I don’t know about you, but I felt as though 2014 decided to move straight from New Year’s into spring. January and February blew right by. Before I knew it, I was waking up on March 1st wondering how so much time had already passed.
With life moving at full throttle, it’s more important than ever to look back at those goals you made at the beginning of the year to evaluate your progress. This relates to not only your business goals, but your personal ones, as well. Here are a few things to ask yourself as you conduct this goal evaluation:
1. What have I accomplished towards this goal?
2. Is this goal still important to me/my company?
3. Where does this goal rank in priority to my other goals?
4. Do I still think this goal is achievable?
5. Are there any new goals I need to add or any goals I need to adjust?
Goal reviews should be done at least once a month. I recommend setting appointments on your calendar to prompt yourself to do it. I sometimes find myself overwhelmed with the goal-related tasks on my to-do list, so spending this essential time at the beginning of each month reviewing goals and priorities helps me focus.
Business owners with a staff to manage should also set aside time to review employee goals. It’s imperative that employers remain in touch with employee goals, not only to ensure their team is focused, but to reiterate to the employees that they and their goals are valuable. Nothing frustrates an employee more than setting goals at an employer’s request only to have those goals gather dust. Be proactive and help bolster morale by conducting regular goal reviews with your team.
If you have a sounding board or someone you’re held accountable to, I recommend reviewing your goals with them. In the interest of practicing what I preach, I thought I’d share just a few of my goals for 2014 and some of the progress I’ve made. This will be another way to help keep me on track.
1. Blogging at least once a month. Well, I think you can see the progress I’m making here, since this is the first post of the year. This goal is a work in progress!
2. Broadening my reach beyond the events market. I am in the process of rebranding Susan Southerland. So far, I have a new logo and I’m researching and writing several seminars that will appeal to multiple service industries. I’m making good gains here.
3. Strengthening each brand under Just Events! Group, Inc. Together with my Director of Operations, Karen Gingerich, we have refined our team’s job descriptions and assigned appropriate staff to open positions on the org chart. This has allowed each of them to concentrate on selective tasks. Productivity has soared! Great progress here.
4. Book 12 speaking engagements for the year. So far, I have six and two strong possibilities. More than halfway there.
5. Finish another book. Sadly, this one takes a seat behind blogging. I think you know the kind of progress I’ve made here.
6. Contract with one major corporate consulting client. I have negotiations in progress. My fingers are crossed that this will come through.
I hope you’ll share some of your goals in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
