Time to pull out our 2016 Scorecards and reflect back on the year’s results: wins and loses, strengths and weaknesses, gains and shortfalls. What would it be worth if you could shift the results of your 2017 New Year Resolutions from average (50% of all resolutions die within 6 months) to AWEsome? Today I’ll give you a very practical Reflection Exercise that can powerfully Shift your perspective, your Scorecard, and hopefully your 2017 Resolutions and Results in AWEsome ways!
Resolution Scorecard Shift
Most of our reflection and evaluation focuses on the bottom line, tactical actions we did or did not accomplish on our “To Do” lists week in and week out. While this is all well and good, there is more than these bottom line aspects of our life and leadership “Scorecards.” In fact, most of our “New Year Resolutions” fail to produce AWE because we haven’t looked above and beyond the goals and responsibilities we often have worked so hard on.
For reflections that create AWEsome resolutions, I suggest we shift our reflection this year. As the diagram shows, there are several areas on our Scorecards to aim BEYOND and TOWARD in this strategic shift. For now, I’ll start with maybe the most powerful one and we’ll see how this corresponds with the others: beyond responsibility toward relationships. Whether its our personal or professional life, we all have responsibilities, but these take place in the context of relationships (marriage, family, neighbors, workplace peers/teams, ministry/church, community). If we could shift our focus beyond just successfully accomplishing the task at hand towards those we are in relationship with, both the people and tasks will be significantly impacted as an AWEsome collective energy, efficiency and effectiveness is often evoked.
Here’s a list of the roles and relationships most of us hold (remember circa 1990 Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits Roles/Goals), and when we focus on maintaining and enhancing the relationship amidst fulfilling the role and accomplishing the responsibilities/goals, we find that the results we experience shift from average to AWEsome:
- Self
- God
- Marriage
- Family
- Career
- Friendships
- Community.
A Practical Reflection Exercise
1. Start with assigning specific names associated with each role/relationship of the above seven.
2. For now, choose just one of the seven, and with both the person and role in mind, ask yourself, “What am I seeking to accomplish in this role and relationship (ie. what’s my/our ultimate purpose)?”
3. What do I assume to be true about myself, about them, and about this role/responsibility in regard to this our purpose (ie. what’s my perspective)? What strengths and weaknesses do we each bring towards accomplishing my purpose and desired result(s) as you reflect towards 2017. Do I hold any biases or blindness regarding my perspective?
4. What will I accept as evidence that progress is being made over time toward fulfilling my purpose? Given all your roles and responsibilities for 2017, what priority will I give this one?
5. How will we behave towards one another and others involved as we pursue this purpose? (ie. what are the core behavioral values we will operate within?)
6. Finally – What conversation(s) do I need to have with this person(s) to negotiate how we will attain the desired results this year? What tactical responsibilities and Resolutions will be required to achieve our desired purpose/results? What promises do we each need to make to advance upon our share goals and desired results?
With these questions, the first five are strategic, and it isn’t until the last one that we make Resolutions. It is this strategic work and perspective that will keep you and those in your circle of relationships inspired and fueled to make the practical resolutions an AWEsome reality when the going gets tough over the course of the next year.
Above the Line
This progression of strategic coaching questions is part of what’s called an Above the Line © approach to leadership. This approach that we use at LifeSource Coaches has been developed by my leadership coach Steve Logan, owner of Mappings.org and helps clients focus first on the strategic aspects of life, business and ministry leadership that creates powerful shifts which empower the tactical practices that advance us towards accomplishing our goals and resolutions. Over the past 20 years, we’ve found that individuals and organizations that give considerable attention and action to an Above the Line strategic process experience much greater results that those who simply focus on below-the-line tactics and resolutions.
If you’d like to investigate how to a Leadership Coach could help bring Shifts to your Reflections that create AWEsome Resolutions and results, schedule a Complimentary Strategy Session with me today. I’d love to hear your stories and thoughts regarding reflection and resolutions – please share them in comments below!
Trusting this has equipped you towards an AWEsome New Year!
Coach Dave is a Leadership Coach specializing in elevating emerging and entrepreneurial leaders. He has a Master’s Degree in Divinity and years of experience in coaching. He is a father, and husband to Coach Sue. Learn more about Coach Dave here.