Your New Year’s Check In
I wanted to kick off this New Year's episode that will be coming to you at the end of January with a reminder that it doesn't have to be “new year new you”.
It doesn't have to be big lofty goals, it doesn't have to be worry that you've already dropped your resolutions. This new year can be just a constant commitment to your vision and how you're feeling. So let’s talk about that today, along with the simple ways you can make 2023 your best year for leadership development yet – and it doesn't have to be huge things, it can start with small steps to get there. Also, as we head into the new year, I have big plans for the podcast. But if there’s something that you want to learn together on the show, please let me know! Cheers to 2023, I’m looking forward to our next cup of coffee.
On this episode you’ll hear…
The reminder that it doesn’t have to be new year, new year - and what to focus on instead
The power of creating a vision board and what to do when planning feels futile
How Chaili is focusing on “light” this upcoming year
What to do if you haven’t set resolutions, chosen a word of the year, or have already fallen off your goals
The key indicator of good leadership and how to develop this skill as a leader yourself
The one question to ask yourself to create more opportunity for yourself in 2023
Ready for more?
Listen in:
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** This is a raw, unedited transcript
Chaili Trentham 00:00
All right, this is my first recording for the new year. Happy 2023. Everyone. If you listen to the first couple episodes of January, you know that those were conversations with Scott that we pulled from the recording archives to bring to you which those conversations on transient hypofrontality say that 10 times fast. And employee engagement were great conversations, I hope you'll go back and listen. But I wanted to kick off this New Year's episode that will be coming to you like end of January, with a reminder that it doesn't have to be new year new you, it doesn't have to be big lofty goals, it doesn't have to be worry that you've already dropped your resolutions. This new year can be just a constant commitment to your vision and how you're feeling. So let me tell you a little bit about how I kicked off the new year. I didn't do hard and fast goals or resolutions, which if you've been on my team before, you know that I love that kind of stuff. And love doing that, because I really think it creates opportunity for reflection on where we're at where we've been, and an opportunity to think about vision for the future. But I was more in a season of feeling like I just needed some space to dream up a little bit of where I wanted to go. And so I called up Alpha joy, who you've heard here on the podcast, and asked if she would do a vision board night for some girlfriends who live in the area. And so she then graciously, and so a bunch of friends came over and we in the old fashioned way brought magazines and had poster board and glue sticks. And we cut out words and pictures that were inspiring and talked about what we hoped for this new year and glued them all down to a poster board. And by the end of the night, people had what are honestly some of the most beautiful vision boards I have ever seen. And had some sort of sense of where they wanted to be by the end of the year. And I love that I love that we had the opportunity. So I even felt that I needed to add more to mind. So the backside of my poster board, I actually took that the next day and added more to it because I realized how important it was for me to go into it with an open heart and open hands for what this year might hold. Because I feel like planning feels futile. These days, inevitably kids will get sick or schedules will change or something will happen where it's really it feels really hard to plan right now. There will be an egg shortage you never know, right. And so I really need to go into it needed to go into it with a feeling of openness, not for like the nitty gritty of what I wanted to accomplish, but for how I wanted to feel when I'm reflecting back on 2023 in a year from now. And so that's kind of how I let my vision board unfold, I pulled out pictures that made me feel warmth, or excited, I pulled out words that were meaningful and that I felt drawn to and at the end of it actually came across my word for the year, which normally I put a lot of thought into what my worth for the year will be. And instead this one just kind of came to me. And that is light. And it's more about I want to bring light to others. I want to be light when I show up in a room. And also I want to feel a lightness in the way that I carry myself, I want to worry less I want to be present in the moments with the people I love and not be thinking about a bunch of other things in the back of my head, I want lightness to be a part of all of it. And so that kind of became the central word for my vision board too. So if you did not get a chance to set goals, or have a vision board night, or set your resolutions, or maybe this podcast recording will come out end of January when we know traditionally people are already dropping their resolutions and falling off the bandwagon of going to the gym, and all of those other things. And so if you're in that space where you're having a Blue Monday moment, and you're like, Man, I'm super bummed that I didn't hit my goals already. And what am I doing with my life, just know that this process of starting the new year with resolutions and reflection and vision and goals should be a constant process. And I love it at the beginning of the year because everyone's on the same page of creating space for it. And I think that's why I love that feeling of that but at the same time as a leadership development professional and I know the importance of doing this regularly. And so I encourage you to dive in in whatever season you're in today into thinking about your bigger vision In the feelings that you're hoping to be having for yourself and how you're leading others. How do you want to leave people when you walk out of the room? How do you want to serve the people that you work with? How do you want to embrace work life integration and show up for the people in your personal life and the people at work, right. So much of it is creating a plan so that you have a path when you need to make a decision. And often, and I always say this, our personal development, our professional development, and our leadership development gets pushed aside when life gets busy. Because we have to attend to the to do list or the things that are right in front of us. And so dreaming and vision and taking a step back to reflect or to stand on the balcony and look out at the bigger picture really becomes difficult and complicated. So take some time for that. If you didn't take some time for that, if you did, maybe you need monthly reflection moments. But I was reading an article about the future of leadership development, and that I mentioned a survey that was taken of some folks. And in the survey, the primary thing that they felt leaders would be called to in the future was not showing a greater ROI for the company or greater profits, or more hiring or better speeches at the company parties. The key indicator of good leadership was the ability to lead through ambiguity and change. That was how people marked good leadership. And I think that what we know is that we can count on change and ambiguity, we know that's coming no matter what. And so the only thing that we actually can't control is how we respond to that, right. And that if if employees are saying that that's going to be the mark of a good leader, that we have the opportunity to say that's how I will better myself, how I will invest in my growth this year, is to be able to better respond to any ambiguity and change when it arrives. And to do that, we have to be invested in our personal development and in our leadership development. I use those interchangeably by the way. But as you're thinking through what your goals are, I think through your traits, your personality, what you're already doing, well how you're already a great leader. And as you're thinking through your values, how do those values make you feel? And how do you want to feel at the end of projects and events and experiences that you are guiding or leading or working through. And that's I think so important to develop being vision. Vision can feel big one, we're like thinking through a company vision statement or a big mission statement. But at the end of the day, vision can be thinking about the way that you will make a difference. Vision can be boiling it down to one sentence of how you want to feel at the end of 2023. And you don't need to have ultra specific goals in order to do that. Well. So my question for you is, how are you going to seek out opportunities for growth and development this year? Think about it, add it to your vision board. Because when we look at opportunity for growth, there are so many places where we can get that, that you can be listening to podcasts, you could pick up a book, you can reach out to a network of people who have gone before you. And you can find people who have gone through the experience ahead of you and gain insight and take them out to coffee, you can plan for the experience, right? You can know that you have an experience coming up where you are going to be leveling up at work or going through a promotion or leading a project where you're gaining insight and know that there might be failure in that. But so how can you prepare and plan in a way so that when you're going through it, you feel well equipped? And when you're reflecting back on that experience, you can look back and think, Okay, I could have done some things differently. But I was more prepared because of the plan I had set out. I said the side of goals and resolutions that I love is the opportunity to reflect. I'm big on reflecting after a lot reflecting in every opportunity on what could have gone better or what could be refined. But there's also an opportunity to evaluate and to really think critically about the things that you could have done differently. So how will you set up moment For evaluation of the experiences that you're going through, so that then you can continue to go back and create new pathways for new iterations and to try something again, and to learn and grow and learn and grow and learn and grow and embrace the cycle of change for yourself and your leadership, I just so firmly believe that everyone has the opportunity to make this year the best year yet in their leadership. I think that there's so much opportunity out there. And there are so many big waves of change happening in organizations, across entrepreneurship, in institutions that you might already be a part of. And I think that you have the opportunity to really sit down and think through what the next 12 months looks like with intentionality. And as long as you're approaching it with a commitment to growth and learning, and a posture of embracing who you are authentically through it all, there is so much opportunity to be had. My hope is that you would make this the best year for your leadership development yet. And it doesn't have to be huge things, it can start with small steps to get there. And so actually, this is this is a little call to action here. I wanted this to be just a quick, simple conversation about the new year and get you thinking about goals and vision and dreams. But if there are specifics that you are hoping to hear on this podcast, because I have some plans for us in the new year, would you reach out and shoot me an email and let me know what you need help with. Because this is always a space where I want it to be full of good ideas, tactical information and learning for you that you can implement immediately. And so if there's something that you're like, I want to hear about this now, let me know. But I'm so excited for the learning that we're going to do together here on the podcast this year. And for what's coming. I said I had some vision board moments that were pretty impactful. And there were quite a few that related to learning and that includes the learning that we do on this podcast. So cheers to 2023 Thanks for always coming back and I'm looking forward to our next cup of coffee.