Setting your Goals and Objectives through the eyes of a 95-year-old

It’s the great New Year tradition – you take your goals and objectives from 2022, update the title to say 2023, add a few new initiative buzz words that you discovered last year, and do a quick scan to make sure the goals are appropriately vague that you should be able to accomplish them by September without too much stress.?After submitting them, you cross this off your ‘To Do’ list and feel really proud that THIS year, you are truly getting things done!!

There is an often-quoted study which asked people over the age of 95 this question: “If you could live your life again, what would you do differently?”.? The question was left open-ended, and a variety of answers poured in with three answers constantly reemerging and dominating the study’s results:

1. If I could do it all over again,?I would reflect more.

2. If I could do it all over again,?I would risk more.

3. If I could do it all over again,?I would do more things that would live on after I am dead.

Now, these are great themes to wrestle with as you think about much bigger topics – your purpose; how you spend your time; etc.?But in the much smaller task of setting 2023 Goals and Objectives, maybe there are a couple of lessons we can take to enhance and make our G&Os much more meaningful.?

I would reflect more

My guess is that a variation of this goal has been included in your G&Os before – it is one of those goals that we tend to include every year (i.e., read more books; spend less time on social media; be more patient, etc.) but tend to fade away by mid-Jan.?Most of us know we should be spending more time reflecting or thinking, but it often gets de-prioritized or sidelined as soon as the hectic nature of our life returns.?I don’t have great words of advice on this one, as I struggle on a weekly basis to ensure that I don’t get sucked into the ‘whack a mole’ life of answering emails and solving the issue of the day.?

• Know WHERE you reflect best – I reflect best when moving (jogging, swimming, running, dog walking, etc.)….if I am sitting down, I quickly lose focus and get distracted.?Where are you when you get your best ideas/solutions?
• Know WHEN you reflect best – I am useless after 7pm at night and should not be trusted to make any adult decisions after that time….I am annoyingly perky and awake at 6am.?When do you feel most alive, creative and inspired?
• Know WHO you reflect best with – In most cases, I will make much progress reflecting with someone I trust rather than sitting alone in a darkened room.?Who were you talking to when you got really excited about a particular idea/problem?

Once you have the self-awareness of how you best reflect, you can begin to identify and document the topics you want to reflect on this year (your leadership; your team; specific business problem, etc.) and schedule the time in your life to do this.?Scheduling this with other individuals is often the best/only way to protect the time from being absorbed in the chaos of life.?

I would risk more.

I hope you have the kind of manager who will have your back if you attempt something more risky or innovative – “you take the risk, I’ll take the blame”.?If so, you have the permission structure to identify at least 1 – 2 objectives in 2023 that scare you…..that you are not sure you can accomplish….and have a high likelihood of failure.?Look at your 2023 G&Os right now…….go on……..I’ll wait…….is there anything in there that scares you a little??If you don’t have anything in there that you have significant doubts about, then I would question whether you are doing anything innovative in 2023.?The beauty of including something that is sufficiently scary, is that it will also inspire you as well as your team.?Color-code your G&Os if you want – highlight the 1 – 3 scary objectives to differentiate them and dedicate time with your team to talk through how to approach them.?It may take a couple of discussions for your team to think you are not crazy!?Finally, if you don’t have that type of manager, you can still identify and highlight the scary G&Os and inspire your team…..but maybe it is best to wait until you have accomplished the amazing goal later in the year to brag to your boss about everything your team has done!

I would do more things that would live on after I leave my company.

What is your legacy as a leader??Most of us will not have conference rooms named after us when we leave a company (and is that really what you would want??). I have recently left a company and lost count of the number of people who have asked me variations of this question over the past couple of months.?When leaders leave companies or move roles, organizations are incredibly resilient and will turn the page very quickly – organizations equally effectively turn the page on good leaders as well as bad leaders.?When you leave your role, your organization will move on – they will have new initiatives, new priorities, new processes, new systems, and new talent programs – that is the necessary and very healthy response to a change in leadership.?Now, I am not arguing that you should not focus your time on these things, but the two things that sustain after a leader moves on are the people you grew/developed/inspired and the specific output of your business/function.?In my case I see this by watching as individuals grow as leaders who I hopefully played a small part in supporting their leadership journeys, and when I see an advert on TV for a drug program that I played a small part in developing.?How do you translate this to your G&Os and more importantly, how you spend your time in 2023??Are you dedicating sufficient time/priority to developing your team, your mentees and EVERYONE you are interacting with??Do your G&Os clearly and directly drive the output of your team or are they primarily supportive??Spend some time reflecting on what you want to ‘live on’ after you leave this role and make sure that this is actually represented by your G&Os.

Not sure how many of you plan to work until you’re 95 (IRS actuarial tables tell me I have ~13% chance to be alive at that point), but the wisdom and perspective from a life well lived can only help us raise our heads up from the hectic and stressful life to challenge our way of thinking and hopefully make 2023 not just yet another turn around the sun.

#inspiringleadership

#globalteamleadership

#whilethereisstilltime