I love this time of year…as the New Year draws closer and our minds turn to food and family, it is a perfect opportunity to sit under a tree, chew on some cold Christmas leftovers and spend some quality “me-time” devoted to leadership self reflection – thinking about where you have come from, what you have achieved and which directions your choices will take you next.

If like me, you are lousy at making and keeping New Year’s resolutions then let us not even try! I want to offer a different approach to end-of-year Leadership self-reflection. Instead of making new promises, let us draw breath…sit quietly…and ask a few questions that will serve as signposts to guide our leadership journey into the coming year.

Leadership Reflections

1. Personal Strength – Did you focus on a key personal strength?

   Whilst we often devote time and effort to improving our weaknesses, it is worth reminding ourselves that the very best Leaders are often known for a unique, personal strength – something that they do exceedingly well. Leadership growth is not just about improving the things we are least good at (this sounds like dumbing-down – “I will try to suck less at my worst thing, rather than star at my best thing”), but can also be about leveraging that particular attribute that you are best at.

   Ask yourself this – “Did I spend sufficient time addressing the things that I am best at and really leverage them to their best advantage?

   Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it. Ella Wheeler Wilcox

2. Thinking Boldly – Did you allow yourself the headspace to have those big, bold, ridiculous “what if” thoughts? Did you give yourself time to imagine the possibilities? All too often, we get caught up worrying how to do something, rather than thinking why we are doing it. Working through the detailed activities of our projects all too often seems to overwhelm us and take away from our capacity to imagine freely.
   

   ”I am enough of an artist to draw freely on my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein

   Successful Leaders rise above the daily grind and allow themselves opportunities to imagine the possibilities, to think boldly and to look beyond the here and now.

3. Authenticity – Did you remain true to your authentic self? Did you live, breathe, speak and give life to a consistent set of core, identifiable leadership values?

   As leaders, we are constantly called on to respond to situations, to challenge our values and question our judgements. Over time, we learn new things, we grow and evolve – who we are today is inevitably different to who we were last year, or who we will be next year. In turn, this gives rise to the central question of authenticity – do we stand still and be true to a static set of values, or do we acknowledge that we are constantly evolving and respond by committing to honest, continual self-appraisal?

   Great Leaders learn and evolve; they adjust their perspective as they move down the windy road, but they consistently do what they say they will. They follow through with deeds that match their words. They are authentic to themselves.
   

   Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet – thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing – consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust. Lance Secretan

4. Fostering Success - Does your leadership approach foster an environment in which your team can succeed? Your success depends on you providing the right environment – boundaries, tools, resources, people, ideas, encouragement, nurturing, collaboration, innovation, motivation and leadership style to allow your peoples’ creativity to flourish. Leaders understand what motivates their team – they know how to engage them, how to nurture them and how to get the best out of them – they succeed in this because they invest the time and effort in building the right environment.

   Ask yourself whether you expect your people to muck in and work with what they have, or whether you invest time, effort and cost in setting them up for success.

   Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. Bill Bradley

5. Communication - Do you communicate clearly, consistently and with conviction?

   Communication works best where it targets the audience, where it is dynamic, emotive, engaging, alive and rich with authenticity. Do you tailor your delivery to suit your different audiences, while remaining true to a single, core message? Leaders understand this – listen to a politician or senior executive and you will hear them deliver different versions of the same stump speech, over and over. They know that authentic communication derives from consistency – delivering the single, core message in different ways to different audiences.

   Check the way that leaders combine more than just the spoken word – they roll together language, tone, emphasis, rhythm, energy, images and non-verbal movements; they engage their audiences at an emotional level, in such a way that the listener is able to relate to that core message on a unique, personal level.

   Think about how you communicate and ask yourself whether your delivery captures and engages with your audience. Do you speak at you people, or do you communicate with them?

   Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people. Jim Rohn

6. Time for Yourself - Do you take time to step away and look at your own leadership performance?

   Do you find ways to step out of the maddening crowd and just…look inwards…for a while? All too often, we become overwhelmed in the daily grind and the seemingly incessant need to be the Big Guy up the front, leading the charge; as Leaders, we grow and evolve where we take the time to step aside and critically reflect on the way we lead – the way we engage our people, the way they respond to us, the way we see ourselves. Self-reflection. Checking in on ourselves is most definitely NOT checking out on our teams.

   Take a moment to ask yourself just how well you managed this year – did you find regular, dedicated time to reflect on yourself? If not, how can you build it into your day?

   There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination. Mencius

Thank You

I want to close by taking a brief moment to thank all the wonderful, inspirational, amazing people that have motivated me, helped me, inspired me and allowed me to pour my heart and soul into tonyadamspm this year. You each know who you are and I thank you endlessly. Thank you also to the thousands of visitors for your time, interest, feedback and energy – I am very grateful. Thanks finally to the constant spambots that bombard the blog, day and night…it is always nice to feel so wanted!

All the very best, catch you in a few weeks!

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