The past year was probably characterized by frequent ups and downs, success and failure. But the new year should open on a good note and with a brand new plan. Your most important job as manager should be to address your employees to help bolster their motivation and productivity for the new year. Your first task would be to organize a formal meeting with all employees, preferably in a meeting room.

If you don’t have access to a meeting room, it is okay to make do with the office space and conduct the meeting where the employees work. The address should definitely begin on a high note, praising the accomplishments they have achieved in the previous year. Try not to mention their shortcomings even in hushed tones.

Design an opening statement

If you have trouble designing an opening statement, you could try using the following words, “Welcome everyone to a new outlook on life and our company.”

As someone who holds a leadership position with the company, you cannot afford to look weak or defeated no matter how rough of a year you’ve had. A leader’s bad mood has a way of negatively rubbing off on their employees and those under them. This can further demotivate and disengage staff, so do not express negativity at the office. Try instead to appear as cheerful and bubbly as possible to help brighten up their moods even if they’re just recovering from major setbacks of the previous year.

It is crucial to appear confident – if only for appearance’s sake – that the new year will help to accomplish goals and achieve new milestones in their sales records, improving clientele retention and operating as a strong, cohesive unit. Let your employees know that the only way this is possible is if they were all to chip in and pull their weight.

Let them know they matter enough

Their hard work is tantamount to the company’s success and holds the key to achieving the soaring heights of profit you have all projected for the future.

Part of having a successful meeting is to involve all your employees in the conversation to learn from their opinions. Ask them to provide their own visions for what the company should be aiming for. Make sure to give attention when they decide to chip in, this way they will begin to feel important enough to matter and actually invest themselves on a more personal level with the company.

Jot down all the company goals you have planned for the new year and circulate it to all the employees for feedback. Everyone should be asked to read the outline and list their own goals for the company. If your employees are having a hard time, give them a few helpful examples such as improving sales records, improving upon weaknesses and building upon strengths.

Speak of the good times

Try to highlight as many of the positives which your company achieved the previous year to you’re your employees feel that they have done a good job. Do not to mention failures and weaknesses of the past year because they will only serve to dampen the whole mood – you don’t want the meeting to backfire do you? So only mention the positives.