2017 Resolutions

Every year I come up with a few New Year’s resolutions for both my personal and business life. They often fall under the rubric of conventional wisdom, but if I have learned anything over the years, it is how unconventional some of these ideas actually are in practice. We may resolve to do it, but do we actually push the pedal to the metal? Maybe we can all maintain our resolutions better if we attack them together. Here are mine:

• MAKE A PLAN – If I have a goal and some idea of how I am going to achieve it, the work gets done. On the other hand, if I think a lot of grandiose thoughts but don’t do anything to organize the process which will lead me from here to there, projects tend to remain in the grandiose thought stage, where they don’t do anyone much good.

• CREATE TIME TO FOCUS, AND BE UNCOMPROMISING ABOUT IT – Whether at the beginning of the day or the end, in the office or at home, I am most efficient when I create time to fully focus, without interruption. Once I allow myself to be distracted by a phone call or a conversation, no matter how seemingly urgent, I lose my train of thought and often have to begin whatever I was doing again after the interruption ends.

• DON’T BE THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THE ROOM – Like most smart people, I like my own ideas. But great things happen in my life when I listen carefully to other people. Since I am both the boss and a person with a loud voice, it’s easy for me to talk over people or fail to give them the full opportunity to express their ideas. But when I do that, not only am I the loser, but my family and/or my company lose out too. Plenty of people know a lot more about plenty of things than I do. I need to allow myself to benefit from that every day!

• STAY POSITIVE AND CALM – As a leader, my staff and our agents look to me to set the tone. If circumstances create stress and anxiety to which I react by becoming stressed or anxious, that reads all the way through my organization. Since reactions and feelings are so personal, I don’t always remember that my reactions, positive or negative, set the tone for a larger constituency and don’t impact me alone.

• CRITICIZE CONCISELY AND IN PRIVATE – No one enjoys negative feedback, but sometimes it’s a necessary reality for us all. In my experience, people assimilate difficult conversations best when the issues are expressed with specificity, with examples if possible, and always in private. I never want to criticize another in front of colleagues, friends, or family members.

• PRAISE BROADLY AND PUBLICLY – Praise and acknowledgement motivate people, whether in a family or in a business. Like many CEOs, I probably don’t do it enough with my staff. Our success depends on many people rising to the occasion time and again to deliver products and services above the norm. I must set the tone for a culture of appreciation.

Each year marks another step on both my corporate and personal journeys. This larger journey, unlike the specific plans I might make for the business, has (I hope!) no imminent end point. The goal is growth, always elusive but marking a path along which, with luck, one occasionally stumbles upon wisdom.