To succeed, you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. – Tony Dorsett

2019 is here. After all the festivities and the well-deserved break the holidays bring, it’s difficult for a many of us to get back into the swing of things. Whenever I’m getting ready to do something that I’m not looking forward to, my wife always encourages me to find the Easter egg. In this context, an Easter egg is that hidden surprise that makes things exciting, fun, engaging, and positive.

Finding the Easter eggs can be key to motivating and inspiring our teams and ourselves.

As leaders, are we looking for what our folks are doing right and then pointing it out? Are we celebrating progress and not just the accomplishment of huge goals? Are we trying to find the Easter eggs? And then, are we encouraging our teams to do the same thing? It’s up to us to encourage our people to focus on what’s working and positive. There’s a technique called appreciative inquiry which is about building off of strengths and what’s working. When it’s cold and grey outside and motivation is at a low, helping folks concentrate on their strengths and opportunities is a useful approach. Help them find their Easter eggs!

Once the Easter eggs are found, keep the momentum going.

Often, we get bogged down in goal setting. Goal setting in critical, but we all know that the vast majority of new years resolutions do not come to fruition. What are the behaviors we can be practicing year-round to make those goals a reality? Think about the Easter eggs. Are we focusing on the strengths and behaviors that will be most in service to accomplishing our goals? There’s a voice in our heads that says, “You should be doing this, you ought to be doing that.” That voice typically distracts us from what we are doing well, and what we are accomplishing. I’m not a fan of solely focusing on strengths, but we can easily overlook our gifts and focus on our failures.

The beginning of the new year is an ideal time to reflect on the previous year.

How have we grown? How have we been successful? If we could rewind the tape what would we do differently? Where do we want to put our time energy and efforts for the new year? Motivation comes from focusing on what’s most important to us and then choosing to act. 365 days are short and precious. Let’s not waste them on things that don’t matter to us. Let’s spend those days on the things and with the people that matter most.

Focus on those Easter eggs!

I promise, all that focus on positivity and what’s working will help foster a remarkable company culture and a successful year.