Welcome to 2016. Why the New Year is traditionally seen as a time for reviewing and resetting expectations is perhaps a matter for discussion at another time; but it’s a fair bet that in the dying days of 2015 and the bright new hope of 2016 considerable numbers of businesses across the land will have been indulging in strategy and personnel reappraisals and reviews.

Let’s make it clear; there’s nothing wrong in undertaking such reviews. In fact, show me a business which doesn’t review itself critically on a regular basis and I’ll show you a business which is fading into obscurity at best, crashing out of the marketplace at worst. But like all business initiatives, it can be far too easy to become caught up in the moment at the expense of everything else around us. So we spend hours locked away in strategy planning meetings, leaving our people to struggle on in leaderless isolation.

Great Leadership Creates Great Workplaces

There is no point in turning round and saying that that’s what leaders are for, to develop strategy and concentrate on the ‘higher planes’ whilst others get on with the day-to-day running of the business. OK, modelling the way is one of the five practices of exemplary leadership but if that is all that leaders do then they might as well not bother. In their latest book “Great Leadership Creates Great Workplaces” James Kouzes and Barry Posner dramatically illustrate the correlation between leaders engaging in the Five Practices and positive levels of engagement in the workplace. But they are Five Practices for a reason and simply choosing one and leaving the others in abeyance will not deliver the kind of exemplary leadership which creates great workplaces and engaged people.

So whilst strategy development is important, it has to be done in tandem with the day-to-day practices which inspire, encourage and enable people to give of their best. Those of you who are familiar with the television comedy Miranda will also be familiar with the Heather Small song lyric which runs as a theme through so many of the shows. “What have you done today to make you feel proud” is used in the series to great comic effect but it is also a question which leaders at all levels of an organisation would do well to ask themselves. And in asking that question, true leaders will understand that pride in leadership comes from engaging, developing and empowering people; helping others to not only work to their potential but to grow.

The January theme on this site is wellbeing. It’s a theme which can be interpreted in so many ways from health and safety and personal security through to engagement and development. Whatever the approach, the one inescapable truth is that none of these are possible without great leadership. So whilst you’re reviewing your strategy for 2016, make sure that it includes a focus on leadership and on people development. As Kouzes and Posner say “Great Leadership = Great Workplaces = Great Results.”