The most common New Year’s resolutions tend to be vague goals like losing weight, eating healthier food, or exercising more. But most people don’t successfully follow through on their resolutions — largely because they’re so general and non-specific. But what if this New Year, instead of personal goals, focus on making goals that apply to your workplace.
If you feel strongly about New Year’s Resolutions or not, a brand-new year is a perfect time to assess your current leadership style and find opportunities to improve your skills.

1) Prevent toxic work environments by creating a positive culture and engagement
No one wants to wake up each morning and dread coming to work because of a toxic work environment. Coming into a positive work environment makes a huge difference in productivity with employees. Make sure the work environment supports a positive atmosphere by being a positive role model. If you’re a leader at your work, everyone is usually watching your lead. So, start each day with positivity, encourage positive language and reward employees for positive contributions.

2) Stop micromanaging your employees.
Most employees don’t appreciate being micromanaged. It’s in your best interest as a leader to curb this behavior before it leads to negative effects, such as poor morale, lack of motivation and staff turnover. Effective leaders will do their best to ensure each individual member of a team knows what is expected. Once everyone is in sync with expectations, there is no need to micromanage. If you find yourself micromanaging others, you have failed to delegate correctly. Seeking employee input also helps with combating micromanaging. It reveals how different employees like to be managed, which provides leaders with vital information and establishes trust with employees.

3) Commit to a work – life balance.
Developing strict boundaries between work and play can be very rewarding. It helps to combat stress and burnout, and promotes overall well-being. The compounding stress from the never-ending workday is damaging. It can hurt relationships, health and overall happiness. Taking the time after work to unwind and relax so you come back in the next day refreshed. There is no perfect, one-size fits all, balance you should be striving for. The best work-life balance is different for each of us because we all have different priorities and different lives. In our “always-on” world, balance is a very personal thing and only you can decide the lifestyle that suits you best.

4) Say “thank you” more often.
Want to lead a high-performing team? Recognize them for doing great work. This is the easiest form of feedback that makes a world of difference. When possible, be as specific as possible with your gratitude, so employees know the value that they bring to the team. Sure, receiving an award at the annual holiday party for “most helpful employee” is cool, but have you ever felt the validation of receiving a thank-you email from your manager right after beating a tough deadline? Workers just want to hear “thanks” a little more often. Employee appreciation is never out-of-place. In fact, in many organizations, it’s often a scarce commodity. Make your workplace the exception. Use every opportunity to demonstrate your gratitude and appreciation to employees.

 

Article written by Morgan Hoover