Why I don’t do New Year resolutions! What Business Leaders should do instead

I actively choose not to do New Year’s resolutions. Not personally. Not professionally.

Resolutions are usually well-intended but poorly designed, and so often we are setting ourselves for imminent failure… rather than success! They are optimistic declarations made at a point of artificial optimism, often disconnected from reality and abandoned once the pressures of day-to-day delivery return.

Leadership, however, demands something far more disciplined, reliable and consistent.

What I do believe in is reflecting, resetting, and planning — not as an annual ritual, but as a strategic capability. The start of a new year simply provides a rare and valuable opportunity: a moment to step out of execution mode and think.

Not about doing more — but about doing what matters.

Reflection: honesty before ambition

Reflection is uncomfortable, which is precisely why it matters.

Research by Harvard Business School found that teams who spent time deliberately reflecting on their work improved performance by up to 23%, compared with teams that simply continued executing without pause. Reflection creates learning, and learning creates advantage.

For leaders, reflection is not about celebrating activity. It is about interrogating outcomes. What genuinely moved the business forward? Where did progress stall despite significant effort? Which strategies worked in theory but not in practice?

McKinsey’s research on strategic planning shows that up to 70% of transformation initiatives fail, most commonly due to a lack of clear priorities and honest assessment of starting conditions. Without reflection, organisations simply repeat the same behaviours under a different banner.

Being honest about what did not work is not a weakness. Its a prerequisite for better decision-making.

Resetting: the power of subtraction

Resetting is where leadership judgment comes into play.

In a world of constant opportunity and change, progress rarely comes from adding more. It comes from choosing what to stop. According to Bain & Company, companies that actively simplify their priorities and focus on fewer strategic initiatives are 40% more likely to outperform competitors in terms of revenue growth.

Yet many leadership teams carry legacy initiatives forward by default — projects that once made sense but no longer earn their place. They drain attention, dilute impact, and quietly tax organisational energy.

Resetting means asking difficult questions:

• What are we continuing out of habit rather than value?
• Where are we spreading leadership attention too thin?
• What would we stop if we were starting again today?

Strategic focus is about effectiveness.

Planning: clarity over certainty

Planning is often misunderstood. Many leaders mistake planning for prediction — an attempt to lock down outcomes in an increasingly uncertain world.

But the most effective plans do not attempt to forecast the future. They create decision clarity.

Gartner’s research into high-performing leadership teams shows that organisations with clearly articulated priorities and decision frameworks are 2.5 times more likely to outperform peers during periods of disruption. Why? Because clarity accelerates judgment when conditions change.

Good plans establish intent, guardrails, and priorities. They help leaders decide faster, communicate more clearly, and adapt without losing direction.

Rigid plans fail. Adaptive plans guide.

A more deliberate way forward

As leaders, our role is not to chase noise, novelty, or fashionable initiatives. It is to create clarity, direction, and confidence — for ourselves, our teams, and our stakeholders.

So instead of resolutions that promise change without structure, I advocate something more deliberate:

• Reflect honestly on what truly created value
• Reset priorities with the courage to stop
• Plan with intent, not illusion

Not because it sounds good in January — but because it works all year.

 Three practical actions for business leaders

1. Measure what mattered, not just what was easy to track
   Shift focus from activity metrics to impact metrics — growth, resilience, customer value, and strategic progress.
2. Remove one thing before adding another
   Identify a single initiative, process, or habit to stop this quarter. Subtraction is a strategic skill.
3. Design plans that guide decisions, not documents
   If your plan does not help people decide faster and better, it is not doing its job.

The new year does not require reinvention. It requires intention.