How to Make Your Resolutions Have A Bigger Impact

With the holiday celebrations now at an end, many of us are returning to our usual daily grind – refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to dive into the tasks at hand.  On the heels of celebrating the start of both a new year and decade, most of us have also been making plans or resolutions for what we’d like to accomplish over the next 365 days, and possibly beyond.

It’s only natural that we’d be motivated right now to create these lists of goals, as the start of a new year often inspires that feeling of a new start; of turning to a fresh page that’s filled with the promise of new opportunities and possibilities for our future.  Indeed, this sentiment is quite beneficial as it encourages us to take time for some personal self-reflection, of creating these aspirations of what we’d like to change in ourselves or what areas we’d like to further grow in.  The only point we need to remember though, is to include in this exercise the process of reviewing the events of the previous year, of taking note of what we endured, learned and gained from those past experiences so that we have a solid foundation on which to build upon as we move forward.

Of course, in developing these lists of goals, we should also consider the fact that this need not be an exercise that we limit to ourselves.  In fact, the start of a new year is also a perfect opportunity for leaders and business owners to evaluate how they can help others achieve their own targets for this year and beyond.

Now before anyone thinks that this sounds overly altruistic or the result of an euphoric haze that often comes with celebrating a new year, let us consider one of the lessons we learned over the course of the previous one.  Specifically, the one where we saw first-hand how much we can be impacted by the troubled waters others find themselves in, even if there are no direct links between our business field and theirs.  From this vantage point, it’s easier to appreciate the benefits and systemic balance that naturally come from looking beyond our own pursuits.

So with this in mind, I’d like to suggest these examples of what leaders, business owners, and entrepreneurs can include as their goals or resolutions to reach for over the course of this year –

• Provide resources to your employees/team members that will help them with their professional development. This will show your employees that you’re not only paying attention to their needs, but you’re also giving them the opportunity to become a more valuable member of your organization.  In the current economic climate, this can go a long way to boosting employee engagement and passion on the job, as well as helping your company maintain or gain a competitive edge.
• Offer insights from your own experiences to help nurture those you lead. One of the reasons many people are offered a position to lead others is because of what they learned through their past experiences.  However, those experiences are of little use if you don’t share it so that others can also learn and grow from it.  Remember the key to being a successful leader is not simply being the best in the lot; it’s reaching out to help others become the best version of themselves.
• Use those end-of-year employee reviews to develop personalized plans for employee training/mentoring. Too often, companies use end-of-year employee reviews mostly to decide employee bonuses or salary raises, of why some get them and why some don’t.  But these reviews should instead be viewed as one of the most important documents for leaders and business owners, as it helps to define where the company’s strengths are and where more efforts need to be made to improve the health of their workforce.  This approach will also demonstrate to your employees that their professional goals are recognized as being vital not only for encouraging employee engagement, but also for ensuring the continued vitality of the business.
• Look at the problems your customers are having and see how you can assist them in resolving them. Obviously, when it comes to our own products/services, we want to create ones that offer to help our customers solve a particular problem or issue they’re having.  But what about those problems that fall outside of what our products/services provide?  Naturally, we can’t expect to solve all the problems our customers may have.  But it’s possible that within our network of contacts – including the other customers we serve – there might be someone who can help our clients with their problems.  Putting these two groups in touch with each other will not only help their respective businesses improve, it will also demonstrate that we’re listening to our customers beyond the issues that our products/services address because we value the relationship we have with them.

The process of developing a list of affirmative, call to action goals is without question a valuable tool for both professional and personal development, especially if we realize that it’s also a fluid and never-ending one.

But if we also include in that exercise some goals of how we can reach out to help others, the action takes on even greater significance as we’re now aiming for positive change and growth to occur beyond our personal boundaries.  And the benefits from our actions will take on an even greater significance, both for ourselves and for those who we give this helping, nurturing hand to.

So for this year, don’t just think big – think also about going outside of yourself.  Trust me when I say the payoff will be worth it.