Setting a Tone for the New Year

Dear Diary,

First, I want to acknowledge the difficulties and tragedies occurring around the world as we enter a new year. 2025 is full of unknowns and yet, history has shown us how to hold on to our values and expectations as we tap into resilience. With each new year, many decide on how to reinvent their new set of 365 days into better experiences and drastic changes that sometimes falter by January 31. I want to look beyond the saying or principle, “new year new me,” I want to acknowledge and amplify our currents – current skills, current boundaries, current hopes and dreams and seek room for incremental improvements.

Setting a tone for the new year is all about standing firm within your goals, boundaries, skillset, and moving through your year with clarity. Explained by Cambridge Dictionary, setting a tone is an idiom that establishes a particular mood or character for something. As fundraising professionals in different niches and varying levels and experiences, I implore you to set a tone for your year. Create a clear and firm statement that becomes a new example of leadership.

Here are five ways to set a tone in prospect development:

Manage expectations with fundraisers and overall team

Many times, documents and policies are ignored, they are tangible guidelines and guiding structures for programs and processes, however, without consistent communication and reinforcement to socialize their purpose and contents, written expectations tend to be ignored. Therefore, this is the year and time to manage expectations for deadlines, activities, and tasks. This is the best time to set a tone that encourages your current processes. Build-in ways to access documents and policies, create constant communication vehicles that provide information and feedback.

 Pressure check what is working and what has not been working as effectively as hoped

Many of us are familiar with the adage, “don’t fix what is not broken,” but I think this is a great time to pressure check if everything that is in place is effectively meeting needs and what needs a tune-up. If there is room for improvement, make the improvements and set a voice that change and effectiveness matters to you, your team, and for the larger scope of process.

 Dial up communication streams or dial down over communication

Sometimes, too much communication can influence frustrations. And then there are other times when there needs to be more communication. This is the time to recognize the difference between over communication and little communication. What is aiding miscommunication? Take charge of how communication streams are making positive and/or negative impacts on productivity.

Set timelines

Setting timelines is difficult depending on the culture of your organization. But it is still a necessity and needs reinforcement. But I encourage negotiation and compromise as a remedy to work cultures that flourish in immediate turnaround times. Set the tone that timeline management for all tasks is a new priority that caters to the quality of work produced.

Below, share your answers to this prompt: What tone do you plan on setting in the new year? What matters to you in your work?

Happy New Year, Diary Readers!

Until next time,

February 15th!