The end of the year is often very busy: projects must be wrapped up, holidays and vacations organized, gifts bought, year-end balance sheets filled…it’s true that we are often exhausted when the holidays approach.

That is why I believe this is the right time to suggest that you think about what you would like to cut, so as to avoid adding more and more projects to your daily work. This could be your “New Year’s resolution”.

I recently had the opportunity of attending a conference in New York held by Marshall Goldsmith, one of the pioneers in the art of coaching. Having reached the end of his career, he conveyed some pearls of wisdom that I would like to share with you.

The challenges of successful leaders

Marshall Goldsmith particularly highlights two of these challenges that I believe are worth looking into:

Challenge 1: Wanting to win at all costs

I imagine you are thinking: “Yes, of course, I wanted to win, that’s why I have reached this level of responsibility”.

I feel like saying “yes…BUT!” In my career as an executive coach, I have noticed that one of the managers’ greatest shortcomings is pushing too far, with ensuing consequences on the organization that they hadn’t foreseen. In fact, it happens more often than we imagine that a department wants to attain certain results, even though these results are at the expense of another department. For instance, if there is an excess of sales, you could cry “Bingo!” Yes…BUT…it often happens that the logistics lag behind and, consequently, orders arrive late. Lately, while coaching operation managers, I learned that sometimes they don’t know how to proceed. They are at the end of the supply chain and since nobody asks them about their situation, they cannot meet the delivery deadlines simply because of poor communication.

Wanting to win all the time sometimes wears down our co-workers to the point of exhaustion. I agree that companies must always accomplish more with less, but we shouldn’t forget that human beings work in those companies, yourself included. What if we stopped focussing on objectives and started looking more closely at the consequences of our actions on the company as a whole? What if we stopped wearing ourselves out trying to always win and instead celebrated our accomplishments with our teams?

What can you stop doing in order to live better and help others improve their daily lives?

Challenge 2: Wanting to provide too much added value

I coach a young leader who has always strived to do her best: she works long hours; she tries to attend meetings as often as possible; she speaks up; she always supports her co-workers. It sounds perfect, don’t you think? Yes, BUT…she doesn’t get the promotion she thinks she deserves and is beginning to think “what am I doing all this for?”

The feedback she receives from her manager is that she doesn’t contribute sufficiently to the development of her co-workers, since she is “always there, always ready to help”. Besides, she is beginning to annoy her colleagues during meetings because she always wants to say something better than others.

Mies van der Rohe, one of the greatest architects of the 20^thcentury, used to say “less is more”. The result is that his skyscrapers are as modern now as they were a century ago. I am enclosing the photograph of a building that I admire each time I go through Park Avenue in New York. Its simple and pure style renders it beautiful and timeless. I suggest that we take Mies van der Rohe as a role model and stop “butting in” all the time. Yesterday I asked for 360° end of coaching feedbacks on a manager, a thorough introvert, who worried about not speaking up at high level international meetings. Feedbacks were unanimous: “in those meetings everybody struggles to express his opinion so as to look intelligent and show off, but Daniel is one of the few persons who speak seldom but always say something relevant: it’s refreshing to have such a leader!”

Unwarranted interventions annoy our colleagues and don’t allow them to find solutions on their own. I often tell leaders to stop thinking that their teams will not be able to make it without them: it’s not true. If the leader does not accept the fact that they can make mistakes and does not encourage them to improve, how can they become self-sufficient? If you, as a leader, complain because your team is not up to standard, you should start looking for what you are overdoing.

The art of deciding what you should stop doing

Yes, art is the proper term in this world of over-abundance: information, communication, material goods, media…it is just too much and sometimes we are overwhelmed.

To practice this art, it will sometimes be necessary to go against the tide, since we live in a world where we feel that in order be noticed we have to be seen.It will sometimes take courage to leave room for others and give them a chance to learn from their mistakes.

We may sometimes feel that we don’t exist or fear that we are not loved since we are not always in the front line.

For every kind of art/skill we need the courage to embark on something new. The reward is worth the effort since it will benefit us as well as those around us.

And, with my hearty encouragement to stop overdoing things or do less, I wish you all a wonderful holiday season. New adventures are waiting for you next year!