The thrill is gone.

As the French president Nicolas Sarkozy enters the second year of his term, his popularity ratings are half what they were when he took office. The hyperkinetic center-right reformist whose campaign message boiled down to “Work more!” and “Hidebound France must change!” got off to a promising start. He appointed an impressively diverse cabinet that included a prominent leftist and a number of women, one a Muslim. He instituted important reforms of the university system. He eliminated “special regimes” for some public-sector employees. And he weakened the 35-hour work week’s stranglehold on productivity.

Then when his marriage imploded, he seemed to shrug off the role of earnest workaholic and shove work aside in favor of wooing and wedding former supermodel Carla Bruni in very public fashion. Yes, the French love romance but they also deeply value propriety and raffinement in their leaders. “President Bling-Bling”--who graced numerous magazine covers with Bruni at his side and sent a text message during an audience with the Pope--has fallen far short in this department.

Now that his honeymoon is over (with the French public and his party, I mean; can't say about with Bruni), Sarkozy will find delivering on his promises of change to be doubly difficult. He must re-inspire jaded and skeptical constituencies to believe in him and buy into his vision, and discipline them--and himself--to execute it.

Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler finds himself in much the same situation. When he moved into the top spot, he promised to "transform virtually every aspect of how [Pfizer does] business.” Nearly two years later, he has little to show for his efforts, and the clock is ticking. The blockbuster Lipitor, which brings in close to $13 billion of revenue annually, could face generic competition in just two years, and it appears that nothing with its sales potential is in the pipeline. The stock recently dropped to a 10-year low after disappointing first-quarter earnings.

There’s lots of advice out there for getting off to a strong start--our own Michael Watkins writes frequently on this topic--but where should leaders focus their efforts when they're one or two years into the job and much difficult work still lies ahead?

To keep the flame alive while slogging away at the difficult and sometimes dull work of execution:

What about you? As you've entered your second or third or sixth year in a leadership role, what practices have you found effective at keeping your vision alive and moving your organization toward realizing it?