New Year, New Goals…Now What? A Practical Guide to Keeping Momentum Beyond January

Every January, workers return from the break with a sense of clarity and renewed optimism and enthusiasm. Leaders set fresh goals, reset expectations and outline the vision for the year ahead. For a little while, it works. Teams feel aligned, meetings have purpose and the mood across the business lifts.

But by late February or early March, the early momentum begins to fade. Focus drifts. New routines unravel. Reactivity creeps back in. We find ourselves pulled back into old behavioural patterns.

This is not because the goals were unrealistic or the intentions were weak. It is because momentum does not sustain itself. January energy fades unless leaders intentionally design the systems, habits and support structures that keep it alive throughout the year.

Here’s why momentum collapses by March and what leaders can do to prevent it.

The beginning of the year often feels easier because the environment temporarily changes. Workloads are lighter, diaries are clearer and people return with more energy than they finished with. Leaders have the space to think strategically, communicate clearly and reset expectations with confidence.

But this clarity is fragile. As regular pressures reappear, competing priorities surface and normal workloads resume, the environment no longer supports the behaviour change that January required. Without reinforcing structures in place, even the clearest goals begin to drift.

Momentum often fails, not because people are unwilling, but because the systems around them haven’t changed. Leaders may introduce new expectations, but the processes, reporting cycles, workloads and organisational habits remain exactly the same.

When the system and the goals are out of alignment, the system always wins. Behaviour follows structure, not intention.

Consider how often this plays out in practice:

• The vision is a more collaborative team. The reality is the systems still reward individual speed over shared problem-solving, so people default to working alone.
• The vision is empowered decision-making. The reality is the approval structure still requires leaders to sign off on even minor decisions, so bottlenecks form at the top.
• The vision is clearer communication. The reality is the organisation still uses too many channels, so that information is scattered and often missed.

System misalignment quietly erodes momentum because it forces people to choose between the new expectations and the old environment. And the old environment almost always wins. If we want momentum to last, we must design systems that make the new behaviours easy to adopt and the old habits harder to fall back into.

Leaders often assume they know what their team needs to execute the new strategy, but frontline workers typically see barriers that leaders miss. Consulting your team early, and repeatedly, prevents avoidable drift.

Ask them:

• What makes it difficult to stay on track?
• What processes get in the way?
• What support or resources would make the biggest difference?
• What can we stop doing to create space for the work that matters?

Momentum is a shared responsibility, and your team’s insights are critical for sustaining it.

January can create the illusion that behaviour change is immediate. Leaders return refreshed, teams feel motivated and everyone assumes the new habits will simply “stick.” But psychologists have long shown that behaviour change is a slow, effortful process, not an overnight shift.

Research on habit formation suggests that it takes, on average, 66 days for a new behaviour to become automatic — and that number varies widely depending on complexity. Organisational behaviours like delegation, communication, decision-making or collaboration sit at the harder end of the spectrum. They require not just repetition, but consistency, clarity and cognitive bandwidth.

This is where momentum often unravels. Leaders expect themselves and their teams to operate differently from the first week back. When that doesn’t happen, people incorrectly assume they’ve “lost momentum” or “failed,” when in reality, the behaviour hasn’t had enough time, repetition or environmental support to take hold.

Leaders can support behaviour change by normalising the learning curve, building structures that reinforce the new habits and creating the space and support needed for repetition. When leaders expect immediate transformation, they set themselves and their teams up for unnecessary discouragement. When they plan for incremental change, momentum becomes sustainable.

Momentum fades when expectations are set once and not revisited. Leaders can underestimate how often teams need to pause, reflect and recalibrate.

A monthly reset creates a predictable space to ask:

• What did we commit to in January?
• How are we tracking?
• What slipped and why?
• What support do we need?
• What needs to change for the next month?

The most important part of this practice is consistency. If these reset sessions are cancelled due to busyness, the message becomes clear: the “real work” matters more than the commitments we made at the start of the year. That’s how drift becomes normal.

Momentum is not just about what the team needs; it is also about what the leader needs to stay effective and consistent. Leaders rarely ask themselves the crucial questions:

• What do I need from my own leader?
• What support or clarity is missing?
• What could be removed from my workload to help me focus?
• Who can help hold me accountable?
• What boundaries do I need to protect my leadership bandwidth?

Leaders cannot carry momentum alone. They need systems and support structures that enable them to lead strategically and consistently.

If you have questions or would like support to ensure your team is effective and consistent, please contact us below and one of Workplace Strategists will be in touch within 24 hours.