouraged me and my team to dive deeper into how we can continue to stay true to this guiding principle.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be asking ourselves and our employees the following probing questions as we step into the New Year:

1. What do you enjoy?
2. When are you the most creative?
3. What is your energy level as you complete your tasks?
4. Who inspires you?
5. What are you curious about?

I encourage you, as a business leader, to take a few moments before the year ends to ask yourself and your team these same questions. I welcome your feedback on this process and how it worked for your organization. Drop me a line at [email protected] or leave me a note in the comments.

Until next year…Be Better.