For many of the younger contractors and leaders, they might not remember people setting their New Year's resolution” for the new year. For me, it was often setting a promise to lose weight or to run 20 a week to get ready for some half-marathon. I had friends who might have made a resolution to quit smoking or to cut back on the amount of alcohol they consumed.
All the efforts were sadly, completely given up within two to three weeks. While the failure rate was probably high for most of us, the intent of setting New Year's resolutions was sincerely important.
So, in the hopes that perhaps we all can renew our commitment to being the best contractor or leader possible in 2020, let me share a few of my own New Year's resolutions. Perhaps it will influence you to rethink and reset your own.
Brad’s New Year's Resolutions for 2020
1. Recommit to read two to three business-themed books a quarter. The benefit is that I will continue my learning and might actually pick up some insights on how to better address issues and solve problems.
2. Review and lead the principles of “lean construction.” If I can help the field leaders whom I support to assess before acting, plan before producing, and clean-up before leaving their job site, the company may just be more effective and efficient.
3. Train and coach one field leader a quarter with additional time and investment. If I can put more of my knowledge and experience in just one field leader, for 90 days, then the company will have four more solid field leaders than we had at the beginning of the year.
4. Work hard to listen twice as much as I talk when engaging others. Just think about how much more I’ll know if I just shut up and take in what others may tell me. Might find out things I didn’t even know was an issue, or a better way to complete a task, or solve a problem.
5. Take my wife on a date at least two or three times a month…and pay for it! She’ll feel loved and appreciated and I’ll feel better about myself when I realize again and again why I married her and love her!
6. Extra Credit: Spend more time with my grandkids. Enough said!
Tips to Keep Your Business Resolutions
Now, those are my New Year’s resolutions. Setting them is never the problem…it’s the holding ourselves accountable to practice the same. Here’s a few tips that might help you and your growth this year.
A. Always make your New Year’s resolutions personal; that is, make them applicable to what you will be able to see in action.
B. Set some follow-up times once a month or quarter to ensure that you are doing what you set out to do.
C. Ask a peer to hold you accountable by sharing your resolutions with them first, then give them permission to ask you, “What’s proof that you’re executing your resolution? If you’re not, why are you not executing?”
D. Celebrate every month or quarter that you have completed another time span of successful execution. This will reinforce your efforts to continue.
For some, the New Year's resolutions might be customer related or making a more consistent number of cold calls. For others it might be committing to walking a completed job “one more time” to confirm quality issues, pick up any left behind tools, and make any last-minute clean-up adjustments.
The nature of your New Year's resolutions isn’t as important as your commitment to execute the needed effort. If you fall down, pick yourself up and get after it again. There’s no shame in falling…it’s the not getting back up that separates the “good from great” efforts and success.
New Year's resolutions are goals for sure, but they’re your goals, personal goals to be the best contractor or leader possible. Don’t short change yourself in 2020. The economy is booming in many areas of our country. Building is up and so too is the need for pavement maintenance services that cut across the span of concrete, asphalt, seal coating, striping, etc.
Set no more than three to five New Year's resolutions but remember, be sure that they are going to impact you personally. Have some fun and remember, if you fall down, dust yourself off, assess why you fell, and restart your efforts.
Here’s to having a great 2020!
