Here, at the end of 2022, let’s take a moment to reflect, forecast, and plan accordingly.

We have faced the challenges of a global pandemic for a couple of years now. The fight is not over, but signs of improvement are evident thanks to our team’s (and community’s) ability to change, our leader’s ability to navigate change, and sheer determination, persistence, hope, and grit. Thinking about the past and forecasting what’s next can be overwhelming, especially based on what we have endured these past couple of years. Simply saying this time and experience has been unprecedented is an understatement.

While the pandemic has created conditions like few others on record, it spotlighted the need for great leadership. As you prepare to reach the next level of normalcy, how have you done as a leader in 2022? How have the leaders in your agency and on your team done? Has the experience of coming through a pandemic, balancing a new normalcy, and bracing for what’s next brought you closer together? Are you now better prepared for the next challenge to come your way? As a leader, that is what you are trying to achieve–overcoming challenges on your way to reaching a goal while developing individuals, your team, and the culture of everyone involved so that even more can be endured and achieved next. It is your leadership approach that can make average, good and good, great, and engender a sense of meaning and purpose in our work. Are you accomplishing such results? Is there room for improvement? No doubt, “yes!” to both questions.

People want truly exceptional leaders, especially in times of great change. You can be that leader. This article can help you and your team lead in times of great change. It starts with mindset.

The power of mindset is more than viewing the glass half full rather than half empty. It is more than painting a rosy outlook on the reality of our challenges. Mindset is an attitude. It is the initiating force anyone leverages to build something new, reengineer something to be better, or to bring about a change in things. Our mindset initiates a sense of possibility from which our actions follow. Therefore, our mindset serves as the foundation of our results.

Successful leaders have an unwaveringly positive mindset when it comes to what can be accomplished.

The late General Colin Powell explained it this way: Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

This brings up an important outcome from mindset: it has a multiplying effect on those around us. Whether negative or positive, your mindset has a multiplier effect as it influences others–as you influence others. To be sure, the opposite of a positive mindset also has a multiplier effect.

Think about the past few days, weeks, months. Have you displayed perpetual optimism?

Make the choice to be positive. Have an "it can be done" attitude, which is another piece of leadership advice from General Powell. Your mindset is the root cause of your results; it is the foundation of your success. Regardless of the project, program, or any change you are engaged in right now, if you think you won’t succeed, you’re probably right. However, if you think it can be done, you and your team have a high likelihood of doing just that. Yes, it can be done!

What do you and your team have planned for the rest of this year, next year, and beyond? What is your mindset when you think about the goals you aim to accomplish and the challenges you will face? Whatever the goals and whatever the challenges, know this: It can be done! You can make it so.

Register for ICMA's High Performance Leadership Academy. A 12-week online program created to equip local government professionals with leadership skills in organizational development and change management, negotiation and collaboration, effective communication, and how to deliver increased value from high performance management.