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Happy Holidays!

Most of us are familiar with the song the 12 Days Of Christmas; I’d like to switch it up a bit and discuss the 12 Days Of CourageAbility

Here’s my 12 day countdown:

1. Have and live your dream. As leaders we need to have the courage to acknowledge and leverage OUR passion. If you are living someone else’s dream, have the courage to say it; it’s not a problem to accommodate others, but realize and acknowledge that it’s your choice to live their dream, and not yours.
2. Document your goals. Now is the best time to put your goals in writing. A colleague, Steve Nudelburg, has a saying: “50 cups of Coffee”. Make a list of 50 people to have a cup of coffee with over the next 30 days. You’ll be amazed at how the “coffee” conversations will help you achieve your goals.
3. Commit to your goals. This can be difficult, but commitment means taking action. If you say you are going to call 5 people a day, do it! If you say you are going to exercise daily, then schedule time (even if it’s 15 minutes each day). You spend time on what you value. Each day take 15 minutes and review your written goals. Saying you’re going to do something is not commitment; doing it is.
4. Understand your strengths and the strengths of others. You can’t do everything yourself; allow others to help you. Bring the experts into your life. I was with someone the other day who said she can’t delegate because she doesn’t trust others to do the task as well as she does. This attitude will impede the progress of others, wear you out, and you’ll likely complain that you can’t get everything done. Take a risk. Understand the strengths of others, help them grow, and allow them to take ownership and get it done.
5. Communicate with confidence and clarity. I say this is our most important task in life and I am still working on it daily. There are many ways you can help yourself. Marilyn Brown (from our PeopleTeam), attends ToastMasters; I highly recommend adding it to your New Year’s list.
6. Understand and manage conflict with a purpose. Here is a quote: Without conflict there is no leadership. I always say that conflict must occur for there to be growth, it must however be done in a healthy, honoring, respectful manner. How are you stretching yourself to deal with a difficult situation? If you don’t stretch yourself and others, there is no leadership.
7. Grow and develop others. As leaders our job is to help others achieve their goals and objectives. Are you mentoring others to help them grow? Do you and your team have Individual Development Plans? Do you track the progress? In the New Year I commit to working harder at knowing the plans and goals of my team members to see how I help them achieve and conquer their plans.
8. Effective delegation. This, combined with number 4, is critical. If you are doing everything yourself you will be extremely tired. When I first started PeopleTek, I felt no one could run the Leadership Journey as well as I did. What I found out is that others do it even better!
9. Develop a skill. In 2015 my plan is to be more organized; this is not only self driven, but is also based on my recent 360 feedback conducted by Executive Coach Meade Dickerson. To my PeopleTek Team: Thank you so much for the feedback. Does anyone else want to do a 360?
10. Remain controlled. Composure is so important for a leader. It is a skill that can be developed, and although there are many tools, emotional intelligence is a great one. Give us a call.
11. Reward and recognize. Do you reward others based on goals, or just randomly? Rewards need to be intentional and based on the behavior and results you would like to see more of. When I’ve coached others, I find they either reward too much, (without having a concrete reason for the reward), or they never reward at all, feeling everything is “just part of the job”. Both of these will lead to morale issues.
12. Succeed and learn from failure. I think this is so important because unless we take a risk we will see very little change.

Now is the best time to give yourself the biggest Christmas and New Years gift of a lifetime:

Step out of your comfort zone and take a chance with something important to you!

Warmest Wishes,

Mike