Executive Podcast #221: New Year, New You, Fresh Start

John Maxwell shares how he likes to take the last two weeks of the year to review, reflect, and evaluate on the year just completed. What is your plan to get off to a fast start in the new year?

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Perry Holley:

Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast, where our goal is to help you increase your reputation as a leader, increase your ability to influence others, and increase your ability to fully engage your team to deliver remarkable results. Hi, I’m Perry Holley, a Maxwell Leadership facilitator and coach.

Chris Goede:

And I’m Chris Goede, Executive Vice President of Maxwell Leadership. Welcome and thank you for joining. If you’re interested in leaving a question for us that we can address on a future podcast, a comment, maybe even download a blog or the learner’s guide, I want to encourage you go to maxwellleadership.com/podcast and you can find that information there. You can also fill out a form if you’re interested in learning more about how we help organizations and their cultures develop leaders-

Perry Holley:

Or a topic you want to hear about.

Chris Goede:

Or a topic, yeah, Perry would love that. Yes, as he creates all-

Perry Holley:

Help me.

Chris Goede:

-this content for us, yeah. Well, today’s topic, speaking of topic and content is new year, new you, fresh start.

Perry Holley:

How about that?

Chris Goede:

I feel like it’s a commercial for a gym-

Perry Holley:

I know.

Chris Goede:

I mean, you got to go work out.

Perry Holley:

I actually, I think we did one years ago about where have all the health club members gone? That’s what we do in February.

Chris Goede:

Yeah, that’s right. For the month of January there and then they disappear.

Perry Holley:

What happened to all them? I love this topic. Just the idea of, John has really taught us over the years about how… His example of how he uses the last couple of weeks of the year to reflect and to look back, evaluate about making a plan for the new year. And now we are looking at another New Year’s start here. And I just love the idea about being intentional about how you get ready for next year. We could just, yeah, I was just watching Ed Mylett the other day and he said, “Most people are backing off this time of year looking into the new year, and you should push the accelerator. You should figure out how to get ready and start fast.”

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Chris Goede:

I love that. I remember when I first learned what you’re talking about and I thought, my goodness, he really goes back and looks at every day- [inaudible 00:02:09]

Perry Holley:

More than that, every meeting.

Chris Goede:

To your point, where he spent his time and then considering, what should I do more of? What should I do less of? What do I need to get rid of all together? And man, I was really fascinated by that. And he does that every single year and it’s proved to be very, very beneficial for them. And so what I love about that is not only are you looking at that, but then it helps you begin to say, “Well, what am I going to do next year? What does the future look like for me? What do I desire? And then how do I get a better return on my time?” And I think all of us as leaders, maybe even in your personal life, no, not maybe, you should do that first and then even professionally, that we should be looking at the activity and you should consider, what is it that I want to keep doing? What is it I want to stop doing for the new year in order to be a better you,

Perry Holley:

Yeah. Where was the time best spent? Where was the return? Where was there not? These were things I probably shouldn’t have done. These are things I want to do more of. Some people think, “Boy, it sounds like a lot of work, but it is part of reflecting. I think one thing I’ve done is, since John taught this, instead of waiting for the last two weeks of the year to start thinking about it, just keeping more of a journal or a notebook of what, as I’m going through each month, at the end of each month, been looking back to say-

Chris Goede:

That’s good.

Perry Holley:

-Wow. And then, you know, you and I have had many conversations about how my 2023 is going to look different from my 2022, boundaries that I’m putting in and just filters on how I say yes or how I say no and where do I… I want to write more or do I want to speak more? What is the need coming from the market? What are we being asked to do? All that filtering in to say, based on what I know and based on what I’ve done and based on where we want to go, what would be the best use of my limited amount of time, that investment of time in the new year.

Chris Goede:

Yeah, I love that fact because some of us, and that would include both Perry and I, we have a hard time saying no. And as you begin looking at that and as you begin evaluating that, it does give you that framework to be able to answer that question kind of very quickly. And so some of you can do that just very naturally, but maybe having a process like this would help you do that as you transition. John talks about the fact that most people just let life simply happen to them, they’re floating along, they just kind of wait, they react. And this is really being more proactive. This is really being strategic and helping you be intentional about your development. And that’s what we’re all about here, we’re a growth organization and it does start with you first. And when you have intentionality behind it, then it makes it very, very beneficial for you as a leader, as an individual.

Perry Holley:

And I thought I’d just give us, just break it down, we’ll do it kind of quickly, but if you’re interested in this topic and wanted the specifics of how to do this, I looked at really six things. I got them all from how John does it and how I’ve been doing it over the years. I’d love to hear your input on that. But starts with review, and then we reflect on and review what’s going on, reflecting, evaluating based on my criteria, deciding on the new year, and then putting a plan in place. And then executing are the six steps.

And I know for me, it’s not just you kind of flow between the steps a bit that you might review and then reflect for a bit and make an evaluation and then go back and review some more. So we can move between those. I might review a week of activity. You mentioned John going every meeting on his calendar. And to me, I don’t go to that level, but I’m thinking about it because how much could I do? How much more could I learn about myself? And the materials you need for this exercise is really your calendar or diary or any other records of how you scheduled your time during the year. Like I said, if you kept a notebook, if you kept a call log, if you did those types of things, that might be helpful.

Chris Goede:

Yeah, I love what you just mentioned, which is you got to review something. And so it goes back to, let’s talk about the first intentional act is that you need to capture what you’re doing on a daily basis. And some of us do that, some of us don’t. Some use a calendar, whatever. You have to develop a system, you got to be intentional about that in order for this to really work. I love your idea of, and maybe in something I look at doing in the next year, which is sitting down at the end of each month and generating a list, and then at the end of the year, I’m going to have 12 lists that I can then review because some of us can’t remember what happened last week. And so I definitely got to have a system and how I capture it. But I love your idea to reflect at the end of each month and then create something that I’ll review one of 12 documents as we get to the end of the year.

So when doing step one, the review, I like to reflect, I like to evaluate. I think you can kind of do all those, to your point, they kind of interchange by asking some questions and we gave you some high level questions that John asked, but as you dig into it, here’s a couple of questions for you to think about. Was that meeting, was that day, was that trip a good use of my time? Should I have delegated that to somebody else? Now for me right there, I love that you put that in there because that convicted me. And I know that that is something that I need to grow in. If you did delegate it, but you shouldn’t have, that’s not my problem. Maybe when we’re sitting here a year from now, that may be my problem. But that’s a good question to ask yourself. Three more questions. Should you do more of this? Back to kind of what John was saying, should you do less of this? And then what should you eliminate?

Perry Holley:

Yes. I love that. And then the reflect part is to me is what worked, what didn’t work? Being honest with yourself. I love this. We talked many times about having a daily habit of reflection that you would, at the end of your day, beginning of your day, you would just think through what worked, what didn’t work, what could I have done different, what did I learn, what would I do different the next time? And then, and really it’s a five-minute exercise, but in this instance, I’m reflecting on the activities from the previous year and seeing what worked, what didn’t work, being honest with myself, evaluating, I think about ROI, was there a return on the investment of that time, that time with that person, that time with that call, that time with that meeting, that time with that speed, was that a good use for me? Did it produce an outcome that I like? And John also, I love your aspect, he doesn’t just do business, he talks about personal, and this is really convicting to me is how would my work versus my family, how was that investment? Did I make enough of an investment? I travel as you do quite a bit. And how am I looking at that family work integration? Well, I’m not going to say balance, but integration.

Chris Goede:

Yeah, that’s interesting, right? Does balance even exist? I think it can and it should to some extent. John’s approach, which we kind of have that DNA inside our organization is that there’s not necessarily a balance of a day or maybe even a week when it comes to personal professional. But it is, hey, when I am with family, I am with family.

Perry Holley:

When you’re home, be home.

Chris Goede:

When I am home, I am home. When I’m on a trip with my family, I’m on a trip with my family. And when I’m in the middle of something at work and it’s go time, and this is something that my family’s comfortable with and we talk about it and they’re aware of it. And so it’s something that’s probably become a learned comfortability for my family. But to your point, what’s really important about what we’re talking about here is the evaluation of your calendar and of your time. And then when you get to the end of the year, hey, where was the personal time? You can be all in on either, but at the end of the year when you look at the big picture, man, let’s make sure that that family, that personal side comes first and that everything that you’re doing in there, it was beneficial and even enough.

Perry Holley:

I’m smiling because I was thinking about, I know when I’m in trouble on the balance question, when my wife, when the conversation starts with, “I know you love your job, but… I know you love what you do, but, yeah, there’s got to be some more there.”

Chris Goede:

It’s not the start of that sentence, it’s always the but that you’re waiting for with her, right? Yeah. You’re like-

Perry Holley:

I know you love what you do, but, yeah, are you going to be home at all?

Chris Goede:

So as you’re going through this evaluation process, here’s some other additional questions for you just to think about. These are just simple questions, but they’re starter questions that Perry’s providing for us that I want to share with you.

Perry Holley:

And they’re all in the learner guide.

Chris Goede:

And they’re all in the learner guide, great. So if you’re driving, please don’t be writing this down. What did you enjoy? What were some of the proudest moments from that event or just even over the year? What did you spend too much time on? What didn’t get enough of your time? Boy, that’s a great question to ask yourself. Really personally, what didn’t get enough of your time as you’re evaluating that and what areas were you especially effective? Where did you fail? What can you learn from your mistakes? So the key to this exercise is to use what you’ve discovered as you reviewed and reflected about your past to then inform as you begin to lay out the plan for the next year.

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Perry Holley:

And that takes us to the final three steps were decide, plan, and then execute once you got it. I love John, something he said about the, “Decide once, manage daily.” And I just think that so many times-

Chris Goede:

That’s good.

Perry Holley:

Yeah, I think about it a lot is that, am I making new decisions every day, every week, trying to remake the decisions? Or can I just now in this exercise make a decision? And now plans change over time, but my outcome, what I’m going for remains the same. My vision for my year is set, but how I get there could change. But I’m going to decide now in this exercise and then manage it month to month. And some things won’t work, I’ll need to make a change. But this is where really putting intentionality when you make these decisions and build your plan for the year, this is where intentionality pays off. I use this start, stop, continue, is just a simple way that I’ve utilized. Forget who I got that from, but what is I’m going to start doing that’s going to get me to the goals and vision that I have for the year? What I need to stop doing this, getting in the way, and continue is kind of the yellow light, the warning light that says, let’s keep evaluating, let’s keep an eye on that and see if it’s working, if it’s giving me the return that I want on it.

Chris Goede:

As you think about this, I loved what you just said about the comment where you make a decision once and then manage that often. That goes back to, you can do that even to the conversation you and I were and are having about what does your next year look like? What are the percentages of… What is it that Perry wants to be doing? What is it that is the best benefit of Perry, both personally and professionally? So make that decision, now we’re going to manage it. And I like what you said about managing it. Managing means, right, it is going to change, it’s going to be flexible, but at least we have that framework to go with.

Perry Holley:

Just FYI, it’s being tested already because the team is starting the book January, and we got January’s book now. We got February. And they’re saying, do you want this? I go, I looked at my plan and I’m, “Now it’s time to execute, Perry-

Chris Goede:

That’s right, that’s cute.

Perry Holley:

I made the decision. Now am I going to manage it daily? And I go, well, and now this is definitely where I should say no, but this is really putting it to the test is I made a plan, which I’ve never had the plan before so now we’ll see. I’m growing.

Chris Goede:

That’s a lot, but-

Perry Holley:

It’s just an intervention.

Chris Goede:

But [inaudible 00:14:42]. Yeah. And this may be, as you’re listening to us, you may say, “Man, this just feels so overwhelming.” And it is, it can become overwhelming if you want to go from zero to 100 and all these things that we’re talking about. But just start small. Develop a habit of doing this, whether it’s something you do on a monthly basis like Perry is talking about, whether you do wait till the end of the year, but have some intentional time to where you can focus and then begin to be strategic about how you are using your time in the new year.

Perry Holley:

And my final thought on that is that if you think there’s value, and I will tell you there is value in this, is begin to have that daily reflection habit and maybe make some notes weekly, monthly as you go along. Just as you’re in the moment. When I finished, I just gave a speech over there a few days ago and I made some notes on the way home about what I thought worked, what didn’t, working with the client, how were we prepared were we, just doing a reflection on that activity. Was that a good use of my time? I was with one of our team, Amanda and she had an AAR, an after action review to say, “What would we do differently in this situation if we were in that again?” And so I just made notes and nothing really to do now, but as we reflect on the whole year, I don’t have to go back and rehash all that. So just an intentional act of beginning to collect those reflections and evaluations along the way. It’ll make this year-end activity a lot easier.

Chris Goede:

That’s great. Very practical illustrations that we’re getting today on this podcast from Perry, and I appreciate that. So as I wrap up, let me just say this, I mentioned a minute ago about the fact that we’re about personal growth. That’s where it starts, this practice that we’re talking about, this new year, new you, fresh start, this is a personal growth tool for you. And that’s what we want to encourage first. The other thing is, as I was thinking through this, I was having a conversation yesterday with Valerie Burton. We were talking about resilience and just that and how relevant that is in the market today with everything that leaders and people and families are dealing with. And so I’m very excited about that conversation. But I was thinking about that conversation as I was reviewing our outline for today. And I thought, man, one of the ways that we can become resilient is to be able to see what we overcame the year before.

And so as we reflect on the past year, if you don’t go through that process, you went through a lot of stuff, you made a lot of decisions, there were a lot of ups and there was a lot of downs. But I promise you you’ve forgotten 95% of them. I probably forgotten 99% of them. But in doing this and having this practice allows you to see how really resilient you are and where that growth has come from. The last thing I’ll say is one of the things that we do around here is that Mark Cole, our CEO, with the leadership team is like, “Hey, have a word for the year and then I want context behind why.” And so in that process is where I begin to think and reflect on what is that word of the year for me next year. That is my sole focus. And back to your comment about that’s the decision I’m making now I got to manage that daily if I really felt like that kind of after-review in my previous year, that’s the word. So again, personal growth, it’s going to show up how resilient you are as an individual and as a leader, and then develop a word of the year to go along with this.

Perry Holley:

That’s great, Chris. Thank you very much. And speaking of personal growth, if you are looking for a way to increase your personal growth, we have a special opportunity for you in Orlando, Florida, March 13th, 2023, Personal Growth Day, John Maxwell, and a lot of your fellow learners will be there in Orlando. You can find the link on the webpage maxwellpodcast.com/growthday, and you’ll learn more about it there and you can sign up. You can also get your regular The Learner Guide and the other things we have for you here as well as leave a comment or a question for us at maxwellleadership.com/podcast. We’re so grateful you spend this time with us. That’s all today from the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast.