Leaders, Are You Ready for 2024?

In my last article, we explored how your team performed in 2023 and what they might need to thrive in 2024. Today, I'd like to focus on you. These five thoughtful questions are designed to help you conclude this year on a positive note and set the stage for a successful 2024.

Photo by Rebrand Cities

1. What Can You Do for Yourself?

As the year winds down and we look toward 2024, consider what changes could simplify your life. If constant distractions and interruptions are a challenge, discussing ways to streamline communication with your team could be beneficial. Alternatively, if you find coaching your team challenging due to time constraints, our New Lens® app might offer the supplementary support you need.

2. Are You Getting the Support You Need?

In our fast-paced lives, it's easy to neglect our personal connections. These relationships, however, are crucial, especially during busy or stressful periods. Don't hesitate to reach out proactively for support. For instance, you might ask a partner to encourage you to start your day with a walk or run if they notice you're overworking and becoming irritable.

3. How Will You Balance Results and Relationships?

As high performers, it's common to focus intensely on results, sometimes at the expense of nurturing relationships. Remember, effective leadership is about achieving goals through and with others. To build stronger relationships in 2024, consider setting aside 15 minutes each week for relationship-building activities, such as sharing articles or making introductions.

4. How Much Did Your Behavior Reflect Your Intentions?

It's important to realize that others assess not only your accomplishments but also the experiences others have working with you. Your intentions are vital, but if they are not reflected in your interactions, they may fall short. Regular feedback from peers can be invaluable in ensuring your behavior aligns with your intentions.

5. What Team Issues Did You Play a Role in?

Every team faces challenges, such as conflict, low performance, or stress. To prevent these issues from spilling into 2024, it's helpful to reflect on your contribution to your team's dynamics. For example, I advised a leader who was inadvertently enabling a problematic dynamic by taking over urgent tasks. By helping her team reprioritize instead, she made a positive change.

What insights did you gain from these questions? Were there any surprises? As you continue to develop your leadership skills, consider exploring our range of products and services, including the innovative New Lens® app, designed to make leadership coaching more accessible.

Here’s to being intentional in shaping what your leadership journey looks like in 2024!

Celebrating International Women’s Day — and You

Today is International Women’s Day. This event is a “global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.”

International Women’s Day reminds us that we can do so much more to make our workplaces equitable for women. According to McKinsey & Company:

• For every 100 men who receive a promotion to manager, only 86 women do.

• More than 40% of women surveyed say they often or almost always feel burned out. 

• Women are more likely to experience microaggressions than men are.

But, as we work for parity, let’s also remember to honor and appreciate what women are accomplishing every day. We’ve taken on so much over the past couple of years. We’ve worked hard for our teams, our families and for causes we care about. Sometimes that work feels invisible and thankless.

Today, let’s change that. How can you express gratitude to the creative, resilient and caring women in your world? Don’t forget to include yourself! Honor all you have accomplished, even in the face of great odds, and all that you do.

Get the Support You Need

But don’t stop there. What’s one thing you can do to support the women you know as these uncertain times continue? Again, this includes supporting yourself, too. 

Sometimes the best support is just connecting with someone else. We’re all working so hard that it’s easy to put relationships on the back burner. And that means a lot of us are feeling lonely right now. So, it’s a good time to reach out and make some plans with the women in your network. Even better, make some recurring plans. Taking a walk with a friend this weekend might lift your spirits. But then if you immediately fall back out of touch again, you’re right back where you started. Making your weekend walk a regular date ensures that you can give each other ongoing support.

It’s also important to allow others to help you. This can make you feel vulnerable, but it’s so worth it. As I’ve talked about before, you can even get very specific about how others can best help you in times of stress. For example, tell a friend, “If you see that I am doing X, it would really help me if you say Y.”

Before you dive back into your day, take a moment to check in with yourself: Are you getting the support you need? What kind of support could you really use in your life right now? And what is one thing you could do to start moving things in that direction?

When you think about your sources of support, please remember that I am always in your corner. You can follow me on social media for more content about Women’s History Month, consider executive coaching with me or explore my self-paced tools, including the award-winning New Lens app.

Look for the Opportunities Right in Front of You

I can’t tell you how often I hear people complain that they don’t have time to focus on something important to them. There can be several reasons they don’t dedicate the time or make the effort. For some, fear holds them back. For others, the sense of urgency isn’t there. But in many cases, people simply do not see the opportunities in front of them to make progress on what they want.

So, I work with my clients to develop ways to achieve their goals without adding layers of work—which is key to getting the ball rolling. Below are three simple steps you can take. Think about each of these in the context of what you really want to accomplish.

1. Review what is already on your calendar.

To get started, look 1-2 weeks out on your schedule to see who you have meetings or calls with. You may find that you will be in front of important people with whom you want to cultivate stronger relationships or get visibility. By looking at your schedule ahead of time and in the context of your goals, you can begin to set the stage for making progress on what you’d like to accomplish.

2. Think about how you can make the most of that time.

Next, think about how you can make the most of the opportunity whether it’s a meeting, phone call, or something else. For example, I have a client who has a strong internal network but wants to expand her external network. With her work and travel schedule, she doesn’t have much time to participate in networking events. She’d been struggling to make time for quite a while.

When we looked at her calendar, she noticed that she had a two-day meeting coming up. It was part of a prominent leadership program for which she had been selected and it included leaders from other organizations. So, we worked together to establish 1-2 goals for this meeting. She identified two individuals she wanted to cultivate relationships with and developed concrete actions steps to do just that. Ultimately, she got more out of the program and made progress on her networking goal without adding any time to her schedule.

3. Set up a structure to help you.

Finally, make this process a habit for yourself. If the thought of looking out a week or two in advance sounds overwhelming, you can still make the most of any single opportunity sitting in front of you.

Before each meeting or call you attend, take a couple of minutes to ask yourself:

• How do I want to show up (i.e., what impression do I want to leave? How can I reinforce my brand?)?

• In this forum, how can I also make progress on one of my goals or priorities?

• What one action will I take in this meeting or call?

My clients can attest that this really works! So, set aside time to strategically look at your calendar and set goals for your upcoming meetings and calls. As a first step, pick just one meeting in the next week to try this approach. If you’re really adventurous, block 15-20 minutes on your calendar each week to strategize about the following week’s meetings. You will show up with much more intention and may be surprised at the results you get.