Your Team’s Best Year Yet…from Gratitude to Possibility!

Your Invitation from Bob:

Guest Post by Scott McBride

So, how’s your year shaping up?  More importantly, how are your people doing with their goals now that New Year’s Resolutions are over?  I work with high capacity leaders and teams to facilitate successful visions and dreams.  (Candidly, when it comes to dreaming and building out an ideal year many of these high performing people seem to get stuck on a variety of issues that seem to hold them back.)

To help your people, especially as they stare into the blank canvas of the new year, here are three simple questions to help them get unstuck:

1. What are you grateful for?

Have your team take an inventory of the last 12 months and review their lives-personally and professionally and acknowledge all the things they have to be grateful for.  When they start reflecting on their lives through the lens of gratitude my hunch is that you will see a short list that continues to grow and grow.

Then their mindset is primed for the next question.

2.  How’d you do?

Review and reflect on your behavior and accomplishments in that same time period. Assign yourself points on a scale of 1-10.  All of us have areas to celebrate and areas to grow.

Now they’re ready to pivot forward.

3.  What’s Next? Dream about what’s next – in black and white.

Have them start this process by finishing the sentence “If I knew I couldn’t fail this year I would do this and this and that…”.    Dream with a pen and paper or a keyboard, but start!  And as people stretch and try to imagine life outside of the confines of their normal routine I see people start to dream real dreams that can motivate them to real actions that lead to dream realization.

One word of caution, when people share their dreams they make themselves vulnerable.  Their dream shared, is a crucial moment.  Will you celebrate or critique?  This is a time to commend and encourage them to move forward without sharing all your own ideas on top of their ideas.

For maximum effectiveness I recommend you print these questions out and then give them out in advance so your people can thoughtfully complete the exercise. (Click “HERE” to for a free download of “Your Team’s Best Year Yet Questionnaire.” This is especially helpful for introverts. Then make sure to review their answers individually and feel free to ask them to “Tell me more…”.

Final thought – in my experience, these three questions aren’t just for starting a year but are powerful reflection tools throughout the year.  Take these three simple questions and move from gratitude to reality to possibility.  And if you want to dream further and faster feel free to contact me as well!

Scott McBride specializes in profitability, efficiency, leadership and organizational health and development. Scott works with business owners, managers and financial advisers as well as non-profit denominational leaders and pastors.  Additionally, Scott has served as a Senior Pastor, Staff and Campus Pastor up and down the West Coast. You can connect with Scott @ CoachWell.com & on LinkedIn.