It's time for a Mid-Year Gut Check: How are you stepping up as a leader?

June 20, 2022

It’s time for a Mid-Year Gut Check: How are you stepping up as a leader?

BIG IDEA:

We’re midway through the year. Time to pause and reflect.

A bit over two years ago, we all had to pivot to working remotely, which was an enormous challenge for leaders in particular. Robbed of the ability to walk around the office and drop in on their direct reports, they had to find new ways of connecting with their teams and keeping people motivated and supported. This new way of working created an overwhelming number of day-to-day challenges for those in leadership roles. Now they are faced with the task of heading back to the office, creating hybrid workplans, and helping their teams navigate change once again.

We’re almost halfway through 2022 already – How is your year going? Have you had any time to stop and think about how you’re actually doing in your leadership role?

For the past few years now, I’ve been posting a blog at the end of June encouraging leaders to conduct a mid-year gut check. I believe that it’s critical for us to take some time during the year to pause and reflect on our own leadership accountability.

As you know, leadership can be more than a full-time job. But no matter how long your to-do list is, you must regularly make the time to take stock of where you are and where you’re going.

WHY IT MATTERS:

Reflection can help you put your best foot forward.

If you’re a leader, you know that the midpoint of the year is also that time when you will have to meet with your manager and submit to a mid-year performance review. In my experience, I find that some leaders dread these meetings. Others see them as a great opportunity to showcase their accomplishments and identify areas of further development.

I have found that the key to a successful mid-year review meeting is preparation. Don’t let yourself be caught off guard by the questions your manager asks. Take the time to prepare good answers to common review questions, and to come up with some plans for how you want the second half of your year to go. Your boss will be impressed—and you’ll reap the benefits in a calmer, more deliberate six months to come.

THE IMPACT:

You may be feeling like you don’t have time to take a couple of hours just to think about where you are as a leader. But I have found that the more overwhelmed you are, the more value you will get out of deliberately slowing down and reflecting on how your leadership role is going.

When your team or organization is in a time of transition, as so many of our organizations are right now, it’s easy to get swept off course by the pressures of the day to day. But to be an effective leader, you must stay focused on your true top priorities. That takes discipline. And it takes clear-eyed reflection on how you’re really spending your time, and what you’ve really managed to accomplish.

WHAT TO PAY ATTENTION TO:

Focus on how you’ve stepped up as an accountable leader so far this year.

In my book, The Leadership Contract Field Guide, I provide a series of questions for you to use to conduct a self-assessment. They also serve as an excellent way to prepare for your mid-year review meeting. Don’t just scan these questions. Spend a good 15 minutes and really think about your answers.

Have you been an accountable leader so far in 2022?
In what specific ways did you step up and accept the challenges of leadership?
What were some critical leadership decisions that you made? What was the impact of those decisions on your team and organization?
What enduring value did you create for your key stakeholders? Did you make your team stronger? Have you built effective relationships with peers across the organization?
What difficult tasks did you accept this past year? Did you demonstrate resilience and resolve as a leader?
Did you help strengthen the sense of community among the leaders in your organization?
Looking at the next six months, what can you do to make you a truly accountable leader?

Gut Check for Leaders: How is your year going?

Join our Mid-Year Gut Check for Leaders Workshop

Join us for a live, virtual workshop to strategically pause, reflect on what matters, and identify an action plan to finish 2022 as strong and successfully as possible.

Tuesday, June 21st, 2022
9:00am – 11:30am ET (Option 1) / 7:00pm – 9:30pm ET (Option 2)
Learn more & Register

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