Leadership Development – The Reality of Resolutions

Every New Year millions of people, including leaders, make their New Year’s resolutions.

My guess is most don’t write down these resolutions. Many spew them off under the effects of alcohol or other party substances. Most of these substances leaving you in a state of brain fog unable to remember the resolutions the next day.

In your leadership development, it’s important for you to have perspective on resolutions.

Think about it for a moment with me. Do good leaders make New Year’s resolutions? Do they remember them? Will leaders do their resolutions?

How Good Leadership Embraces Resolutions

I never believed in New Year’s resolutions because I always viewed them as meaningless since most people I know can’t remember them. My friends and peers generally can’t remember them the next day after making them.

This is not the action of a good leader.

A resolution is a commitment. It’s a firm decision to do something. A resolution isn’t a joke or something to forget for good leaders.

Proven leaders make commitments and decisions because they’ll act on them. Your leadership development requires you to do so. If you don’t, you can expect to lose your leadership position because your team and your superior won’t stand for your false resolutions.

Leaders make resolutions whenever new goals must be achieved. This means they don’t make them just on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. They make commitments and firm decisions for action whenever they’re needed.

Making New Year’s Resolutions as a Leader

In advancing your leadership role in your company or on your team, consider a different approach to New Year’s resolutions.

First, these decisions or commitments should be big because they will guide your ongoing progress.

Think of where you and your team are today, and where you want to be in the future. The future is not only next year, but 3 years from now or more. Think of:

• What must be achieved to reach future goals
• What achieves the greatest results for your team and who they affect
• Which goals will best lead to the future outcome
• Don’t think small. That is day-to-thinking. Think broad
• Don’t be random. Put effort into creating your resolutions
• Share them with your team. This forces you to live up to your resolutions

How a Leader’s Resolutions Make a Difference

Following the steps above ensures you don’t make a weak promise to yourself. When a good leader makes a commitment to their team, it then comes with expectations.

As you develop your leadership, you’ll make commitments you intend on doing. This doesn’t mean they will all be easy. Sometimes you’ll fail.

In fact, your resolutions should be challenging. You always need to be the one pushing your company or team to grow. When you make resolutions, don’t hold back. The leader must make a difference.

Leaders don’t make New Year’s resolutions. They make commitments and decisions for success and growth. These cannot be limited to New Year’s day.