I’ve had several inquiries about my ‘rabbit hole’ experience- where I checked out for a couple of weeks for deep self-reflection and forward planning, and to also spend time with family over the holiday season. Many of the questions came around the structure of such a review exercise. To be transparent, I continue to morph how I approach this process every year, refining my focus each time, and often using a blend of resources. And that response isn’t very helpful to others, I’ll admit.
One of the primary resources I draw from, however, is John Maxwell’s Y/E review. As you may be aware, I am an Executive Director with the John Maxwell team, as well as running my own Mindset & Leadership Development Coaching business. As such, I have access to many of the tools John uses so intentionally and intently to refine his own leadership effectiveness.
I’m sharing one of those tools here. It’s simply called the Year-End Leadership Checkup, created by Perry Holley, a Coach and Facilitator with the John Maxwell Company Corporate Solutions Group.
It’s Time for Your Year-End Leadership Checkup
As another year comes to a close, it is a great time to pause and consider where you are in your leadership journey. Just as you see your doctor for your annual physical, you can evaluate yourself in your year-end leadership checkup.
A Checklist for Your Checkup
Use the following areas as a checklist to conduct your checkup. Give an honest evaluation of where you are in each area and consider a plan for improvement in the new year.
- Evaluate your level of influence with the people in your circle of influence. Influence is 360-degrees, so consider those above you, below you, and beside you. Would you say you are increasing influence with these groups or falling behind?
To help make your plan for improvement in the coming year, consider how you can grow in these influence building skills:
– Self-awareness
– Humility
– Listening
– Teachableness
– Approachableness
– Empathy
– Courage
– Curiosity
– Generosity
- Evaluate how well you are leading yourself. People are watching you all the time and determining if you are someone they would want to influence them. Why would anyone want you to lead them if you can’t lead yourself?
Consider how you are at:
- How you manage your emotions
- How you manage your time
- How you manage your priorities
- How you manage your energy
- How you manage your thinking
- How you manage your words
- How you manage your personal life
- Evaluate how you are doing with your personal development. You cannot give what you do not have. Are you practicing a daily routine of doing something small for your development? (See HERE for ideas that may help.)
- Do you have a plan?
- Do you have a daily routine?
- Are you pouring into yourself so you can pour into others?
- Evaluate how you are doing with people development. John Maxwell calls it the leader’s greatest return, developing other leaders. Are you investing in those on your team?
- Evaluate how are you doing with designing the Culture you want in your organization?
- How do people on your team Think, Act, and Interact? Is it in accordance with the type of culture you want to see in your organization?
The Law of Process from the “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” tells us that leadership develops daily, not in a day. As John writes, “See what a person is doing every day, day after day, and you’ll know who that person is and what he or she is becoming.” Make a plan to grow a little every day and grow the leader inside of you.
Perry Holley is a coach and facilitator with the John Maxwell Company’s Corporate Solutions Group as well as a published author. He has a passion for developing others and seeing people grow into the leaders they were intended to become.
I hope you found this helpful. Regardless of what tool you use, I encourage you to engage in this exercise AT LEAST once a year, with a commitment to be honest with yourself about what worked, what didn’t, what key learnings you’ll apply in the coming year, all in the spirit of continual self-improvement.
As a leader, remember John’s Law of the Lid which states that you will never be able to grow your team or your organization beyond your own commitment to grow yourself. Your willingness to invest in your most important asset- YOU- influences every single area of your life in exponential ways.
“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room!” ~Marissa Mayer
