What’s grounding you as you move into 2024? As a leader in life (home and work), what behaviors are going to positively support your key deliverables this year?

Solid leaders are very deliberate. They plan for contingencies. But here, I’m not talking about business planning for the year. I’m talking about planning for how you will act in 2024.

What behaviors are going to move the needle for you this year?

Which ones could undermine you and your effectiveness?

With a good dose of self-awareness, what is your best and most honest thinking on these questions?

What I’m suggesting is that you plan for how you will lead yourself well. To do this, you might need to back into it. Here’s a way to think about it:

1. What are the key initiatives or priorities on your plate this year?
2. Based on past history, what are the behaviors that could get in the way of making this happen?
3. What, then, are the flip sides of these behaviors you need to cultivate and what specific actions will support them?

So, for example:

1. An operations leader needs to fully implement a new QC process by the end of June.
2. Based on past experience, she knows:

1. She can be an inconsistent communicator which creates confusion and amps up anxiety, and
2. She can sometimes become inflexible under stress, shutting people down and potentially limiting more creative solutions. In short, she knows that she can be an overfunctioner at times.

3. So, she:

1. Creates a communications format that she’ll use consistently along with a schedule. She enlists a trusted partner to remind her of due dates. In other words, she makes these communications a priority and puts structure around them.
2. Makes a short list of possible scenarios that could create stress during the project (i.e. noting certain people that might be challenging and thinking through how she might respond). Makes another short list of her behaviors that shut people down (i.e. talking over someone). Finally, she gives one or two trusted people permission to point out any non-constructive behaviors they observe from her.

Does this seem over-the-top? That’s your call. But in our opinion, not if the stakes are high.. Pre-planning better behaviors can help ensure that you actually live into them. Think about it, if you really haven’t thought about the best behavior options, the chances that you’ll engage them are probably low.

As you launch into this year, don’t leave success to chance. Take the time to be deliberate and plan for optimal actions that will help drive the results you want for 2024.