Last year, I shared my approach to setting and pursuing “Goals with Soul:”
This year, I build on what I shared last year by adding one step at the beginning: Establishing your annual intent.
Leadership principle: Clear intent serves as a compass for impact.
At the start of each season, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden would give his players a piece of paper titled “Dad’s Suggestions.” It contained a list of seven points of advice that he passed on from his father to his players every year.1
“Dad’s Suggestions” was more than just a list.
By sharing this list with his team, Wooden set a clear intent for the year. It signaled to his players that he wanted them to be more than a collection of individuals who were talented at basketball. His aspired for them to be a cohesive team that consistently pursued excellence and lived lives of integrity on and off the court.
While we may not all get to learn from great ones like “the Wizard of Westwood,” we can all start the season or year with a clear intent.
In setting an annual intent, I find that it is helpful to follow four principles:
Make it hopeful: You want the annual intent to bring you into what Richard Boyatzis calls the PEA state or “positive emotional attractor.” One of the best ways to do this is to feel “hopeful about the future.” The PEA state is when you feel safe, open to new ideas, renewed, and curious. This theory is grounded in neuroscience. Based on Boyatzis’s research, PEAs activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which results in the stimulation of the vagus nerve and the secretion of hormones that open blood flow and lead to renewal. This part of the brain, the PNS, is also associated with emotions such as gratitude, joy and awe. This means that having an annual intent that ignites hope within us can actually have a sustained positive physiological impact.
Emphasize the “pursuit” not the destination. While tempting to have the annual intent be a specific result or outcome, you are best served by having an annual intent that focuses on the “journey” of the year. Coach Wooden could have started the year by saying that the annual intent is to win a national championship (after all he did win 10 of them). Instead, he emphasized effort and character. Similarly, your annual intent will be most impactful when it is something that is within your control.
Add the sizzle: Bring your annual intent to life by describing it with a metaphor or image that resonates. These metaphors can come from songs, poetry, science, movies, books, art, pop culture…really anything that has some sort of aesthetic impact on you. A few years ago, my annual intent was around having the courage to do new things and so I called it the “Year of Wings” inspired by the song from Tick Tick Boom.2
Keep it simple: You want it to be memorable and easy to recall. This annual intent can ground you in the moments when you find yourself out of presence, under immense pressure or feeling strong emotions.
Take Action: Practical and Proven Steps
Spend time (ideally 1 hour) reflecting on the last year. I find the best way to gain clarity on your intent for the upcoming year is to reflect on the past year. One approach I have adapted from Tim Ferris is a week by week calendar review from the previous year (e.g. Jan 1, 2023 - Dec. 31, 2023). Here’s my approach: Create a “T-chart” in your journal where on one side, it says “highlights” and the other side says “challenges/mistakes.” Once you’ve completed it, re-read the “T-chart” and write down your answers to the following four questions: 1) Where did you have the most impact? 2) Where did you fall short of the impact you wanted to have? 3) What did you learn? 4) Who were the people that had the most impact on you?
Based on your reflection from the last year and your personal purpose or leadership vision3, set an annual intent for the year. This will likely require some iteration and you may even adapt it after you’ve written your “Goals with Soul.” Keep in mind the four principles above as you hone it. I’ve also added additional questions in the “Reflect” section to help with this action.
Schedule time with 1-2 people to share your annual intent as well as your Goals with Soul. This will help you to refine your goals and also serve as a form of accountability over the course of the year. If you are really brave, ask them to check in with you once per quarter to see how you are progressing on your annual intent.
Reflect: Some Questions to Consider
(This section normally contains just three questions, but I’ve expanded it to help with Action #2)
What kind of leader do you want to be in this next year?
What gives you the greatest energy and excitement as you think about this next year?
If you had unlimited time, what would you do more of this year?
If the year was condensed into 26 weeks instead of 52 weeks, what would you do less of this year?
If we fast forward to the end of the year, what would you want others to say about you? In other words, how has your personal leadership brand evolved?
Based on your reflections on the previous year (action 1) and your answers to this question, what themes are jumping out that could serve as your annual intent?
If you were on an elevator and only had fifteen seconds to share your annual intent with someone you cared about, what would you say?
What is a memorable metaphor or image that can help you articulate your annual intent in an emotionally evocative way? [e.g., the year of “wings”]
If this week’s Friday Reflection was practical or enjoyable (or maybe even both!), please share it with your colleagues and friends.
If curious, I’ve copied in the seven points from “Dad’s Suggestions” below. While this is longer than what I recommend for an annual intent, it achieves the same purpose. And in many ways, by giving it a title “Dad’s Suggestions” - he created the pithy short version of an annual intent that he could always refer back to:
Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.
In my office, I have a similar set of seven teachings posted on my wall that come from Atisha, an influential Indian scholar and teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. I find Jack Kornfield’s translation of these seven teachings to be very grounding and not surprisingly, there is a lot of overlap to Joshua Wooden’s seven pieces of advice. I also find that they tend to connect well to whatever annual intent I end up setting.
This same song also inspired a Friday Reflection on “Resisting Pessimism.” The more I advise leaders and lead in my own business and life, the more that I believe that resisting pessimism is a super power.
If you haven’t taken the time to reflect on your personal purpose and/or leadership vision, I highly recommend that you do this. I spent time in the fourth quarter refining my own purpose and vision. The three most helpful resources to me have been Hitendra Wadwha’s chapters on Purpose in Inner Mastery, Outer Impact, the chapter on “The Power of Personal Vision” in Helping People Change by Richard Boyatzis, Melvin Smith and Ellen van Oosten, and being part of a Growth Circle at Mentora where I went through a number of structured exercises to help refine it.