Choosing “One Word” can reduce chaos and help focus daily decisions.
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Several years ago, as the CEO of Hubbell Realty Company, I started a practice in our business that I call “One Word.”
Each year, every team member chooses a single word to guide their mindset and decisions for the months ahead. Reading through the most recent responses encouraged me more than any quarterly report could. I noticed words like “joy,” “intention,” and “curiosity.”
One word is powerful, and I have practiced this discipline myself for many years. During this time, I have come to believe it drives leadership focus better than most of the strategic planning exercises I have sat through.
Why a Single Word Outperforms a Resolution List
Annual goal setting tends to start with some strong ideas that wind up tucked away in a notes folder on an iPhone. Forbes contributor Kathy Caprino points to survey research showing that most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions within two to four months. The problem is usually volume. Ten goals compete for the same limited attention, and by February, none of them are winning.
In One Word That Will Change Your Life, Jon Gordon, Dan Britton, and Jimmy Page argue that clutter and complexity breed paralysis while simplicity creates clarity. That has been my experience. And I make a point of telling my team often that most of what we face really is not that hard.
As leaders, we tend to over-theorize and under-implement, chasing the next framework when what we need is a single point of concentration. This is where one word can be helpful. A resolution can be broken by Groundhog Day, but a word travels with you into every meeting, every decision, and every difficult conversation.
Joy, Intention, and Curiosity
I do not assign the words, and I do not approve them. Each person chooses what they need, which is exactly why the practice works. Joy shapes how someone walks into a Monday morning. Intention changes how a week gets planned before it starts. Curiosity changes the questions a person asks in a room where everyone else has stopped asking.
Hubbell is not alone in this.
When Forbes gathered founders’ goals for a new year, one CEO skipped the list entirely and named a single word, “Trust,” as her theme for everything ahead. This practice changed everything. It became a filter for daily choices rather than a document to revisit in December.
How to Pick Your Word and Live It Daily
So how do you pick your word? The key is to look backward before you look forward. Where did you fall short last year? What will the coming year demand of you that the last one did not? Pick a word that stretches you rather than one that flatters you. If patience is your struggle, patience is probably your word.
Then make your word impossible to ignore.
Write it where you will see it, on your desk, your mirror, or the first page of your notebook. I often remind my team that people need to hear a message a dozen times before it sticks, and the messages you send yourself are no exception. This is personal development at its simplest, one idea repeated until it becomes reflexive.
Scaling the Practice to Your Team
When Jim Hubbell asked me to articulate my vision for the company more than twenty years ago, I started with a long list and forced myself to narrow it down to eight principles. That distillation became my Eight to Great—the foundation for my latest book—and it has guided us ever since.
One Word applies the same discipline at the individual level.
Sharing the words matters as much as choosing them. When words are visible across a team, they create both accountability and connection. You learn something genuine about a colleague when you know the word they carry into the year.
So choose your word, write it down, and share it with your team. Then invite everyone around you to do the same. One word will not run your company for you. It will keep you pointed at what you decided was most important, and that is where focused leadership begins.
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