The end of every quarter of the calendar year is an excellent time to reflect upon current performance.  This reflection is critical in order to meet or exceed the year’s goals.  When this reflection is done after the first quarter, there is still ample time to accomplish the goals that were set for the year.  Here are some steps that you can use to complete the reflection process:

Step 1:  Identify the goals that you set for the year.  Hopefully, you set between one and three key goals for the year.  These goals and their associated action plans should be guiding your actions and decisions.  It is easier to track the progress of these goals if they are written as SMART goals.  If you set goals but did not ensure they were written as SMART goals, tackle that first.

Step 2:  Determine how much progress you should have made.  Many goals are measured by where you should be at the end of the year, but what does progress look like in April? July? October?  Break your overall goal into milestones for the four quarters of the year.  For example, if you were aiming for increasing the dollar amount of your sales by 10% by the end of the year, you should expect to increase sales by 2-3% each quarter to meet that goal.

Step 3:  Identify whether you did not meet, met, or exceeded your milestones.  If you met your milestones, great job!  Keep doing what you’re doing!  If you did not meet your milestones, it is time to revisit your action plan.  Are you doing what you said you were going to do to meet the goal?  Are the action steps that you identified working?  This is an opportunity to research, regroup, and reorganize your action plan.  If you have exceeded your milestones, you may want to reevaluate your goal to see if you were setting the bar too low.  Don’t limit yourself by your goal—you can keep pushing to the next level!

Step 4:  Define next steps.  At this stage, you have to decide if you need to revise your goal, revise your plan, or go back to the drawing board.  You may have found that the goal that you set for the year is no longer appropriate based on newly identified needs or opportunities.  For example, if you set a goal to secure a certain number of new clients, but new opportunities have enabled you to offer a greater array of services to existing clients, you may change your focus.  Use discretion when changing or abandoning goals and certainly don’t give up on a goal because you didn’t make the progress that you thought you would make during a certain time period.

Goal-setting and attainment is the heart of success.  Mastering this process will ensure that your business is profitable and sustainable.  As you practice this process, you may find these other blog posts helpful:
 
How to Make Goals Stick
Bouncing Back After Defeat

If you would like support in identifying the needs for your business and how to set goals that will address those needs, contact me for a free consultation!

We have a tendency to romantacize the past, especially when our present isn't ideal.  Some people believe that their high school days were their best ever or that college was the best time of their life.  Others long for past loves or mourn over material things that they have lost along the way.  It can be tempting to try and recreate the past as a solution to a present slump.  There's a saying that you can never step into the same river twice.  That's because the water is always moving and changing the river so that, even if you returned to the exact same spot where you once stood, the river is still not the same.  The river has changed and so have you.

We have to be careful not to spend to much time looking backwards and keep moving forward, no matter how wonderful the past used to be.  A mindset of a true visionary is that your best days are yet to come!  This means that we often have to let go of strategies and systems that no longer meet the needs of us, our businesses, or our teams.  Saying, "Well, that's how we have always done it" is an excuse for a lack of innovation, creativity, and efficiency.  Instead, practice the strategy of continuous improvement.  A true leader is a life-long learner that is willing to re-assess, re-focus, and re-strategize!

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you determine how to keep moving forward:

1. How have I changed in the past year?
2. How has my team changed in the past year?
3. How have my goals changed in the past year?
4. What is working?  What's not working?
5. What can I do to be more efficient?
6. What can I do to help my team grow?
7. What have I read or learned in the past month that can help me to lead my team?

If you would like help or support in implementing a process of continuous improvement for yourself or with your team, give me a call!

Reflection is a precursor to growth.  It's nearly impossible to move forward when you do not know where you have been.  The end of the year is a great time to pause and reflect on how you have grown and performed over the last calendar year.  Before developing new goals and resolutions for the upcoming year, pause and think about your journey. 

Here are a few questions that you can ask yourself:

1. Have I accomplished the goals that I set for this year?  If so, what worked?  If not, why not?
2. Am I pleased with where I am at the conclusion of this year?  If not, what do I wish was different?  Was it within my power to make it different?
3. What worked for me this year?
4. What did not work for me this year?
5. What were unexpected surprises that affected my performance this year, good or bad?
6. Who has supported my progress this year?
7. Who has hindered my progress this year?
8. What good habits did I develop this year?
9. What bad habits did I develop this year?
10. Do I feel successful this year?  If so, what made me successful? If not, why not?

Practicing the process of reflection will lay the foundation for your goal-setting.  Those who do not identify and recognize their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.  Similarly, if you do not know your own recipe for success, it will make it more difficult to replicate that success.  Do not skip the reflection process--it will provide you with the growth that you need to make incredible progress next year!