As the year draws to a close, many of us are starting to reflect on our successes and failures of the past year and consider how things might be different in the coming year. If you are hoping to improve your personal accountability at work and to increase your success as both a manager and an employee, then you may want to try something new. Subscribe to a professional development newsletter today in order to start preparing for a more successful 2012.

A recent edition of the Employee Development Systems professional development newsletter gives helpful tips to its readers about how to “be a better boss in the new year.” If you are looking for easy ways to freshen up your management skills, look no further!

3 Management Tips from a Professional Development Newsletter

1. “Practice being happy to see people at work.”

One of the best ways to encourage a positive workplace atmosphere each day is greeting all of your coworkers in a cheerful manner, whether or not they work in your unit. A happy hello can set the tone for the day, and it can begin to establish your reputation as someone who is desirable to work with. If you can learn and retain the names of all of the people you pass in the halls on a regular basis, that is even better.

2. “Keep yourself from being reactive.”

When someone comes to you with a problem, he or she may not need you to come up with a solution. Ask the employees you manage to tell you if they need you to take action on a particular situation. Often, the best plan of action is to let your employees solve problems for themselves if it is not an urgent matter. Start brainstorming about how to encourage and empower your employees to help themselves.

3. “Get buy-in where possible, but sometimes you need to make the call.”

In order to be efficient, it may not be the best strategy to ask every employee to weigh in on every decision. Get a sense of where everyone stands as you move through a project, but there are times when your own personal accountability necessitates a quick decision on your part as the leader of the project.

In addition to thinking about these individual steps to starting the new year off right with an improved management style, you may also wish to collaborate with your management colleagues to discuss more effective leadership. The same professional development newsletter also includes detailed instructions for an hour-long management exercise that is designed to help you identify and discuss desirable leadership traits in groups.