The start of each new year is an opportunity to set goals and a timeline in which to accomplish them. It’s a time when your employees are more receptive to change and the start of new initiatives, which presents a unique and timely opportunity for leaders to create change and move the organization forward.
What will you do with this opportunity in 2019? How do you go about identifying your goals?
Almost everyone is familiar with The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In this story, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three spirits: Past, Present, and Yet to Come. This story is wonderfully simple and packed full of life lessons.
Much like old Ebenezer, the first thing I do is to reflect. I take a look back at the previous year and try to identify projects, topics, things that happened that were not fully resolved, or could have been done better. Then I assess and actualize where we are presently. The last goal-setting step is to determine where I’d like us to be by the end of the new year, or in 12-months time.
The goal-setting process:
1) Make a list of missed opportunities from the previous year. Be specific and honest. This list is for your eyes only. It will help you to make an accurate assessment of where improvement is needed.
2) Determine whether those items on your list are still important to your organization and will affect its success in the coming year. Those that you determine are still important, remain on the list. Cross out the rest. They are history (or the Ghost of Christmas Past).
3) Next, think about new initiatives that you would like to begin over the next 12 months. Put them on the same list. Think about how each of the items on your list would make your organization or business more successful.
4) Rate everything on your list on a scale of one to five, with one being top priority and five being low priority. Those you rate as being low priority, cross them off your list.
Congratulations! The items remaining on your list are your goals for 2019. The last step is to clean up your list, flesh each goal out with detail and get your leadership team excited and ready to lead the charge into the New Year.