As 2014 comes to a close, all of us are reflecting on the last 12 months and the impact of that time on our lives. For our team, Young & Associates was recently honored as the #1 Boutique PR Agency by the Ragan Ace Awards. As part of the award, the agency was recognized for its unusual longevity–both in staff and clients–as a core strength that drives our success and accomplishments. This is no coincidence as Y&A was founded on this philosophy more than 32 years ago, and it continues with purpose through today.
The idea of achieving longevity got me thinking about three key cornerstones that support its true manifestation in many businesses, including ours: remember, recharge and reset. These concepts are strongly woven into each year for the agency.
Remember: With ever-flowing lists of goals and objectives, it’s easy to just continue moving forward to keep up with the rapid flow of business (and life). However, it’s tough to learn from past experiences without taking an honest, retrospective look at what you’ve done–whether on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. This type of regular reflection is helpful not only for examining work products/services but also from an HR and corporate identity perspective. Is your organization living out its intended mission based on how it operated and presented itself during the last year?
Recharge: We’ve all come into contact with workaholics at some point – what I notice about these people is that they often fail to slow down long enough to see what happens when they’re not thinking about the next strategy or ticking off a to-do list. That unstructured time is often when the magic happens for executives and employees alike. Carving out time to recharge means investing in rest, which can be a hard concept to put into practice but is also integral to fostering long-term productivity and creativity at all levels.
Reset: When you or your team have been doing the same thing for awhile and it begins to feel stale, or you’ve gotten yourself into a rut, these are clues to switch out of autopilot mode. Sometimes you just need a “reset” opportunity to stop the train and think about whether a different approach is worth a try. Consciously abandoning something that’s been done the same way for some time can be frightening but also empowering, as it opens the door to new and more innovative ways of thinking and approaching problems. Plus it invites team members to collaboratively contribute new ideas for improving results.
As our clients and friends look onward to 2015, I hope you take a few moments to reflect on the past year and think about steps to foster longevity in your own organizations. Cheers!