It May Be Hard to Believe, but the Year is Coming to an End

As the end of the year approaches, it’s important to take a step back and reflect on your leadership skills. It’s easy to buy into the rush of the holiday season and forget about your goals and commitments. However, it’s vital to take active steps toward mesmerizing leadership because when you close the year strong, you dive into the next year with renewed energy and purpose.

Here are ten essential steps for leaders to take before the year’s end:

1. Fulfill Promises

As a leader, you motivate your employees by pushing them toward success. You may have made promises like title promotions, salary increases, and bonuses to encourage them. If you realize that you haven’t kept those commitments, reassess your promise practice. Ensure that you keep your promise and show your employees the measurements that led to your decision to reward or not. By proving that you’ve remembered your commitments, employees will continue striving to reach their goals.

2. Deal with Dead Ends

As a busy leader, you may have let non-pressing issues slide by. But it’s essential to address them before the year’s end so that last year’s issues don’t linger into next year. Understand why you avoided those issues in the first place and catch your avoidance patterns. Talk to your lackluster employees and cut ties with unhelpful vendors to start the new year on the right foot.

3. Stay Accountable

While 2013 brought many successes, there were bumps and missteps along the way. Take a moment to reflect on the mistakes you made and hold yourself accountable. Accountability is vital in leadership, and self-reflection helps you prepare for next year’s inevitable issues. Plan how you’ll commit to staying accountable in the upcoming year and acknowledge your mistakes.

4. Be Present

It’s easy to multitask and capitalize on your ability to juggle multiple projects, tasks, and goals. But don’t juggle people. Be present before the year ends and stop texting, surfing, and emailing when others are trying to interact with you. Regardless of whether they’re partners, customers, or employees, people are thirsty for your undivided attention. Set mental time limits on conversations and promise to follow up in a time-effective way via email or another platform. Make people feel heard and, towards the end of the year, it’ll help you focus.

5. Communicate with Care

Leaders communicate so much that they can forget the potential power of a well-crafted message. How you deliver a message determines if it resonates with your employees or not. Take a few extra minutes to share a story or anecdote that will relay the powerful emotions and ideas behind your intended message. Put some care back into your communication, and you and your team will enter 2014 as active and engaged participants.

6. Practice What You Preach

Your employees will follow your actions more than anything else. If you want proper behaviors and attitudes in the coming year, then start practicing what you preach. Maintain health and safety codes, punctuality, and standard operating procedures to set an example for your employees to follow.

7. Actively Seek Out Talent

In the daily routines and procedures of your job, you may only seek out talent when necessary. But what about the talent you’ve already captured? Take some time to reassess your team’s current talents, pull out its strengths, and utilize them to their utmost ability. Make a list or observe to open your eyes to your teams’ strengths, recognize this talent, nurture it, and put it to good use.

8. Be Fluid

With advancements in technology, it’s easier than ever to get work done in various ways, at different times and places. Assess your current working method near the end of the year and tweak it. Make a work-life balance for yourself with changes such as saving non-pressing emails for later and committing to stretching and lifting dumbbells at the top of every hour. Committing to being more flexible and fluid will make you feel more balanced and light when January is upon you.

9. Follow Up

Follow up on any shifts or moves you made during the year before it ends. Display active involvement in the workplace’s effectiveness by following up. Employees appreciate someone who not only “makes moves” but is also determined to ensure those actions are still working for the ever-evolving workplace.

10. Reflect

Reflecting on the year past is critical. What were the biggest accomplishments, pitfalls, and moments of perseverance? What was your biggest lesson learned? What goals do you have for next year, and what changes are you committed to? Determine how you plan to carry out your leadership skills in the upcoming year effectively. Ensure when the fresh calendar is upon us, and you dive into active achievements.

Conclusion

The end of the year is an excellent time for leaders to reflect on their leadership skills. Make sure to fulfill your promises, deal with dead ends, stay accountable, be present, communicate with care, practice what you preach, actively seek out talent, be fluid, follow up, and reflect. Taking these ten steps will end this year on a strong note and provide the renewed energy and purpose needed to tackle the next year successfully.