Don’t make Resolutions: Build micro-habits for an impactful 2019

The New Year often brings with it the want to be a ‘New You’ along with many failed attempts to New Year’s resolutions. Research has shown that most New Year Resolutions fail by the second week in February. Setting big goals and resolutions with an expectation to see immediate change are often unrealistic, require immense motivation and is the leading cause of failure. So how can we make changes stick - where do we start? Build habits, not resolutions. To make lasting changes in your life, you often need to start small. Here are a few impactful yet easy micro-habits from our faculty experts that you can begin today.

 1.      Micro-Habits for increasing your emotional intelligence

Fred Jacques, Faculty - Emotionally Intelligent Leader

• Be Mindful: establish one or two ‘triggers’ to remind yourself to ‘check in’ with yourself periodically. For instance, before you pick up your phone to respond or before answering an e-mail ask yourself: “where am I emotionally right now?” so that you don’t carry unrelated emotions into your next interaction.
• Be Curious: in order to have empathy for another person, we need to avoid being judgmental towards them. Instead of saying “why would you do that?” try rather starting with “I am curious how you came to that conclusion?”. This invites conversation and understanding. (And you still don’t have to agree!).
• Be Aware: stress can overtake the best of us and lead to impulsive reactions that we later may regret. Periodically use the STOP technique to ‘reset’ your stress level:
  • Stop what you are doing.
  • Take five conscious breaths.
  • Observe the sensation of the body and notice what you are thinking about that is causing the stress. Relax and release and…
  • Proceed.
• Be Grateful:  at the beginning and/or the end of each day take five minutes to ‘take stock’ of what you are grateful for (family, friends, health, career) and give yourself some credit for small victories at work that day – or forgiveness for those times when you ‘fell a little short’ of your good intentions. This boosts optimism and resilience, takes down the stress level and allows us to either begin or end the day with greater clarity and intention.

2.       Micro-habits for building better teams in 2019

Willow Brocke, Faculty - Building Effective Teams

Though we don’t always like to admit it, the essential teamwork skill of listening to people who disagree with us is difficult.  We tend to ‘close ourselves’ to perspectives that differ from our own, especially when we feel strongly about our own views on a topic.  How can we listen to differing perspectives in a way that allows us build respectful relationships?  How do we ensure we don’t miss the part of the big picture that another perspective may hold?  One solution may be a ‘body-mind’ technique that improves our ability to listen when it’s difficult.

Here is simple ‘hack’ that may improve your listening ability. First, feel the strength of your spine at the back of your body and let this represent ‘what you know’.  Then take a breath and let go of the tension in the front of your body – softening the muscles in your belly, chest, arms, neck and face.  Second, imagine a large glass bowl in front of your body ‘catching’ the words and ideas of the person who is speaking to you.  Once they have finished, imagine yourself looking at ‘what’s in the bowl’. This allows you to consider what the other person is saying without necessarily ‘taking it in’.  In psychological terms we call this having a ‘healthy boundary’.

Remember you’re not agreeing or disagreeing when you do this – you are simply considering a different perspective – in a relaxed and respectful way.  Once you’ve heard what they’re saying, potentially even checking to make sure you heard it right, look for even 1% that may be true or helpful.  If you can’t find 1% that feels true or helpful, look for the possible good intention behind your teammates’ words and focus on that.

You may find this helps reduce your stress as well as improving your listening power.

 3.      Micro-habits to help develop you entrepreneurial thinking skills

Derek Hassay, Faculty - Entrepreneurial Thinking

It is always easier to STOP doing something versus START doing, and quite often, NOT doing something is way easier than actually doing something.

STOP trying to generate innovative, novel or creative ideas. Ideation doesn’t work that way. Sitting around “thinking up stuff” sounds great but is seldom productive. Rather, focus your efforts on looking for problems to solve.

For instance, you, your boss, your co-workers and definitely your customers struggle daily with product, procedure and policy problems. Spend your collective time and energy - time spent engaging and collaborating with others - generating ways to address and ultimately solve these problems and you will be far more likely to create real and lasting business value. While these problems may require unique and novel approaches, success will ultimately be measured by how well we solve a problem, and not necessarily how "new" the solution was.

The next time you are looking to add or create value, STOP wasting time trying to create new and novel ideas. Instead make and take the time necessary to fully understand the problem at hand, appreciate its root cause and focus on solving the problem. The best solutions are “elegant” by which we mean they are simple, cost effective and easy to implement. Many times that solution already exists within the firm, resides in an “off the shelf” software product, or is simply common practice in another industry.

This year, make it a resolution to generate stakeholder value by solving meaningful problems as elegantly as possible.

If you are interested in learning more about Haskayne Executive Education programs that are currently offered and how they can help achieve your resolutions, click here.

If you are interested in information about grant funding and support for making your business case for professional development, please email execed@haskayne.ucalgary.ca.