Well it is now officially 2025 - we are ¼ of the way into this century already! By the way, whatever happened to Y2K? :-) Maybe a discussion for another time.
Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? Maybe getting back to the gym, or doing more reading or completing a project around the house?
From a professional standpoint, it might also be a good idea to create New Year’s Resolutions for yourself in your position. I’d like to share 5 suggestions for New Year’s Resolutions for managers.
Be yourself - it’s funny, but a lot of people struggle with this in the business environment and I am not sure exactly why. There seems to be a feeling that to be “professional” one must cease to be themselves and instead walk and talk like some robotic idea of what that means. It often manifests itself in overly cautious ways of communicating, more serious tone, and less engaging approach to work relationships. Being yourself doesn’t mean you aren’t professional, it just means you are comfortable to inject your personality and thoughts into your communication style. If you are funny, be funny. If you are thoughtful, be thoughtful, if you are quirky or nerdy, be quirky and nerdy. Ask people around you if they think you are different in meetings then you are in informal situations. Be yourself all the time.
Support your team - You might say, “Well of course Evan, I support my team.” Think about the specifics of “how” though. Write down for each person who you manage how you have supported them and how you will support them in the new year. Be specific. Then talk to them about those goals and work together on them. Support may look different for different team members. Some want more communication, others may want to be more independent. Some may want more responsibilities or more money or whatever it is. Be sensitive to how you might be able to support and encourage each team member throughout the year.
Determine at least one process you can improve - look at your team, your department, and your organization and determine if there is a process that either needs to be created because one doesn’t exist or a processes that could be improved and set about improving it with specific steps. Write down the phases you will need to go through to enact the improvements and whose support you will need. Then begin to evangelize that process and see it through to adoption.
Be compassionate - I have talked about this in previous podcasts, but have and express compassion for those around you. Be sensitive to the lives of the people who work for you. Understand that their family and their lives are and should be the most important thing to them and you can support that priority by being understanding and compassionate. You will reap benefits from this approach. Ask your team members what you can do to improve their life. A lot of times it might be as simple as giving them some space.
Seek feedback - this is the one that might get scary for some people. A lot of managers are like lawyers, they don’t like to ask questions they don’t know the answers to. If you ask your team for feedback or to review your performance as a manager they may have some hard things to tell you. Because of that fear, many don’t ask and therefor might continue bad habits. Ask for feedback and then listen and adjust. It communicates that you really care and want to improve.
That’s it, just 5 new year’s resolutions for you as a manager. I’m sure there could be many more, but if you start with these 5 I think it will set you up for a great 2025 with your teams.
Did I miss any that you think are more important? WHat are your 2025 resolutions. Please share in the comments, I would love to hear from you.
You can listen to all my podcasts on iHeartRadio and AmazonMusic, or watch them on Spotify or YouTube. You can also interact with me on Instagram or X.
So again, happy new year from the Manager’s Desk.
