I recently returned from a fabulous trip to San Diego.  I was invited to speak at one of my client’s conferences: their Leader’s Forum. The purpose of this Leader’s Forum was to bring people together to celebrate their success, and build their capabilities to achieve even more.  I love meetings like this!  The whole notion of leaders and leadership is at the heart of why the 12 Week Year exists.

With all the books and articles written about leadership and the characteristics of effective leaders it becomes almost overwhelming trying to keep up with the “habits” and “laws” of what makes for good leaders.   And yet, two characteristics that I’ve seen that are fairly consistent across all levels of leadership are celebration and development.

The really good leaders – the leaders that have an impact, the leaders that create loyalty and inspire others – are intentional about celebrating success.   The 12 Week Year encourages and facilitates this by providing at least three additional opportunities throughout the year to stop and celebrate progress and successes.

In addition, strong leaders are always working to get better.  I use the word “working” intentionally because it’s more than just exposing yourself to new ideas or reading the latest books.  Great leaders work to improve their knowledge, skills and abilities constantly.  They schedule and attend conferences and meetings specifically for the purpose of improving their leadership.  They set developmental goals, create plans to achieve them, and execute daily.

How will you improve over the next 12 weeks?  I want to challenge you to engage in specific activities that will help you improve. What do you want to focus on that will make you more productive, increase your influence, or improve your leadership?  In what ways will you be better at the end of this 12 Week Year than you are today?

Be encouraged,

Brian