Effective Leadership Requires Diligence
September always feels like the beginning. The beginning of school, the beginning of my favorite season, the beginning of a new year; I guess that’s because I loved school, my birthday is in the Fall and duh, Halloween!
Fall is a time when everything seems possible again. No matter how beat down or tired the calendar year has made me, the air is crisp in my lungs and possibility seems tangible.
This is the time to reevaluate. Steer toward your goals and course correct if you need to. Whether they be personal or business goals, take the time to reflect on where you’re headed and if any changes could get you there faster, better or stronger.
Don’t hesitate to make those changes in your business when it becomes obvious the “old” way isn’t working any more. Effective leadership requires you to see distractions and sidetracks that have you veered away from your original intent and to take corrective action now.
Nobody Said Effective Leadership Would Be Easy
In business, effective leadership requires making tough decisions. Often those decisions have as much to do with your personal goals as they do with your business goals. They are intertwined and feed on each other. But effective leadership is the willingness to do what is hard now in order to reap a greater reward in the future.
Challenge is the reason we often choose to take the long road. Life is boring without challenges, and business life is no different. If we have a plan and know where we’re headed and how we’re going to get there, the long road doesn’t have to be arduous.
Now is the time to reevaluate goals. Check that those goals are still valid and that you are doing everything possible to reach them. Don’t wait for the New Year to go through this process. Start now and know that by year’s end, you and your business are still on the path to success.
Fall is when the cycle of growth is preparing for the future. If it’s good enough for Mother Nature, it’s good enough for me, so I’ll be reevaluating these next couple of weeks. My business has changed since the New Year and I’m guessing yours has too.
So my advice is to take some deep breaths of crisp clean air, regroup, recharge and be ready to hit the ground running again as we head into this last quarter. It will make planning for 2013 sweet as candy.