2017 SPECIAL 8 Mistakes You Need To
Leave Behind In 2017
When you ring in the
new year, leave behind these common mistakes that may be holding you back.
Whether you saw 2016 as a time to celebrate or an enormous
dumpster fire, there’s something thrilling about the prospect of a new year.
It’s a clean slate. Twelve months stretch ahead, full of promise.
So while you’re making your list of resolutions that you’ll take
with you into January, it’s also a good time to think about what you should
leave behind. To give yourself the best chance of reaching your goals and
realizing your resolutions, leave these mistakes behind when the clock strikes
midnight.
TRYING TO DO IT ALL YOURSELF
Yes, you’re good at your job. Yes,
you’re a stickler for details. But you can’t do it all—and choosing not to
delegate is only going to hold you back, says productivity expert and
technologist Matthew Canning, author of Get It Together: Five Simple
Strategies for Becoming Reliable, Saving Time, and Making Fewer Mistakes. Holding on to
too much is just going to cause burnout and ensure that you’re not using your
time on more high-level tasks and projects.
Choosing not to delegate is only
going to hold you back.
"I often see people learn their lesson and eventually hire
and delegate, finally understanding that they can't manage every aspect of a
business successfully. But it usually happens after burning through tons of
money and resources and time," Canning says.
BEING UNNECESSARILY AGGRESSIVE
It’s time for many to recalibrate
how we speak to and treat each other, says psychiatrist Gail Saltz, MD, author of Becoming Real: Defeating
the Stories We Tell Ourselves That Hold Us Back. While
"telling it like it is" became a catchphrase in 2016, Saltz says it’s
time for many to familiarize ourselves with the difference between
assertiveness and aggressiveness.
"I’d love to see people leave behind being bullying and cruel
and polarizing to each other. We may disagree, but we have to find ways to
agree to disagree, and to still think of the more important greater good,"
she says. Instead, work on finding common ground and healthy ways to disagree.
WORKING TOO MUCH
There’s no blue ribbon for giving
up your vacation time or working through your anniversary dinner. Leadership
coach Tracy Spears, author of What Exceptional Leaders Know: High Impact Skills, Strategies & Ideas
for Leaders, often counsels clients about the reasons they have to recharge
their batteries through vacation, downtime,
and unplugging from
technology.
If you don’t take time out, you’re not going to be able to sustain
high performance, she says. "We see a lot of turnover at CEO level and at
some of the C-suite levels because people aren't recovering, they aren't taking
that time to regenerate," she says. So start planning some time for
yourself in the new year.
DISCOUNTING THE SMALL WINS
Saltz says that we’re more apt to achieve big goals if they’re
structured as a series of small ones. "People have a tendency to go, ‘I'm
going to revolutionize my life this year.’ [That’s] very unwieldy and
undefined—and actually usually lasts for a week and then you're done," she
says. Instead of shooting for the moon, take concrete, specific steps that will
get you where you want to go. And celebrate those achievements to keep you
motivated along the way.
We’re more apt to achieve big
goals if they’re structured as a series of small ones.
FAILING TO FOLLOW THROUGH
Much of the reason we hold ourselves back isn’t lack of will,
talent, or ability—it’s lack of follow-through, says Canning. We become
disorganized or run out of time to take the steps necessary to realize our
goals.
"You can get incredibly lucky or you can be very well
connected. But for most people, it comes down to refining your intentions,
getting incredibly organized, and setting up some sort of framework for
consequences in the event of failure," he says. Lean on your network to
keep yourself accountable and ensure you’ll follow through on the things that
you say you’re going to do.
NEGLECTING HIGH PERFORMERS—INCLUDING YOURSELF
It’s easy to fall into the role of firefighter, tending to the
most urgent needs and tasks during the course of the day. However, if you’re
ignoring your high performers or your own personal development because you’re
spending too much time tending to lower-performing employees who need help or a
greater degree of management, you could be missing an important opportunity for
retention, development, and greater productivity, Spears says.
"That's irresponsible to the high performers. If you can
spend more time there and create a little bit more connection with those employees
to keep those people from leaving, that's a really good investment of your
time," she says. And that goes for you, personally, as well. Spend some
time tending to your own career and personal development needs, she says.
Everyone in the organization will be better off for it.
IGNORING YOUR ANXIETY
Just as it’s important to stay in tune with your need for
downtime, it’s also important to recognize and deal with anxiety when it rears
its head, Saltz says. "A lot of people have felt that 2016 has been a
rough year in terms of high anxiety," she says. Insecurities and
disagreements can promote anxiety. When people feel a great deal of discord or
don’t feel in control, those types of things promote anxiety too, she says.
Get in touch with soothing techniques
to make yourself feel better. From using websites and apps like Headspace and Calm, to exercise or
sessions with a therapist, come up with an anxiety management plan to help you
feel better and be more clearheaded, she says.
GIVING IN TO SELF-LIMITING BELIEFS
One of the best things you can
leave behind is the power of that negative voice in your head telling you what
you can’t do, Spears says. Get over your
self-limiting beliefs and reinforce your understanding of where your strengths
lie. "You can get there with a 360-degree review, and bringing in someone
and being vulnerable and saying, ‘How can I get better?’"
It’s not always easy to face our insecurities, but that voice may
be holding you back in ways you don’t even realize, she says. It’s time for its
power to go.
GWEN MORAN
https://www.fastcompany.com/3066698/work-smart/8-mistakes-you-need-to-leave-behind-in-2017
No comments:
Post a Comment