Who Do You Need To Be As A Leader in 2016?
Studies suggest that only 8% of people who make New Year resolutions actually keep them. As you head into a fresh year it is a great time to both reflect on what you achieved last year and set goals for the year ahead. But, how do you make sure you are in the top 8% who create goals that stick? One critical area for leaders who want to be successful over the long term is to annually set effective goals for growing their leadership capacity.
All goal setting is about being, doing and having, but the order that we start to think about these aspects makes all the difference. Traditional approaches focus on all the things you want to HAVE or all the things we need to DO but neither offer an effective starting place. These approaches utilise the following thinking processes:
Have Do Be: if you HAD more time (or money, lucky breaks …) then you would DO more and then you would BE successful. This is a ‘victim’ mindset where you feel stuck and unable to take action because you are waiting for something external to change. Often we make excuses for our lack of focused leadership by blaming our lack of time, when perhaps there is another way of using that same time to achieve higher value outcomes.
Do Have Be: if you DO more then you will HAVE more (money, status …) and then you will BE someone. This is a ‘worker’ mindset and puts you on a never-ending cycle of having to do more to earn your sense of significance. Unfortunately, as you are defining your significance by external standards you are unlikely to feel that you are ever enough. Also, you may overlook opportunities to delegate to your team, robbing them of opportunities to develop as well as freeing up your own time.
The likely outcome of these approaches is that you will only deliver on a small percentage of your goals. This often causes a sense of failure, leading to lower self-esteem and confidence, as well as a tendency to pull back or procrastinate instead of taking action.
Alternatively, the Be Do Have approach is an effective way to start goal setting by getting clear about who you want to BE. This informs the kinds of actions you need to DO ensuring that you HAVE the outcomes you really want.
This year, get specific about your leadership goals by starting with these four great questions:
- What do I want achieve through my leadership?
- Why do I want it?
- Who do I need to be to achieve that?
- When I am being that kind of person, what am I doing?
If you have any thoughts on leadership and how to best achieve outcomes in 2016, please leave me a comment below.