When the calendar turns over into the New Year, organizations commonly use this milestone date to re-examine their goals, strategies, and benchmarks. It’s a time to reflect upon the past twelve months and start to develop new ideas to bring into the New Year. What’s working? What isn’t? What changes could be made? Let’s examine a few strategies to help us strategically attack our goals in 2020!
Communicate Goals Clearly
When it’s time for leadership to share their thoughts on what is achievable in the New Year, it’s important to be clear with your team. Remember: employees will judge themselves and work towards the goals that have been set by their employer. However, if those goals were unclear from launch, the team may be working a bit more aimlessly than you would have hoped. Try to be as specific as the subject matter allows you to be!
If that means growing a certain department by 10%, for example, let your team know that that benchmark is the goal for 2020. There are plenty of circumstances where certain pieces of information cannot be widely shared amongst the whole team, but being specific (when possible) builds trust within an organization. It shows that leadership has actual results that can be defined. Without specific goals, it’s tough for a company to claim that they have a solid track record and reliable forecasting strategies.
Source Diverse Opinions
What information are you basing your organizations’ goals upon? Perhaps a specific branch or department is privy to things that leadership has overlooked! Make sure that the goals you set are realistic and fully thought out. Don’t leave any stone unturned—make sure that everyone’s voices are heard, and use that information to develop strategies in the future.
As for the individual… we’re not always our best critic! Ask your managers or other trusted colleagues what kinds of goals they think you can achieve in 2020. You may be surprised by what qualities and potential others see in you. They can also identify shortcomings or places for improvement that they know you can fix. You should illustrate paths to these goals and define exactly what it is that you would like to achieve. Deadlines, sales goals, product output… whatever your trade may be, set benchmarks that you think you can realistically hit and aim for them.
When Goals Change, Roles Change
Although that’s not necessarily true, it does rhyme and is a fun rule of thumb. If your company is shifting their strategies, it’s important to let everyone know how this affects their particular role within the organization. Ideally, everyone in an organization serves a specific purpose, and when all these cogs work towards a common goal, success can be achieved. But sometimes it’s difficult for individuals to fully understand how their role will be affected by change without the 10,000-foot view of the company that leadership has access to. For example, if we need to grow Department A by 10%, try and explain how this could affect Department B in the same timeframe. How will resources be diverted, or what kinds of change will connected areas of the company experience?
Plenty can change within the course of a year, but it’s smart to kick it off with an achievable set of goals that the whole company can rally around. Put yourself in the best position to succeed with the strategies above!