Happy New Year!  It’s been a while since I have blogged – three weeks exactly – as I took some much-needed time off to rest and get ready for another exhilarating year ahead.  I am beyond excited for 2017. I’ve been waiting for this month for weeks!   In fact, since it has arrived, I haven’t stopped feeling really giddy…like something incredible is going to happen.  To gear up for the roller coaster ride called 2017, I’ve decided to do what everybody else does at the beginning of the year…come up with some resolutions for me, my team and our company.

This year I resolve to:

1. Be a better leader

I work with a dynamic and motivated team and I couldn’t drive this vision without each and every team member.  But I am human, I make mistakes and at the end of the day I am in a place I have never been.  I am resolving to be a better leader – less me and more we – so that I can keep my team engaged in the bigger picture and focused on getting us there.  It’s no secret that a great team drives a great business.  My goal is to ensure that my employees have a deep awareness of what it is we are trying to accomplish and what the internal and external factors are that can help us make or break that vision.  I am going to do this with on-going coaching – for myself and some of my team members, by searching out new mentorship to help us get to the next level of business, by being present when I am with my team, by investigating and searching out learning opportunities for myself and my team, by working on communicating effectively and sharing what I know with my employees, and by focusing on a healthy work culture.

2. Pinching pennies

Finding ways to cut costs is high on my list of resolutions.  Having a laser sharp focus on the financials and what it costs to run my businesses is key.  Some of the areas I will focus on are: making sure we make every minute in the office count, we’ll ensure that things we buy are necessary and not simply nice to have, I’ll be working with my team to figure out where we can reduce some of our fixed expenses and we will steer our team towards a more frugal thought process.

3. Be curious and creative

From my own business experience, both curiosity and creativity are the key to figuring out the next breakthrough idea.   Being curious and creative have helped us grow Plan A into the innovative and  effective business that it is today.  Furthermore, being curious and creative has helped us to squash any opportunity for complacency because we are focused on being better than we were the day before. This year curiosity and creativity are high on my list of goals and I can’t wait to see the impact that they have on our 6^th year in business!

4. Have more fun

I LOVE to have fun, so for me building more fun into my business is an important goal.  Some of the things I will focus on this year are:  celebrating all wins – finding frequent reasons to celebrate, making sure that everybody on the team is doing work that they like – cleaning up job descriptions and automating processes where possible, and some unique team building opportunities – weekly meetings, opportunities to ‘play’ together and group coaching.

These are my resolutions for a bigger and better 2017.  I’ve kept them simple and have targeted a few specific goals so that we can keep them attainable.  Wish me luck and I’ll keep you in the loop!

Happy Monday!