01/06/2020

A Big Leadership Goal: Keep It Simple

This year: slow down and aspire to do less

If you’ve started the new year eager to tackle that big to-do list full of strategic goals and moonshot ideas, that’s to your credit. But is the attitude you’re bringing to that list going to encourage everybody around you to come along for the ride?

This year might be a good opportunity to try something a little counter-intuitive: slow down and aspire to do less. Writing in Strategy + Business magazine, Adam Bryant proposes making January a “simplification month.” He writes: “In business, as in nature, complexity inevitably creeps into any ecosystem. Initiatives are introduced, and then people lose interest in when they are no longer the shiny new toys…. Strategy decks grow longer and busier, adding bullet points, tiered pyramids, and corkscrew arrows to describe where the company is going.”

I suspect the feeling is often just as pronounced at associations around this time, especially if your fiscal year closes at the end of June: You’re halfway done with this year, and anxiety creeps up about having something to show for it. But that’s all the more reason to slow down and focus, Bryant suggests. By taking January as a month to do some housecleaning around your strategy and the tactics you’re using to implement them, you can spare yourself a lot of wasted effort.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.