New Year, Better You
Embrace Transformative Change in 2024
I have always found New Year’s Day to feel like a fresh start to begin anew. The year brings thousands of new opportunities for new experiences, adventures, and innovative approaches. This year I had a quiet first day of January, taking down our holiday decorations with my husband. Last year, however, my husband and I braved the cold and did the Polar Plunge with friends. We stood on the shore, waited for the countdown, and charged into Lake Michigan until we were submerged and then numbly ran back out. It was quite an exciting and crazy way to start the year. We both said, that without each other encouraging it, we would not have done it. The adventure took us both out of our comfort zone and it ignited some changes in ourselves personally. It makes me think about growth overall.
In the new year, how will you encourage yourself and others to grow? Are you feeling stagnant in your career? Are you looking forward to a new opportunity or a higher-level position? If staying in the same role, what changes do you need to make to improve your ability?
As a leader, what do you need to adjust to help your team grow and improve this year?
Navigating Personal and Professional Growth in 2024
New Year’s resolutions often fail as quickly as they begin. A survey by Forbes/One Health showed that only 13% of all resolutions are kept for more than 4 months. In general, no more than 22% continue beyond one month! Why?
The Leadership Evolution
Changing behavior takes time, perseverance, reinforcement, and accountability.
While you might have the time or patience, but without reinforcement and accountability in place the new behavior will not hold in place. Take, for example, a novel approach to leadership. You have decided to adjust your style to meet the needs of your employees individually. The first week, you review their styles in your notes and approach them one-on-one with that in mind. It goes successfully at first. However, while your employees appreciate the change, they have not commented to you as they do not know you have purposefully made a change (so no reinforcement). You also have not asked anyone to keep you on track or remind you if you start to lapse back to old behaviors, so you slip a few days and, before you know it, you are back to your old approaches. (No accountability.)
Overcoming Resolution Pitfalls: The Role of Coaching
This is where coaching comes in. A strong coach will help you build your plan – where you are now and the action to get to where you want to be. They will help reinforce your behavior as you successfully implement it and devise strategies to receive reinforcement immediately from your leaders and your team. Finally, your coach will help hold you accountable, week in and week out, to ensure you can keep going until the behavior becomes second nature. At that point, you will be able to continue forward on your own, simply by holding yourself accountable for the continuation.
Embrace Growth and Accountability
As a coach, I have my own coach for those very reasons. She helps me define my vision, focus on my priorities, grow in my self-awareness with reinforcement, and holds me accountable for all changes I deem important. It has been truly invaluable in my career and my business. If you’re ready for someone to do the same for you, reach out. I’m here to help.
May this New Year bring you continuous growth and success.
-Lori