Weren’t you supposed to go to the gym three times this week? Hey, don’t feel bad. It’s the end of January, so right about now most of us have already started pooping out on our New Year’s Resolutions. After all, breaking bad habits and replacing them with good ones takes more self-discipline than most of us can boast about. (Note to self: give up boastful comments.)
Let’s talk today about a different kind of resolution. It might not whittle your waistline, but these tips for being a better boss will have you reaping rewards well into the fourth quarter of the year.
Here are five proactive and manageable resolutions for any business:
Make an investment in your people
You spent time and money building a great team. Don’t let that go down the drain by doing nothing to retain your best employees. Turnover is bad for morale and bad for your bottom line, so do all you can to create an environment that makes your people want to stick around. I talked about this is detail in “5 Ways to Retain Your Best Employees.”
Trust your gut
We spend so much time sitting in front of screens trying to digest the reams of information that inundate us. We’re overloaded with data – but do we stop and really process enough of it? Don’t forget to rely on intuition. Most of the bad decisions you’ve made were probably followed with a twinge of, “Yeah, I knew better,” so listen to your inner voice. There’s wisdom there.
Get inspired
Shake the dust off every now and then and expose your entire brain to things that aren’t related to your job. Go to museums. Go outside. Read. Travel. Listen to music. These mini breaks from reality will refuel and recharge you the way recess did when you were a kid in school. Remember how much fun that was? We all need to reboot occasionally in order to perform optimally.
Form new connections
If networking feels like a waste of your time, you’re probably doing it wrong. Stop right now and commit to attending three or four events this year. You’ll meet new people, share ideas and forge valuable connections. Skip this resolution and you risk becoming obsolete.
Do a little good
Not every business owner can give 99 percent of their stock to charity like Mark Zuckerberg did, but there’s probably a way you can make an impact in your community. What’s your version of giving back going to be? You could go big by building houses in a depressed area or go small by encouraging employees to run a charity 5K. Either way, make a commitment to brightening your corner of the world. Whoever you are and whatever you do, you have something to give.
Wouldn’t it be satisfying to check off this entire list 12 months from now?
Maurice Gilbert is Managing Partner of Conselium Executive Search, which specializes in placing Compliance Officers and Legal Counsel for clients in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Maurice is also CEO of Corporate Compliance Insights, a worldwide publication devoted to governance, risk and compliance issues. Maurice can be reached at maurice@conselium.com or maurice@corporatecomplianceinsights.com.
