It’s that time of the year when we look around and ask questions like:
- Am I feeling like “Another year, another dollar?” The actual words to the country song are “Another day, another dollar, working my whole life away.” It’s a pretty sad song about wasting away in a job. Or am I excited about what’s next?
- Am I looking around my workplace and am overwhelmed or delighted by what I see?
In other words, what are you feeling at year’s end?
Two Important Year-End Tasks
As we closed each year in our company, we asked those questions to pause and both celebrate and summarize the year. What did we accomplish? What was a disappointment? What’s unfinished? We felt that no one, at year’s end, should feel they were just plugging away at making a living or working their life away. Like checking the oil or gas levels for a car we value, we checked the excitement and satisfaction levels of our team.
It was also a time to do the very practical and unloved chores of year’s end. Tidying up and de-cluttering. These year-end tasks were a drill long before The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing was a best seller. We had a few critical tasks: hard copy and electronic files needed to be purged of drafts; and version controls needed auditing; final expenses and client charges had to be submitted; and one’s office was to be cleaned. I thought of these ‘chores’ as respecting and investing in 1) the place where we lived for so many hours of the year, and 2) the business that provided so much.
Needed Decisions Emerge
When you take the time to reflect on the year including tidying up the workspace, you can see more clearly issues and opportunities that need decisions.
What is Good and Should Be Continued or Built Upon?
As you look at the year in the rear-view mirror first ask what you feel good about. What can you build upon? Where would investment in people or processes enable growth or productivity? Where would changes in your leadership, for example, delegation, transparency about decisions, or greater information sharing, make others’ job easier and your life simpler? For us, one year, we recognized we needed up our attention to protecting our intellectual property — called the crown jewels of our business by our clients.
What isn’t working or should be stopped?
When it comes to looking at the year ahead, nostalgia is not your friend. Like that garage filled with ‘treasures’ from the past, your business practices may need a clean-up. Because you invented a process or practice once upon a time, doesn’t mean it should survive into the new year. Because at one important time you defined your role as needing all-encompassing control, doesn’t mean it is still a valid definition. Ask your people, where there are opportunities to change some roles and habits and to de-clutter. Test out a few of those ideas.
The Ultimate Owner’s Questions at Year’s End
Here are a few questions I encourage you to ponder at year’s end.
- So how long have you been at this important job of running and growing a business or your career? How much longer makes sense?
- What’s the feeling you have as this year closes and the next one approaches? Where would you place yourself on the continuum of excitement to dread?
- What distinct chores must be tackled before too long into the new year? Where would tidying up make a difference?
- And finally, what decisions about your business or your career are you sitting on?
For more about how to reflect on the current state of your business and your future, see my book, Exit Signs: The Express Way to Leaving Your Business with Pride and Profit.
Happy New Year — It’s Time to Reflect and Tidy Up