Where is Your Business Heading in 2022?

Cathie Leimbach • January 4, 2022

You have likely thought about where you wish your business to head in 2022. But have you thought about HOW it is going to get there? 


A wish without a plan is just a dream.  Our default approach tends to be to continue doing what we have always done, which gets the same results as we have always been getting. If your wish is to achieve different results in 2022, it is necessary to be intentional about doing work differently.  


You may not see how you can take a day or two to develop a 2022 plan for your business.  However, spending a few hours to outline your business strategy for the year is essential if you really wish to achieve more during the 12 months ahead. 


First, write down how you will measure your business success this year. What dollar amount of revenue or profit are you aiming for? Choose an amount that balances your desire for growth with what is realistically possible.  You may wish to measure your success by the number of clients you retain or the number you gain. Employee morale or employee retention might be one of your success factors.  If you list several potential metrics, select the 1, 2, or 3 that you will focus on for the year. Achieving desired results requires us to focus on our priorities. If we give equal attention to more than three priorities, we dilute our energy and resources so much that we will be lucky to achieve even one of these important goals.


Second, review last year’s business practices and consider what you will continue and what changes would be beneficial.

  • Write down actions you will continue doing to support this year’s success. 
  • Jot down the actions you will stop doing, the things you did last year that hindered your success or won’t help you achieve the success you want in 2022.  For example, maybe you were spending five hours per week developing relationships in an industry you haven’t been serving. Despite your diligence, not only did you not get clients, you didn’t even get leads. It might be best for you to stop pursuing clients in that industry.
  • Jot down actions you will start doing. What new activities do you think could help you achieve your 2022 goals? For example, what industries are you currently serving well? In which of them is the market not saturated? Perhaps you should be devoting your relationship development efforts here.

 

Third, review your priority goals and the actions you think you might stop or start. Decide one, two, or three of these changes that could have significant impact on achieving your priority goals and are feasible to implement in your organization. Perhaps there is one thing you will stop doing and two things you will start doing.  Just as we dilute our efforts too much if we focus on more than three business results, we will have little success in changing our actions if we focus on changing our behavior in more than three areas. 

 

Fourth, determine how you will monitor your progress towards achieving your priority goals and making critical changes. Decide how and when you will report progress to your team.

 

Fifth, communicate your brief business plan to all members of your team. Share your one to three priority goals and your one to three areas of change. Most people are resistant to change so it is important to change just a few things at a time. Maintain stability for you and your team members by continuing with several of your most effective business practices from recent years.  Follow through with your monitoring and communication plan all year long so your team members see the benefits of doing the hard work involved with change and focusing on desired organizational goals.

 

Best wishes for 2022 to you and the work and people you lead!

Speaking Up Is Not Defiance. It's Duty.

By Cathie Leimbach • June 23, 2026
Most leaders say they want employees to speak up. They want people who spot risks, question assumptions, and help the organization make better decisions. Yet many employees hesitate to do exactly that. Why? Because leaders often respond to speaking up as if the speaker is complaining, criticizing or resisting. When people fear being viewed as difficult, they stop sharing what they see. The organization loses valuable information, ideas, and perspectives. A recent McKinsey article found that teams with high psychological safety are two to three times more likely to generate breakthrough ideas. When people feel safe speaking up, better thinking follows. The best leaders understand a simple truth: Speaking up is not defiance. It's duty. When employees question assumptions, raise concerns, or offer a different perspective, they are helping the team avoid blind spots and make stronger decisions. That's why effective leaders don't merely tolerate speaking up—they invite it. They ask: What are we not seeing? What assumptions are we making? Who might see this differently? What information are we missing? Just as importantly, they respond with curiosity instead of defensiveness. They thank people for expressing their perspective. They explain how input influenced decisions. They make speaking up safe. Because organizations don't improve when everyone agrees. They improve when people feel responsible for helping the team see what others may have missed. In healthy organizations, speaking up isn't rebellion. It's responsibility. It's duty. Leadership Reflection Think about your last leadership team meeting. Did people simply agree? Or did someone help the team see something it otherwise would have missed? Download 5 Questions That Surface Better Thinking and make speaking up a productive part of how your team thinks, decides, and performs.

Put Your Brain in Gear When Using AI

By Cathie Leimbach • June 16, 2026
Artificial Intelligence is becoming a powerful workplace tool. It can summarize information, analyze data, draft content, and generate ideas in seconds. But there is a growing risk leaders need to recognize: AI can sound convincing even when it is wrong. In an article by Erica Dhawan, she describes a legal case where attorneys used ChatGPT to help prepare a court filing. The brief looked professional, the reasoning seemed logical, and the citations appeared legitimate. There was only one problem: several of the cited cases did not exist. The AI had fabricated them. The danger wasn't carelessness. It was trust. Because the information was presented clearly, confidently, and professionally, nobody stopped to question it. Psychologists call this the "fluency heuristic"—our tendency to assume information is accurate when it is easy to process and sounds credible. As leaders, we cannot allow polished answers to replace critical thinking. When you find yourself thinking, "This is too good to be true," put your brain in gear. Dig deeper. Investigate. Verify the facts. Ask what assumptions were made, what information might be missing, and what evidence supports the conclusion. AI can be an incredible assistant. It should never become a substitute for judgment. The smooth answer is not always the wrong one—but it is often the one that deserves the most scrutiny. Before You Act, Verify. The biggest risk with AI isn't bad information. It's believable information that's wrong. That's why we created the AI Verification Checklist for Leaders —a simple 5-minute tool designed to help leaders challenge assumptions, identify missing information, verify conclusions, and make better decisions before acting on AI-generated recommendations. Download the free AI Verification Checklist for Leaders and start asking better questions before making important decisions.