by Madi Radulescu | Publicat pe 6 ianuarie 2016

Few more hours and we go in 2016! Good moment to write about resolutions. few thoughts to share as we approach the new year.

Thoughts on leadership: potentially valuable

Thought number 1: Keep staying honest and model honesty and integrity. Make from integrity the most important value of your company in 2016.

2015 showed locally and globally a lot of examples of dishonest, short term sighted approaches, shortcuts through values, rules, norms and laws. looking at something as big and visible as Volkswagen scandal to less visible political and local management “legal issues” that affected eventually jobs, income, reputation and many people lives. Rushing to recover after crisis, led by tremendous ambitions and greed, lacking values, believing about themselves that they are above the rules those people appeared to be up to a certain moment “respectable managers/leaders/CEO’s/COO’s etc” and suddenly another face was shown.

I read a good book these days: “The truth about Leadership: the no-fads, hear-of-the-matter facts you need to know”, James Kouzes and Barry Posner. Well written, well researched. They mention that there are three fundamental truth related to honesty and integrity:

1. Credibility is the fundament of leadership. If people don’t believe in you, they won’t willingly follow you. You must do what you say you are going to do. This means being so clear about your beliefs that you can live them every day.

2. Honesty, credibility builds trust. You can not lead without trust.

3. You Either Lead by Example or You Don’t Lead at All.You have to go first as a leader. That’s what it takes to get others to follow your lead.

Thought number 2: We need to reinvent the way we lead, to reinvent leadership.

This is difficult to reframe, to define, to explain. But we all can feel it just looking around in societies and in our companies. Millennia’s presence and the new way of work, high impact of the technology in our lives, high levels of stress accumulated during the last 7-8 years in business they all require a holistic view from leaders and a deeper understanding of their motives, motivators and people needs, including theirs. We can not afford anymore to neglect the fact that rules had changed and change is the way of living and working. We can not afford anymore to look carefully at people’s emotions in the workplace. The true leadership is about people. As I usually mention in my workshops, if we learn how to deal with change emotionally then, all the rest is project management.

Thought number 3: Leadership is a choice not a popularity contest. Some may leave the room.

This is one of my lessons in 2015. Development of the team, development of the business has ups and downs. You do your best in keeping the boat safe, to cross the waves, to show direction and sometimes you can other times you can not be too inspirational. Managing relationships and stakeholders may be a difficult balance to keep and realignment of values, purposes is part of the game. Clarifying from time to time the common purpose and scope is healthy and every leader should take into account validating and revalidating his vision with the team. And sometime to accept that not everyone is aligned and decisions needs to be done.

On resolutions: are they necessary at all?

I would definitely say YES. 2016 seems to be a bout reinventing our way of living. New technologies, new discoveries, new geo-political challenges, the new generation strongly present in the work place, new set of values, new paradigms. Still the most valuable leadership skills are the ability to work in ambiguity and large complexity and create organizations agile enough to survive and stay competitive.

Reason number 1: Resolutions are objectives.

If you act somewhere in the business world you already accepted and use objectives and measurements and KPI’s on daily basis. Why not set some for you? 4-5 clear, ambitious 2016 objectives about your life: learning, staying fit, visiting places, spending time with loved ones etc. I was told these days that “this thing with resolutions is a simple fad and if I set objectives and not reaching them I’ll be upset. So, no objectives, if I do something I’ll enjoy it and I’ll be proud of myself!” My though: positive thinking and self allowance works perfectly well with clear SMART objectives. So I keep saying: make resolutions, set objectives!

Reason number 2: resolutions reconnects you to your achievements in 2015

Make yourself a gift: give yourself a praise and recognition. This year most definitely you had results that will charge the 2016 new set of objectives. this is a moment to understand what was driving and motivated you, what and who helped you in achieving all this, what kind of resources you have discovered inside yourself and what were the most important questions you had to ask and answer in order to get solutions. and now, prepared for the new set of objectives…raise the bar! I would bring in discussion another excellent book that may help: “It will make the boat go faster” by Ben Hunt-Davis. Like he said: set crazy goals, then achieve them.

Reason number 3: writing down your goals will help you visualize them better and will generate a stronger commitment to them.

there is now a lot of literature related to this. Here you may find four guiding rules to write down your objectives: http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/4-rules-of-writing-down-your-goals-and-objectives/

I wish you easy writing of your resolution, if you haven’t done it already. As I said to one of my coaching clients: take time and visualize your success. If we shall meet here in one year from now on, what will be your story?

Happy new year 2016!

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If you are a leader and you would like to work with a coach to build, revise and strengthen your vision on your future success with your team, let me know: madi.radulescu@mmmconsulting.

I am an executive coach, team coach, facilitator and a manager. I am a leader as well and continuously work for my self development and learning. I know it may be challenging to have a strong team, business and an inspiring leadership but become more aware, staying focused and be persistent makes it possible.

Sursa: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thoughts-resolutions-leaders-only-madi-radulescu?published=t