2017 is almost over, and once again, it’s time for people to set their goals for the year ahead. In every goal-setting comes the creation of new year’s resolutions, not just for your personal life but also for your career. You can create new year’s resolutions along with your team members to work towards a more prosperous professional life.
Studies show that 25% of people who create new year’s resolutions give up by the first week of January, but there’s 46% who commit to them for six months and 8% who keep them for a whole year.
Yes, it may be hard to commit to your resolutions, but if you do it with dedication and teamwork, you can work together to achieve your goals. By carefully planning and laying out your team’s new year’s resolutions, you can improve your problem solving and decision-making skills, both individually and as a cohesive team.
We created an infographic of the seven new year’s resolutions that you and your team should commit to for 2018.
According to Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation, positive feedback and recognition is an intrinsic motivator that is crucial to empowering employees and team performance.
A Gallup survey fully supports this, as 67% of employees whose managers focus on their strengths are fully engaged at work. If you want your team to improve their performance this coming year, then offer them feedback. Let them know your observations regarding their strengths and weaknesses.
Praise them for their work, and let them know the areas you’d like them to improve or develop. You’d be surprised how feedback and an open communication channel can strengthen your teamwork and reap positive results.
Some organizations have strict hierarchies, which make it very difficult for staff members and employees to voice their opinions or share ideas with their managers.
This coming year, open your doors and let your employees know that you want to hear their ideas. Encourage them to share their knowledge, and provide positive feedback when they do.
Create a less threatening environment during meetings and conferences. There are times when managers share their ideas and go on talking for quite a while to get their message across. By the time that managers ask the team for input, everything has been laid out already, and it’s too late. You’ve already given the impression that a decision has been made, and that you’re merely cascading information.
Include your team in the decision-making process, and ask them what they think and listen intently. Be patient and don’t interrupt. Give them time to articulate their ideas.
Miscommunication can cause your team to fall apart—tasks can be misunderstood, time and money are wasted, and projects are not completed successfully.
Make sure to identify barriers to effective communication so that they can quickly be addressed. Invest in verbal communication training so that every member has a clear picture of what effective communication looks and feels like.
Hold short, weekly meetings. Try to keep them to just 10 to 30-minute meetings so that they don’t become a chore for you and your team. These short meetings will help you align your goals every week and ensure that tasks and projects are being completed successfully.
Encourage your team to be honest and upfront so that no issues are left unresolved.
Don’t be afraid to talk about tough topics and address the elephant in the room. In some organizations or teams, there are obvious issues that everyone just chooses to ignore. Little do they know that they get in the way of success.
If you let these issues foster, it can one day blow up in your faces. So, resolve them as early as you can.
No one wins in the blame game. Sadly, it’s very common in the workplace. Some team members may refuse to own up to their mistakes, and attribute their errors and shortcomings to a perceived flaw in the system or maybe another team member.
Research shows that people who blame others for their mistakes lose status, learn less, and perform worse than those who own up to their errors. As such, teams with a culture of blame will also underperform and achieve less.
Another study shows that the blame game is contagious. Just being exposed to someone who blames others for their mistakes is enough to cause the rest of the team to do the same even for completely unrelated mistakes.
Create a healthy feedback culture so that your team members don’t have to worry about protecting their self-image at work. Encourage everyone to be accountable for their own mistakes, and set an example as a team leader.
Prioritizing training and development will ensure that your team doesn’t merely meet goals, but also exceeds expectations. This will even show your team members that your company is invested in their career and professional development by sending them to a training program to help them learn new skills and develop existing ones.
Professional development and training programs increase employee engagement. When you show your team that you want to help them grow professionally and achieve their long-term goals, they will be more enthusiastic and productive in their daily work.
So, you’ve established new year’s resolutions for you and your team. It’s time for you to set an example – do what you say you will! This will encourage your team members to commit to your team’s resolutions and goals for 2018.
Creating the resolutions may be the easy part, but sticking to them is what’s hard. Get everyone on board, and have them commit to the goals.
Identify the resolutions that need to be done each day, and the ones that can be practiced every week such as your weekly team sprints.
Working on your resolutions consistently will help you and your team turn them into a habit. Before you know it, it’s incorporated in your daily tasks, and you’re closer to achieving your goals!
Should you decide to come up with your resolutions, make sure to follow these guidelines. This will ensure that your new year’s resolutions are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound).
Goal-setting is the first thing you need to consider when creating new year’s resolution for your team. Ask your team members what they want the team to accomplish. Identify no more than three goals and objectives. Having more than three goals will be counter-productive, and your team may find it hard to focus on achieving them.
Prioritize and label your goals – which one should take priority? This will help you determine what’s more important so that you don’t lose focus.
Plan it out with your team, and ask for everyone’s input about the resolutions you can implement to achieve your goal. Write them down and post it somewhere everyone can see.
The right metrics or KPIs will help you determine which resolutions are working well for your team, and which ones are not getting positive results. So, it’s important to know your metrics.
If you don’t know what success looks like, then how do you know if you’ve achieved it? Make sure your team stays on the right track by regularly assessing your KPIs.
New Year’s resolutions will help you and your team have something to look forward to in the coming year. Feel free to print this infographic and post it on your team’s bulletin board where everyone can see it. Ensure that everyone is on board and that your team commits to your new year’s resolutions.
But first, make sure to celebrate your team’s wins this 2017. Happy new year!
Filed Under Communication
