It’s that time of the year again. We’ve all come up with resolutions to make 2018 our best year ever. This first week of January, everyone is on his or her best behavior but the problem is never getting started. The problem is keeping the resolutions going throughout the year.

To help improve your odds, it's important to understand what a resolution actually is:

Resolution: (n) a firm decision to do or not to do something.

So the key to creating resolutions that stick is to make firm decisions about things that are extremely important to you and are attainable to complete. If you are a manager or are responsible for other people, being a better leader is or should be something that is important to you and is attainable to complete.

Through my work hosting the Follow My Lead Podcast and working with many companies in 2017, here are 5 New Year’s resolutions the best leaders commit to every year by making firm decisions and sticking with them:

Asking for feedback about themselves at least once a year

Self-awareness and high emotional intelligence are two qualities the best leaders have. This allows them to understand the importance of having ways to gather feedback about how they are doing as a leader. Over 20k leaders have taken the Welder Leader assessment, and the one competency most managers lack is asking for feedback from their team about their own performance.

Resolution: Determine a way and a time to gather unbiased feedback about yourself from your team

Communicating why the team is doing what they do

I love what Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney does every year with his staff. Swinney and his staff go on a retreat to review what he calls the “All In Book.” For 5 days he sits with his staff and reviews every page of the book. Much of it relates to the purpose of the program, the importance of culture, and being and building men of great character at Clemson. 

Resolution: Allocate a day or more to your team to review purpose, mission, vision, values, standards, and expectations. Use the time to invite discussion and collaboration.

Rejecting negativity and naysayers

Succeeding in today’s business environment is hard. The best leaders don’t allow negative team players or listening to the naysayers. Set the standard that negativity doesn’t have a place on your team and if/when you hear, make it everyone’s responsibility to squash it. If negativity continues, that person must find another place to work regardless of how great of a performer they are.

Resolution: Make rejecting negativity everyone’s responsibility (not just yours).

Focusing on the most important things each day

The average professional gets 121 emails per day, exchanges 67 texts per day and checks their phone over 80 times per day. This means there is distraction coming from every angle and this doesn’t even include the work distractions and daily fires that have to be put out. The best leaders know this and set up their day to work on and achieve the most important things each day. My friend and entrepreneur Mac Lackey taught me about a secret called WMN. It stands for “What Moves the Needle.”

Resolution - Use a 3x5 notecard every single day and write down the most important things you are going to focus on each day 

Showing belief and appreciation for each team member individually

When you work for someone for a long time, it’s easy to forget to show belief and appreciation for each team member. The best leaders don’t forget to show people they believe in them and appreciate the work they do.

Resolution: Verbally tell each member of your team how much you appreciate their effort - at least once a year hopefully much more.

Here is the best part. Regardless if you do or don't currently do all of these resolutions you can use my favorite Latin saying, "Nunc Coepi," which means "today I begin."

Free Welder Leader Profile Assessment Through our work and research around what effective managers do differently, we have uncovered the best managers simultaneously use high levels of love and discipline. In the research, five leader profiles emerged (Ruler, Manager, Pleaser, Dabbler, and Welder.) Join over 20k leaders who have team members reporting to them and discover what profile you are for free.

Welder Leader for Organizations Want to decrease voluntary turnover, improve employee engagement and help the managers in your organization become more self-aware and effective leaders? Find out more here.

Originally published on Linkedin Pulse

.CEO is the Domain and Platform for Business Leaders - Try it free for 30 days