Things Leaders Do

When Your January Plans Fall Apart (Year-End Leadership Series)

• Colby Morris

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What should you do when your January plans fall apart? Acknowledge what slipped, identify why it happened, and make one small adjustment to get back on track. This episode shares a three-step recovery process refined over 20+ years of leadership—because leadership isn't about perfect execution, it's about recovery.


Episode Description

What happens when your January plans fall apart by Week 2? How can you recover when you've already slipped back into old habits? What's the difference between perfect execution and sustainable leadership?

Most leaders are already behind by mid-January. They set goals, had a great first week back, and then reality hit. In this final episode of the Year-End Leadership Survival Guide series, Colby shares a personal story about a January that didn't go as planned—and the three-step recovery process he's refined over 20+ years in leadership and operations.

This isn't about perfect execution. It's about recovery. If you've already missed one-on-ones, if you've already fallen back into reactive mode, or if you're wondering how to maintain momentum beyond January, this episode is for you.


Key Takeaways

  • A personal story about slipping in Week 2 of January (even after 15+ years in leadership)
  • Your weekly rhythm for all four weeks of January—what to protect and what's negotiable
  • The three-step recovery process when you're off track: acknowledge it, identify the pattern, make one adjustment
  • How to spot you're drifting (usually happens in Week 3)
  • What should be in place by end of January to enter February with momentum
  • Why leadership is about recovery, not perfect execution—and how to course-correct quickly


Who This Episode Is For

Middle managers and team leaders who've already slipped on their January goals, who want to know how to recover without starting over, and who need sustainable leadership habits that work in the real world.


Connect with Colby


SPEAKER_01:

People first leadership. Actionable strategies, real results. This is Things Leaders Do with Colby Morris.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, you set goals for 2026. You had that great first week back. You blocked Monday morning for planning. You had those three conversations with your team. You committed to one-on-ones. You were ready. You had a plan. You felt like a leadership genius. But now it's week two or week three, whenever you're listening to this, and reality is hitting like a freight train made of emails and unexpected meetings. An unexpected project landed on your desk. Your boss changed priorities. Again, someone on your team quit. You got sick. Your kids got sick. The budget got cut. The system crashed. Mercury went retrograde. Who knows? Or maybe nothing dramatic happened. You just slipped. You missed a one-on-one. You dove into email first thing Monday morning like you were checking for lottery results. You said yes to meetings you should have declined because saying no makes you feel like a bad person. And now you're sitting there wondering, am I already behind? Did I already blow it? Is this the year I finally admit I'm not cut out for leadership and becoming, you know, like a professional dog walker instead? Here's what I want you to know. You're not alone. And no, you haven't blown it. And you probably shouldn't quit your job to walk dogs because the pay is terrible. Hey, leaders, this is Colby Morris, and this is the Things Leaders Do podcast. This is the final episode of our year-in leadership survival guide series. And this one's about what actually happens after you make all those plans and what to do when things inevitably don't go perfectly. As always, I'm trying to keep this to 15 to 20 minutes of practical, actionable tools with no theory or fluff. And I failed at that last week, and I'm sorry. I just kind of kept going. And I think that one ended up at like 40 minutes, the longest podcast I've ever done. And I don't want to do that again. So let's make this one shorter and let's dive in. Let me tell you about a January that didn't go as planned. This was about five, three to five years into my time as a COO. I'd been in leadership over 15 years at that point, and I should have known better. I had the experience. I had the, you know, wisdom. I had read the books. I was practically a leadership sage. I came back from the holidays ready to go. I had my goal set. I'd blocked my calendar for one-on-ones. I had my top three priorities written down on a sticky note that I kept right on my desk where I could see it every single day. I was doing everything right. I was nailing it. Week one went great. Had those conversations with my team, and we were aligned. Everyone knew what we were focusing on. I felt like I had the momentum. I might have even done a little mental fist pump on Friday afternoon. Then week two hit. Our CFO came to me on Monday morning. You know, that Monday morning I had carefully blocked for planning with an urgent request. We needed to accelerate a project that was supposed to launch in March. And it needed to be done by the end of January. Not a request, a directive. The kind that comes with the unspoken, and if you say this isn't possible, we'll find someone who thinks it is. So I did what a lot of leaders do. I said, yes, of course, I can do that. No problem. I'm a COO. I'm good at this. I I got this. Spoiler alert. I did not, in fact, have this. I dove into that project. I started putting out fires. I got reactive. I became that person who responds to emails at 11 p.m. and acts like it's totally normal. By Wednesday of week two, I had already canceled two one-on-ones. By Friday, I was back in my old pattern. Email first thing in the morning. Goodbye planning time. Back-to-back meetings all day, staying late to catch up on actual work. And here's the thing that really got me. I felt guilty. Like I had already failed. It was only week two of January. Week two. I was already back to my old habits. I remember sitting in my office that Friday night eating sad dusk salad at 7 p.m. thinking, I've been doing this for 15 years. Why can't I get this right? What is wrong with me? And then something clicked. Possibly because I was delirious from hunger and exhaustion. But I was treating leadership like it was supposed to be perfect. Like if I dropped the ball once, the whole thing fell apart. But hey, that's not how it works. Leadership isn't about perfect execution. It's about recovery. It's about catching yourself when you slip and getting back on track quickly. So that weekend, I didn't beat myself up. I didn't give up on my goals. I didn't tell myself, I'll try again next January. I course corrected. And I've been refining that course correction process for 20 plus years now. This isn't something I read in a self-help book. This is what actually works when real life happens, and you need to recover without blowing up your whole year. So if you're already feeling behind, if you've already missed 101s or fallen back into old patterns, good. You're in the right place. Let's talk about how to stay on track for the first 30 days, and more importantly, how to recover when you get off track. So here's what I learned from that January and many others like it. The first 30 days aren't about doing everything perfectly. Okay, they're they're about establishing a rhythm that you can maintain even when things are getting chaotic. Let me break down what that actually looks like week by week. So, week one, we set the foundation. This is the week we covered in the last episode. Okay, you're having those three conversations with your team, you're setting priorities, you're committing to one-on-ones. The key for week one is don't overcommit. Okay, just pick two to three things that you're actually going to do consistently, not 10 things. Okay, not a complete life overhaul. For most leaders, those two to three things should be weekly one-on-ones with each direct report. Okay, Monday morning planning time, even if it's just 30 minutes. And then an end-of-week review, you know, Friday afternoon, that's like 15 to 20 minutes. And that's it. Three things. If you do those three things every week in January, you're ahead of like 90% of leaders. And then week two, you want to protect the non-negotiables. This is where most people fall off. Okay. Week two is when reality hits. Unexpected stuff comes up, fires start, and not cute metaphorical fires. Actually, everything is falling apart and someone needs to fix this now. Fires. Okay. Here's what I do every Monday of week two. I look at my calendar for the week and I ask myself, what are the non-negotiables? And let me be clear: non-negotiable doesn't mean things I'd really like to do if nothing more important comes up. Okay. It means I will protect these even if my boss asks me to move them, even if there's a meeting conflict, even if someone tries to guilt me into canceling. For me, it's the one-on-ones. They don't move. Those don't get canceled unless there's an actual emergency. And by actual emergency, I mean something that would make the news. Okay. Not someone needs an answer by end of the day. Not this meeting is really important. Actual emergency. Everything else? Negotiable. If I need to skip my Friday review because something urgent came up, fine. If I can only do 15 minutes of Monday planning instead of 30 because the building is literally on fire, okay. But the one-on-ones, no, non-negotiable. After that January I told you about the sad desk salad January, this became my rule. Protect the things that directly impact your team. Everything else is flexible. You need to write that down. Protect the things that directly impact your team. Everything else is flexible. Because here's what I learned. If I cancel my Friday review, the only person who notices is me. If I cancel a one-on-one, my team notices and they draw conclusions. I'm not a priority. He's too busy for me. Why am I even here? So protect the one-on-ones, even when, or especially when you don't think you have time for them. Week three, I want you to check for drift. Okay. You've got enough data at this point to see if you're drifting. And by drifting, I mean slowly sliding back into all your old habits while telling yourself you'll get back on track next week. Sound familiar? Are you still doing your one-on-ones? Or have you postponed a couple, which is just a fancy word for canceled? Are you still blocking Monday morning planning? Or are you diving straight into email again because just as once I need to check something real quick? Narrator, it was not just once. Are you saying no to meetings that don't serve your top three priorities? Or are you back to saying yes to everything because you don't want to seem difficult or unavailable or like someone who doesn't care about the corly all hands meeting about the new coffee machine in the break room? Here's what I do every Monday of week three. I spend five minutes asking myself, am I still doing what I said I'd do? Not am I perfect? Not have I done everything flawlessly, just am I still in the game? If the answer is yes, great, keep going. You're doing better than you think. If the answer is no, and this is important, don't panic. Do not give up. Don't start planning your escape to the dog walking career. Okay. Just course correct. And we're going to talk about how to do that in part three. Week four, I want you to build your February bridge. Okay, week four of January is critical because this is when you're setting up February. Most leaders treat every month like a fresh start. Okay, they get to February first and they're like, okay, new month. Let's figure out what we're doing. Don't do that. You'll lose all your momentum. Instead, use week four of January to set up week one of February. Here's what I mean by that. The last week of January, I do three things. Number one, I review my top three priorities for Q1. Are they still the right priorities? Do they need to shift based on what happened throughout January? Two, I block my February calendar. One-on-ones, Monday planning, Friday reviews, any team meetings, all of it goes in the calendar before February even starts. And number three, I have a 15-minute conversation with each direct report. Okay, not a full one-on-one. Just kind of a quick, you know, how is January? What do you need for me in February? That's it. Three things. Takes maybe two, three hours total for that for that whole week. But it means you start February with momentum instead of starting from scratch. All right. So let's talk about what to do when you when you realize that you've already slept. Maybe you missed a couple one-on-ones. Maybe you've been diving into email first thing. Maybe you said yes to three meetings you should have declined. Okay. First thing is don't panic. Seriously, the worst thing that you can do when you slip is beat yourself up and give up. I've seen so many leaders do this. They miss, you know, one one-on-one and they think, well, I already blew it. I'll just start fresh next month. No, course correct now, not next month. Now. Here's a three-step process I use, and I've used it many times over the 20 plus years. Step one, acknowledge it to yourself and to your team. Remember that January I told you about when I canceled those 101s in week two because I was too busy being a hero in that accelerated project? Yeah. Here's what I did that Monday morning. I sent a message to my team. Hey, I canceled our 101s last week because I got pulled into that accelerated project. That's on me. I'm recommitting to these this week. If I try to cancel again without a real emergency, call me out. That's it. Short, direct, honest. No, you know, corporate speak. No, due to unforeseen circumstances or to better align with strategic priorities. No, no, don't do that. It's just, I messed up, I'm fixing it, hold me accountable. I didn't make excuses. I didn't blame the CFO for giving the urgent project, even though I really wanted to. I didn't explain how busy I was or how hard I was working or how many emails I answered at midnight, like you know, some kind of productivity murder. I just owned it and committed to getting back on track. Here's what happened. My team respected it. They appreciated the honesty. One person even said, thanks for letting us know. I thought maybe I'd done something wrong. Which, ouch, but also good to know. And when I did try to move a one-on-one the following week because of a you know, busy day. Notice I didn't say emergency, I said busy day. One of my direct reports said, Is this an emergency or are we keeping our commitment? How yeah, she was right. It wasn't an emergency. I was just trying to squeeze in one more meeting that probably didn't matter. I kept the one-on-one. Acknowledgement creates accountability, and accountability keeps you honest, even when you don't want to be. Step two, identify the pattern. Okay, don't just acknowledge that you slip, figure out why. This is the that uncomfortable part. This is where you have to be really honest with yourself about what's actually going on. See, after that January, I sat down and asked myself, why did I cancel those one-on-one so easily? And the answer was, well, uncomfortable. I didn't actually believe they were important enough to protect. Ugh. I was saying that they were a priority. I had them on my calendar in a nice color-coded block that made me feel very organized. But when something urgent came up, I moved them without thinking twice. That told me something about my actual priorities versus my stated priorities. It's like when you tell yourself you're going to start working out in January and you even buy the gym membership and the fancy workout clothes. But then when it's time to actually go to the gym, you're like, well, I'm kind of tired. I should probably catch up on emails. And I did really need to work out, but did I really need to work out today? I mean, I walked to the kitchen twice. Yeah, you can say something's a priority all day long, but your actions tell the truth. So I had to get real with myself. Do I actually believe one-on-ones matter? Or am I just going through the emotions because some leadership book told me I should? Once I got honest about that and decided that yes, I actually do believe they matter, it was easier to protect them. Because I wasn't just protecting a meeting, I was protecting something I actually believed in. So ask yourself, why did you slip? Was it because something truly urgent came up? Or was it because you didn't actually believe the thing that you were protecting was important? That answer will tell you what needs to change. Step three, make one adjustment, not ten. Here's where most leaders screw up. They try to fix everything all at once. They slip on one thing and they think, okay, I need to completely overhaul my schedule. Set up new systems, create new accountability mechanisms, hire a coach, read three more leadership books, wake up at 5 a.m., start journaling, meditate, maybe get really into productivity apps. No, stop. You're doing too much. Make one adjustment. After that, January, I made one adjustment. I moved my 101s to Tuesday mornings at 8 a.m. That's it. I didn't overhaul my entire calendar. I didn't implement a complex news system. I didn't hire anyone. I just moved the meeting to a different time slot. Why? Because Monday mornings are chaotic. Things come up, fires start, people have urgent questions about what happened over the weekend. I was setting myself up to cancel them. But Tuesday mornings, nothing happens at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday. It's quiet, it's consistent. Nobody schedules meetings at 8 a.m. unless they're a monster. It's protected. That one adjustment, literally just changed the day and time, made all the difference. So when you're off track, don't try to set your, you know, fix your entire life. Don't create a 47-step recovery plan. Don't start from scratch. Just make that one adjustment. You can always make another adjustment next month if you need to, but for now, just pick one thing and fix it. All right, so you made it through January, or you're making it through January, or you barely are surviving January, but you're still here, which counts. Either way, here's what you need to have in place by the end of the month to enter February with momentum. Number one, your non-negotiables are established. Okay, by the end of January, you should know what your non-negotiables are. Okay, the things you will protect no matter what, the hill you are willing to die on. That's metaphorical. Okay, please don't actually die on a hill over calendar management. For most leaders, that's one-on-ones. But it might also be Monday planning time. The key is you've tested them for a month. You know they work. You've probably slipped at least once and recovered, and you're committed you're committed to keeping them. Two, you've course corrected at least once. If you went through all of January without slipping once, congratulations. You are a unicorn. Please let me know your secrets. Are you a robot? Do you not have a boss? Do you work from a private island with no internet? For the rest of us, mere mortals, you should have at least one course correction under your belt by the end of January. Why? Because that means you know how to recover. And you're going to need that skill all year long. February will throw you curveballs. March will be weird. April always has some bizarre crisis. You're going to slip up multiple times. Three, you've had a conversation about February. Last week of January, have a quick conversation with each of your direct reports. Not a full one-on-one, just a quick check-in. Five minutes, maybe ten, if someone really needs to talk. Ask them how is January for you? What worked? What didn't? What do you need from me in February? All right. Let's bring this home. Here's what I want you to remember as you navigate the first 30 days of 2026. Leadership isn't about perfect execution. It's about recovery. You're going to slip. Life is going to happen. Unexpected stuff is going to come up. You're going to eat sad desk salad at 7 p.m. on a Friday and wonder why and what you're doing with your life. And when it does, you've got a choice. You can beat yourself up, give up, start fantasizing about that dog walking career again, or you can course correct and keep going. I've been doing this for over 20 years. I still slip up. I still have Januaries that don't go as planned. I still fall back into old habits sometimes. Last week I caught myself checking email at 11 p.m. and had to literally put my phone in another room like I'm a teenager who can't be trusted. Okay, but I've learned how to recover quickly. And that's made all the difference. If your organization is struggling to turn strategy into execution, or if your leadership needs help building sustainable leadership habits that actually stick, I'd love to help. I work with organizations through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training to build people-first cultures that get results. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or on my website. Both of those are in the show notes. And hey, if this four-part series has been helpful for you, would you do me a favor? Please subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts and leave me a review. Share these episodes with another leader who's trying to finish strong and start strong. And remember, keep acknowledging when you slip, keep course correcting quickly, and keep showing up for your team. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.