The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question: What’s your New Year’s resolution? is written by Tom Gimbel, CEO of the LaSalle Network.
In January of every new year people join gyms to get in shape and lose weight, yet come February and March these memberships become virtually unused. Does the same apply to corporate resolutions? Marketing teams and C-level executives often focus on creating stretch goals in the New Year — but do they actually work?
Personally, I don’t think so. And here’s the major reason why: A resolution shouldn’t be a dream it should involve a plan. So my resolution for my company and for myself is to execute my goals, every month and hold managers accountable. Here are my three resolutions for 2016:
Making sure managers know employee’s strengths
What is the expectation of each member of your team? Not everyone has to have the same bandwidth; however, managers need to acknowledge what they believe in their employees can handle and delegate work accordingly. I’ve noticed that corporate America has the tendency to “babysit” new hires because millennials have a reputation of being terrible workers — but they’re not. This needs to end; we need to get back to the 90s atmosphere of “trial by error”.
Emphasize company goals more regularly
Not just verbally, but visually. One thing I have focused on personally throughout the past year or so is managing and developing people based on their learning styles. Everyone isn’t an audial learner. So when they hear a speech or are at a meeting, they aren’t fully grasping the concepts and/or the directives. Visual learning is key. Create graphs, white boards, and presentations. Every month I will have a town hall with the company where I start and finish the meeting emphasizing our goals with a visual representation as well as the rah-rah speech and plan.
Never eat alone
Or at least try not to. Today, more employees and executives are eating sandwiches and salads at their desks, which means there is no reason why the CEO shouldn’t be having one-on-ones with some member of their staff on a regular basis. Every time I go to lunch with an employee for the sole purpose of just going to lunch with them, something good comes of it. At the very least, the employee feels a greater connection to the C-suite. At the most, you‘ll find out something unique about your employee that makes you think and/or feel differently about them.