655 | The One Thing Successful CEOs Do Every December

Most business owners spend December chasing tasks, but the ones who lead well, they carve out space to clarify vision so it can shape your entire year. That is coming up next.

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

As we come into December, you're probably getting tugged in a dozen directions or two dozen directions. Wrapping up loose ends, handling end of year logistics, maybe even juggling some burnout that you're experiencing.

But let me tell you that this time of year holds a powerful opportunity. Now, the most grounded, successful business leaders are casting vision all year long. But come December, they focus on one key thing and that is reconnecting with vision.

Not fluff, not wishful thinking, real intentional direction. So today I'm breaking down what that looks like and, and how it can completely shift how you lead into 2026.

Vision Anchors You When the Day-to-Day Pulls You Off Course (00:01:30)

So first thing we need to focus on is that vision anchors you when the day to day pulls you off course. So I really want you to be thinking as we go through all of this stuff, why does vision matter to you?

And then think about how much it matters to every single person on your team. Your spouse, your kids. You know, if you don't have vision, what happens? Right?

It becomes a dead end job, or just that type of a job where you're just there for a paycheck over time. Why? Because you don't see where you're going. You don't have clarity, you don't have anything exciting you that we're getting to a destination.

When you don't get to a destination, think if you've ever been on an incredibly long, you know, plane, flight. Boy, it is funny how you look at the hours and you're like, oh my, okay, only four more hours.

We're almost there, right? You have to understand that vision is powerful. So as we go through all of these, I want you to be thinking about that.

And the first one is vision anchors you when the day to day pulls you off course.

So you can't lead well no matter how much you're doing well or you're profitable. You're not leading well when you're only reacting.

Say you're a business owner who starts every day answering emails or fixing team issues or trying to get ahead or, you know, but every week ends feeling like you literally couldn't keep up or you barely kept up.

That's what happens when there's no vision guiding work, right?

Because think about this. If you are buried in tasks, what are you focused on? What's the vision for you to be buried in tasks? Well, that's a pretty terrible vision, right?

Because there's no way you could possibly lead if you're buried in tasks. How much time are you actually spending? And what do I say? Leading is making your team successful at what they do. You don't have to know how they do it.

You don't have to be an expert at how they do it. You need to help them become better experts themselves. You can't do that when you are completely overloaded with tasks.

You just can't. So one of the things you have to understand is when you were overloaded with tasks, you don't have great vision. Because if you did, you would be changing things.

Now, one of the things I've thought forever is just silly, is this concept of vision boards where somebody will put together - and I'm not suggesting you go do this. I just want you to hear this concept, right? Because I think it's kind of powerful.

And you see a lot of women do this. I don't know of any guys that do this, but I've heard that some guys do this. And I'm going to tell you, I think the concept is fantastic.

Now, I'm somebody who likes to drive vision no matter what, but this really made sense to me when I finally heard it in a different light and somebody was sharing that.

You take these things that you're wanting to accomplish now, it can be, you know, fitness goals, health goals, career goals, it could be whatever.

Marriage goals, it could be whatever.

But what I didn't understand is that when you take that board and it's stuff that you literally spent time thinking through and you put that up on a wall.

And you walk by those pictures, the vision of what you want your life to be or you want this area of your life to be because you see it every day, then you have a tendency to prioritize it. Wow.

Now, that made a lot of sense to me. It didn't make sense to me when I was seeing these things when they started becoming popular way back in the day.

I'm like, well, that's just silly. Why don't you just do it? Just put things in place, schedule it, be proactive. You know, create an actual vision and the strategy to get those things done. But here's how it hit me.

There's some things that I do want to accomplish that are not high priorities for me right now. But they're things that aren't getting done.

I'm not getting to. I'm not even spending, you know, even little amounts of time on those things because they aren't high priority.

But here's what I know, and that's the, that's the big key, folks. They aren't my biggest priorities, but I'm going to get through another year going, oh, crud.

I didn't spend any time on that thing, right? I wanted to get that done, but since it wasn't a high enough priority, I spent zero time on it.

So the concept, when it, when I heard this about what the purpose of a vision board, it all of a sudden made sense. If I walked past that thing on a daily basis and just saw that, I would go, hmm, here's five things I could do this week.

I can carve out some time and make that thing happen. Surely by now I think you understand the concept. Vision creates proactivity, not reactivity. Right?

The day to day is what you're reacting to when you don't have great vision. When you do have great vision, you change in structure you your day so that you don't spend it buried in tasks.

If you knew you were going after a big goal and you needed to help your team get there, would you spend all day long answering emails and just trying to get ahead, or would you put in place the things that make your team better?

Now, hopefully the answer is yes, I would put things in place. I would spend time getting, getting out of the daily tasks and delegating things off, properly delegating things off of me that I shouldn't be doing and helping my team get there.

So here's what I want you to ask yourself. What does success look like 12 months from now for the business, for your team and for you?

Right? So 12 months from now, we're looking into 2026 at the same time, end of next year, what does success look like for the business, for your team and for you?

Your Team Wants More Than Tasks—They Want to Know Where They’re Headed (00:07:47)

Number two, your team wants more than tasks. They want to know where they're headed. Clarity isn't just for you. It literally fuels people.

So if what I just shared, which was such a simple concept and a simple idea and a simple thought and a simple thing to put together, you know, a vision board.

I'm not saying you need to go put a vision board together, but. But I'm not telling you not to, right? I think it's actually a good idea.

I think there's things that I need to be seeing that remind me I have great priorities and what we are trying to accomplish as a business. But I also have side priorities that I want to get done. Right.

There's some things that I want to do on the farm, there's some things I want to make happen at The Ridge, right?

And if I can keep that before me, then I can make different decisions, same stinking concept for your team. So I want you to think about this as a leader.

I don't want you doing a ton of tasks. You shouldn't be doing a ton of tasks. One of your biggest tasks should be making people better. It should be focused on making team members better. That's what you should be doing, right?

But if you don't spend time doing that, how are they going to get better? You're hoping that they're self motivated to do it and that's a small number of people.

Most people are just going to come and keep doing the same tasks every single day. Your team doesn't want that, they want more. They want to know where they are headed.

So imagine that your team shows up, you know, every day, gives 100%, does all the tasks that they're supposed to do, and yet they don't understand why the goal posts keep moving because there isn't a shared vision.

So they're doing stuff, they keep doing these things but they've never gotten to a destination. They haven't gotten to a win. It's just show up, do tasks, go home, come back tomorrow, show up, do tasks, go home.

Where are they headed? Where are you headed? Where's the business headed?

If they don't know, they just know that, oh well, okay, I thought we were going somewhere, I thought we had a destination, but apparently I just show up and keep doing the same thing every day.

If they don't get to see that, they hit a clear destination, like maybe a growth destination or maybe a, you know, finalizing projects destination, whatever it is that should be a vision.

If they don't see that they've accomplished it, what do you think's going to happen over time?

Even your best people can reach burnout because all they do is keep doing the same thing over and over and over again and not seeing how it impacts anything, not seeing how it's affecting anything, not seeing how there's any wins to it, not knowing that we're going to shift direction at some point.

They just keep seeing the same thing over and over again.

So ask yourself the question, have I shared the why behind our goals? Have I shared the strategy of how we're going to get There have I shared what the actual next destination is?

And you can have 700 destinations. You can keep resetting vision as long as you clarify it right, or have you just assigned tasks to people?

If that's all you've done, then I'm telling you, you're missing out on a phenomenal opportunity for you to get a lot of motivation and a morale boost in your team.

Vision Makes Delegation Easier and More Effective (00:11:17)

Number three, vision makes delegation easier and way more effective.

So you can't delegate what you haven't defined. You've heard me talk about a bajillion times.

You have to properly delegate. You don't just give something to somebody. You don't just hand it off and expect that they do it and give them five minutes worth of instruction.

And then when they're not doing it the way that you wanted it done or fast enough, or you didn't make sure that they had the capacity to get it done because they already had a full plate.

You know, you, you didn't take anything off of their plate to make sure that they could do the thing. You're delegating. When you don't properly delegate, what happens? It falls apart.

So you've got, let's say you've got a team member who keeps asking questions, needing input on every little thing.

You feel like you literally can't step away often. This is not a problem with their skill. This is a problem with how you delegated. This is a problem with how you communicated.

You didn't communicate clearly. You, you didn't follow through. You didn't watch them in the process. You didn't make sure that they had, you know, that new questions didn't pop up and solve those things.

Instead, you delegated the same way that everybody else has been trained to delegate.

Give it to somebody, hope they get it done right, hope they get it done fast, hope they do it the same way you do, although sometimes they will do it better than you did if you do it properly.

So what's the problem here? A lack of communication?

Have you communicated where they should be heading with this project, task, whatever, and have you made it clear enough that they can also take ownership?

If you have properly delegated properly - the way we teach how to delegate, not what you learned from bad leaders in the past..

If you have properly delegated, you will get way more effectiveness from that team member.

They will be way more effective at doing the task, the thing that you delegated. If you do not communicate it clearly, if they don't have clarity, if they don't have a vision for what it's supposed to look like what the outcome is supposed to be.

And that's another big piece, by the way. If they don't know what it's supposed to look like when it's done. Done.

If they can't see the outcome, then I can promise you this, it's never going to be effective and you're going to be frustrated and you're going to want to yank it back.

And then it's going to be back on you with the other 400 things that you should be getting off your plate anyways, because we didn't do it properly.

So instead of just delegating, ask, have I communicated properly how this is supposed to look, where it's headed, what it looks like when it's done?

If you can do that, ownership will happen with the other team member.

A Clear Vision Reduces Stress and Decision Fatigue (00:14:17)

Number four. A clear vision reduces stress and decision fatigue, folks. Without vision, every decision feels like it's high stakes. Every decision feels like it's urgent.

Every decision feels like failure is literally two feet around the corner. So picture having to make 50 small decisions every single day with no filter for what aligns with your direction, right?

It's exhausting. Vision simplifies this. You know what a yes is and you know what a distraction is, right? When you have that vision. So let's go back to that concept of the vision board, right?

Just to-- I want to simplify this as much as I possibly can. If we go back to that board and we see that something is a priority that we're trying to accomplish, then when you look at your day, you don't make decisions to go in 400 different directions.

You don't make decisions to pile tasks on your plate because the stuff on that board ain't gonna get done right? So instead, what happens is, is when you have quality vision, you make right decisions.

You make decisions that have good outcomes. You don't get exhausted from having to make 50 different decisions a day. You will actually look at a decent number of those and go, no, no, not doing it.

That's not helping me get to where I need to go. Now, I'm not saying you're going to say no to things that are, you know, fires that are happening, and you're just going to become, you know, complacent and, you know, put blinders on.

But there's probably a ton of stuff you don't need to be focusing on right now. Or maybe it's important, but not for you, right? It should be somebody else.

So instead of you focusing on 50 different small decisions, A day or two. What if you started changing and prioritizing by your vision and start reducing your decision fatigue?

What am I going to say yes to? What am I going to say no to? What am I going to do if it doesn't match with my vision, if it doesn't align with where we are trying to go? Why am I focusing on it?

Why am I making decisions here? Why is that on my plate? Right? Even if it's somebody else who's coming to you to solve problems?

Ask the question, is the problem I'm solving helping us obtain the vision or do I have people going in a shotgun approach in directions that they shouldn't even be going in?

So when you have a clear vision, you will be amazed at the amount of stress that just gets reduced in your life and your team's life, you know, and the decision fatigue will start to go away because we will make the better, right decisions.

December Is the Best Time to Regain Perspective (00:17:26)

Number five, December tends to be the best time to regain perspective. Now, again, you should be casting vision all year long. Every month of the year should have vision in it.

But when you get to December, here's something you're going to really realize because you have a little bit more time sometimes to look back on your year. Not everybody, some of you are busting it like crazy in December.

But here's the deal. Vision doesn't come from urgency. It comes from margin. Let me say that again. I want to pound this into your brain.

Vision doesn't come from urgency, it comes from margin.

If you do not make margin in your time, in your day to day, you know, if you spent most of this year in survival mode or solving or reacting or trying to stay afloat, then right now is a great time.

December is a great time for you to step above the noise and ask, where are we going?

Also, you ask the question, is this still where we want to go? What is our vision? Are we following it? Are we attacking it? Do we have a strategy to it? Is it still where we want to go? Has something else changed?

Are we-- are we shifting gears? These are things you have to understand because if not, you're going to keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

You're going to be struggling with survival mode, you're going to be struggling with reacting to fires, and you're definitely going to be struggling to have margin and be proactive.

So here's what I want you to ask yourself. What parts of our direction still make sense and what needs to shift. And I'm not saying something does have to shift. Maybe you're doing a phenomenal job and you're heading in the right direction.

But what if you're not? If you're not asking the questions, then you might be crazy surprised at what you discover when you do so. Vision isn't a boardroom exercise.

It's what gives meaning to the work. It gives focus to your team, and it surely gives peace to your decisions when you know that you're making decisions based on the right vision and you know that you're not just in survival mode.

So December gives you a kind of a natural window to reset it and lead with intention, not exhaustion. Again, don't wait till December to do all of this.

You should be doing this every month, right? We should be focused on our vision every month. But now is a great time to reset, right? To dig in, to gain some quality perspective.

Action Items (00:20:14)

So here's some things I want you to do right now.

Number one, set aside some time to reflect. Just you, a pen, a paper, no phone, no distractions. Write out your 2026 vision in one paragraph.

Yes, I know this is going to be tough. It's not going to be perfect. It's not going to be absolutely amazing. I don't want you to spend four hours perfecting every single word.

But I want you to sit down and write down what is the 2026 vision for your team, for your business, and for your personal life.

Yes, I want your personal life in there, too. One paragraph. What do you want that to look like? Again, it's not all encompassing, but here's what it's going to do.

It's going to give you an idea of what you believe is the direction you're headed in or recognition that you don't have that vision. Right? And once you see that, you can start figuring out the things that need to change.

Schedule a meeting with your leadership team. Share, refine that vision together. Spend time with it. And again, when you sit down and do the one paragraph, we're not talking about crazy in depth.

Just see if we can come up with a this is where we want to head or this is what we want it to look like, Right?

Then take a look at your, you know, Q1 plans and ask yourself, does this do the things in our Q1 plans move us closer to or further away from the vision that we just defined.

Additional Resources (00:21:47)

So additional resources.

So for more on how your leadership mindset drives everything around you, check out episode 451: The Heart of a Shepherd. Just go to chrislocurto.com/podcast and search for episode 451 now.

2026 Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event (00:22:01)

If you've been listening and realizing your vision has gotten cloudy, or maybe it's been missing altogether, it's worth asking why?

Most business owners don't lack passion or work ethic. What they lack is space to think. What they lack is a framework for leading their team in the same direction. Right?

A unified laser focused direction. And they're also lacking the tools that actually help them to do it.

That's the real work we do at the Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event.

It's all about hands-on, real world leadership, not theory.

It's just three days we walk through what it takes to align your leadership team, break out of reaction mode and finally create a rhythm where your vision doesn't just stay in your head, it drives your business forward.

So if that sounds like something you've needed for a while, go to chrislocurto.com/liveevents One word: Live events all together to get the details.

You're going to walk with way more clarity, less chaos, which we need that right now and a plan that actually fits your business.

So grab your spot and take advantage of the launch price: $500 off. It's not available for too long and we would love to see you there.

Wrap Up (00:23:22)

Well folks, that's all the time that we have today. I hope this has helped you immensely. As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your your business, change your life and join us on the next episode.