New Years Resolutions

Monday, January 3, 2011
To You On The New Year
By Kendall Allen
MediaPost Online Spin

While we all appreciate an inspired set of resolutions at the onset of the year, I, like many of you, have a slightly different point of view, when it comes to making them. First, we don't make them. I've known many people who simply designate a theme for the year or revisit their master plan in progress and tune it up a bit. Personally, because I have always operated in a mode that involves outlining objectives, planning, replanning and pursuing goals from the critical to the trivial -- I just don't add this seasonally timed ritual to the mix. But, I do take a look at my operating principles and the way that I am conducting life in all areas, to make sure I'm feeling sound.

And I do always reflect on the year that has passed, to usher in the new one, with as refreshed a spirit as I can muster -- celebrating the passing of time and the deepening of my adventures both professional and personal. This year, I conclude a two-year hyper-entrepreneurial period of incredibly diversified business pursuits - and welcome a new more singular focus in my business life. More on this another time. As ever, I am mindful of the fact that we must never stop learning and pondering our own contribution.

Sidebar -- I read this over the holiday break: "A person on the floor of the House may not smoke or use a mobile or electronic device that impairs decorum." I couldn't help smiling at the bundling of smoking and devices, when it comes to manners.

I also find myself zooming in on some hopes and operating principles for the new year. Leaving aside themes related to collaborative client work, contracts and shared client accounting -- where lessons were heartily learned -- some of these are community requests and some of them are personal promises. But, they are all about keeping it real and taking connection to our business and to each other as seriously as we should.

1. Be where you are. In conversation, in meetings, across the lunch table. Put it down, and look each other in the eye. You can check your email when you step out for a smoke.

2. Self-evaluate your creds. If you have been making a living as an "expert" or a "guru" on panels or in the classroom -- check in on your hands-on status. If you have been far away from the real work for a while, not really operating as a practitioner, find a way to get some mini-immersion. Creds do wear thin eventually in such a labor-intensive industry, if you don't keep it real. This is kind of like updating your headshot every few years. You've got to do it. It's an authenticity thing.

3. Keep it simple. Having learned a lot the past couple years about making things -- even things you love -- too complicated, this one is big for me. Having seen what a high threshold for complexity can inadvertently create, I am simplifying. Just because you can run a three-ring circus doesn't mean you should.

4. Pick your threads. In a business arena that truthfully converges media, technology, advertising, marketing, merger and acquisition, venture and legislative news, it's certainly not humanly possible to keep up with it all every week. I would say, depending on your industry focus and scope, pick the threads that you will avidly follow, and keep the rest to casual conversation, deferring to others from whom you can learn. You don't need to be -- and you really cannot be -- an expert on the full breadth and depth of every aspect of our business.

5. Listen to new people. Those of you who've been checking in with me weekly for a while, know this is a core principle of mine. We all have our go-to people, our personal advisories and inner circles. We also have industry folk and contacts within our network in whom we inherently trust. This is insular and hazardous. Without shaking up your context, your business mix and whom you sit by at conferences and lunch: Branch. Out.

I am off to an incredibly focused week, feeling good about 2011 with a clear heart and a clear mind. Wishing you a connective, engaged and prosperous new year.