Harvard Business Review advice for new year.

From Maureen Hoch, Editor, HBR.org  |  January 3, 2020  In my last email to you, I asked for input on what’s on your mind, workwise, as we begin 2020. Flexibility was a big theme in the responses I received. First, you want to know how to plan your career beyond retirement. It sounds like many of you want to keep working, just not in a full-time, all-consuming kind of job. I also heard about wanting advice on managing younger workers who prefer a portfolio of part-time roles over a traditional, full-time job. An interesting twist on the same topic! We will be thinking about more ways to cover this challenge from both angles. As we kick off the new year, I also find myself wrestling with two competing impulses. Like many of you, I’m thinking about how I want to grow and change. To start, I want to deepen my skills this year around motivating my employees and giving them the kind of purpose that makes coming to work about more than just the next rung on the ladder. I’m also thinking about how we spot new ideas and grow. That can take so many different shapes, depending on whether you’re anentrepreneur, or whether you’re figuring out how your company competes in our age of artificial intelligence, or whether you simply have to demonstrate your own strategic-thinking skills. I’m also trying to be conscious that we’re not simply practicing “innovation theater,” which won’t move the needle. But as I’m setting these goals, I also find myself feeling skeptical about the pressure we feel to rededicate and reinvent ourselves each January when it comes to our careers. After all, too much passion about work can also lead to burnout. So let’s resolve to keep learning and growing, but remind ourselves that not everything has to be about rigorous self-improvement. Sometimes we just need a dose of self-awareness, a willingness to express gratitude to others, and moment to pause and remember what we already do well. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year,
Maureen