How to Review 2016 and Gain a New Leadership Perspective on Your Organization
Written by: Stephen Maier
New year, new strategic planning. It’s a solid best practice. But as you plan for the new year at your organization, how do you know that you’ve truly understood the year that just happened? Learning from past experience is something that occurs whether we’re intentional or not, but formal self-reflection (and organizational reflection)—to the tune of New Year’s resolutions, which often have unique charms of timely inspiration, honesty, and introspection—can help you see things with even greater clarity. Aligning your organization to learn from mistakes, tackle new challenges and changes, and be resilient and adaptable will be crucial for 2017.
We know from our professional development courses and consulting engagements that it takes a special time and a focused method to effectively reflect, understand, and learn—but we think, with the upcoming Presidential administration change, now’s as good a time as any for some positive, mindful (re)thinking. So, with that spirit in mind, here are two lists of reflective questions for you and your organization: one for processing the year you just had, and another for the year to come.
5 questions to help you and your organization learn from 2016
- At your organization, who were the most indispensable or influential contributors? What enabled their behavior, and how can you help others learn that behavior?
- What did you do that may have caused you to get in your own way? Did your actions impede anybody else’s progress?
- What did you say Yes to, that you hadn’t said Yes to before, and why? And what did you say No to, and why?
- Did you accomplish what you set out to do at this time last year? What were the high and low points for you and your organization? What’d you learn from these experiences, and did the organization learn something, too?
- What specific skill gaps were found by your organization, and what steps were taken to improve?
5 questions to ensure personal and organizational success in 2017
- What will you and your organization do for the first time? What will no longer be done?
- How will you think differently, and what do you hope to learn? How will you open others to different perspectives?
- What skills (your own and throughout the organization) do you want to grow? How will you do it?
- How do you plan to mature your organization as a whole to meet your new goals? How will your organization adapt to and manage changes you know are coming? How will you and others remain resilient?
- How will you know you’ve taken performance for yourself and your organization to a new level?
It’s quite possible the best rewards for your organization’s work in 2016 have yet to be realized, and no less possible that your organization’s best success lies ahead—thankfully, wisdom tends to increase over time. Here’s to the end of a year, and here’s to taking on the opportunities of the next one. (And maybe this blog post will help you give everyone a head start on their next individual development plan.)
To everyone who worked with our instructors and experts for training, coaching, consulting, guidance, and professional growth, we at Management Concepts thank you—and we whole-heartedly support you as you continue to pursue (and achieve) success for yourself and your organization.
Cheers.
