Along with ringing in the New Year with raised glasses to the promise of success in 2012, many of us already have and/or will make annual resolutions. In business, these resolutions are often achievable but many of them never come to fruition. Why? The old adage “out of sight, out of mind.” People commonly get distracted after the New Year’s momentum dissipates. To avoid this scenario and establish accountability for your resolutions, here are a few tips for keeping your eye on the prize.
- Put Pen to Paper: Develop a plan of action, with realistic and specific benchmarks that lead up to your ultimate goals. This ensures you don’t get lost in the forest and allows for resolution (pun intended) of any hiccups along with way without derailing the overarching results.
- Gain Consensus: Your goals may be important to you—even to your entire department—but take a moment to ensure they relate to your organization’s overall focus or somehow contribute to it.
- Get Management Buy-In: Aligning your goals with the organization’s overall mission is important, but securing an official nod from management means they are now invested in seeing the results come to life.
While setting annual goals is certainly the first step toward achieving them, a real commitment is needed to proceed forward with a plan and assume accountability for sticking to it. Wishing all of our clients, partners and friends a successful 2012—we look forward to seeing your resolutions come to be!