It’s that time of year when we all tend to make resolutions for ourselves, personally and professionally. With respect to your organization – are you recycling previous resolutions? You are if you’re still dealing with problems which have been addressed before but never successfully resolved. How do you get out of the recycling habit and actually develop and implement new resolutions?
It’s not easy and I’ll be the first one to tell you this. Been there, done that. The key to making new resolutions is to be as honest and objective as possible. If something didn’t go as planned, own up. Being able to complete a fair and honest assessment of your organization’s performance is a good place to start. How well did your solutions for difficult or under-achieving employees improve the organization’s performance? If your solutions haven’t made a significant positive impact, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Why? Do you really want to deal with that difficult employee for yet another year? Do you really want to try to explain the anemic performance level to your stockholders, much less explain it to Aunt Nell?
Let’s try a different approach. Call in a professional problem solver to help you with the assessment. This person can be very helpful in identifying the root of the problems and then helping you develop realistic and achievable solutions. Maybe that should be your one New Year’s resolution and it will certainly be a new one.
So what will it be – new resolution with a realistic chance of working or old recycled resolution known for its failure? Happy New Year.