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12 Approaches You Can Use To Strengthen Your Organization This Year

Forbes Coaches Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Expert Panel, Forbes Coaches Council

The first quarter of the year brings with it a chance to switch things up, whether in an organization’s structure, branding or goals for the future. A new year, after all, reminds people about the possibility of change — as well as the benefits those changes can bring about.

Leaders can take advantage of this mindset by carefully planning new approaches they want to implement throughout the year. Yet, it can be difficult for leaders to know just how to best bring about the exact types of change they want. In order to help you better define and then reach your goals, we asked members of Forbes Coaches Council to weigh in on how they recommend clients can bring about change in their own organizations. Here's what they advise you consider:

Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. Create A Vision Board

I believe strongly in creating a vision board and using it for creating growth and change in your career or business. Vision boards allow you to tap into both your conscious and subconscious desires for your life. Once you put a board together, you don't stop there. Next, you need to build a quarter plan around how to realize those desired changes for the year. - Carol Parker Walsh, Carol Parker Walsh Consulting

2. Have A Daily Huddle

People look at the new year as a fresh start so it’s a great time to wipe the slate clean, set new expectations and form new habits. The most important habit is to spend five minutes each morning in a daily huddle focusing on the key goals/expectations. That will keep everyone energized and moving in the same direction. - Andy Miller, Big Swift Kick

3. Reflect Internally

The new year arrives just after the darkest days of the winter season. A season of pause and reflection is the perfect time to course correct, recommit and create the future we intend. Wise leaders calendar one to two days before the year is in full swing for their own internal reflections. What are your big rocks? Your top commitments? What is your clearest intention for the coming year? What's next? - Lisa Hale, Focused Leadership Consulting

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?

4. Set Goals

Always set your goals. You need to plan ahead rather than heed Yogi Berra’s suggestion that when you come to a fork in the road, take it. If you know where you’re headed, you’ll know which forks to take and which to avoid as your path unfolds before you. - Kathy Morris, Under Advisement

5. Focus On Intelligent Growth

We are experiencing one of the strongest economies of our time and the top CEOs in the country are making a push to make their companies stronger and more stable. While the timing of our next economic slowdown is impossible to predict, there is no question that we will experience one soon. This is a year to focus on "intelligent growth" and a year to build strength without unnecessary risk. - Arman Sadeghi, Titanium Success

6. Change Leadership Strategies

This new year you have the opportunity to upgrade the way you lead by embracing “strategy-based leadership.” Strategy-based leaders have the discipline and skills to operate fully aligned with their company’s direction. When opportunities arise, you will be able to apply “smart opportunism,” validating them against your strategy and picking only the ones with the greatest potential. - Nicolas Hauff, Lumisis Group

7. Review Before Planning

It is the best time to sit down to review last year’s agenda to evaluate the successes, failures and lessons. Once this is done, it is a great opportunity to set out a new plan which takes all of the above into careful consideration. - Peter Jansen, Radio Latino

8. Look At Whys And Whats

One way that leaders can take advantage of the great opportunity that a new year brings is to begin by getting present to the fact that it is a new year. Once they are present, they can be intentional while looking at specific "whys" and "whats" within any and all areas that they want. This will give the leader the blueprint for the areas to work on or create what they want for the year. - Jessica Smith, JLS Vision Services

Read more in Four Steps To Reach Your 2019 Business Goals

9. Reassess Company Vision

One way for leaders to take advantage of the new year's opportunity for change is to answer strategic questions about their company vision statement. Is it still relevant? Does it still accurately reflect the direction leadership wants to go in? Does everyone in the company know and understand the vision? Questions like these give leaders a current perspective and begin the process of change. - Sherrin Ross Ingram, International Center for Strategic Planning

10. Begin With Your Vision

Go back to your vision which serves as your touchstone. Every choice moves you either toward or away from what you want most. Begin with the vision of the life you want to live then build the business to support and sustain that. - Michelle Barr, Michelle Barr Unlimited

11. Examine The Previous Year

As the new year emerges, it's always important to look back at the previous year and understand what worked and what didn't. Oftentimes we keep doing the things that aren't working mainly because it has become habitual. In order to explore new opportunities and possibilities, we must make room mentally to accept what's next. - Jacqueline Peros, JMP Branding

12. Leverage Natural Synergy

I think leaders can anticipate that most people are already in a mindset for something new at the start of a new year. If the mindset is closed by the end of the year, then the mindset is open for "new business" in the first quarter of a new year. Leaders can leverage an already open mind and natural synergy for change that people are already creating within their own lives that creates momentum. - Vince Morales, Zoe Transformation Coaching & Consulting

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