Every year, I write down what I want to work on personally and professionally. Call them resolutions, call them goals, call them what you will. But it sets my intentions for growth and helps me reflect on areas for improvement. This year, I decided to focus on working differently.

To dig deeper, I asked myself some questions. You should give it a whirl, it’s pretty eye-opening.

• In what areas did I experience struggles this past year?
• Why did the struggles take place and what was my role or lack thereof?
• What were my distractions and were they worthwhile?
• Was I working that way because it was best for me, the team or both?
• What was keeping me from changing my work style?

I’ll be honest, some of these questions were a bit tough to answer. And the answers were tough to swallow. Change is hard, people!

But it helped me land on a couple things where I thought I could make the biggest impact.

Communicate more: More touch points. More conversations. More figuring out what works, what doesn’t. More learning. More, more, more. It’s all good.
Address the elephant in the room: Got an issue? Let’s figure it out now versus waiting months for it to fester.
Listen: Sometimes, I’m like a bull in a china shop. My goal is to talk less and listen more.
Be engaged in the moment: I’m such a great multi-tasker that it gets in my way. In 2018, my goal is to focus at what’s at hand.

Here’s to working differently in 2018 and beyond.