Have you thought about that lately? Now that you’re in a leadership position, you don’t need them anymore, right? Or aren’t goals just a January thing?
With all the distractions in life, the days fly by! If we don’t plan and prepare for the future, it’ll be here before we know it, and we will still be doing what we’ve been doing for the last few years! You may even set goals each year, but unless you make an action plan and actually stick with it, it’s a meaningless process.
Are you setting an example for your staff? When you talk about their goals, do you share yours? Do you talk about moving from one thing to the next and how you accomplished that? Or do you go through the motions with them, setting goals that won’t see the light of day again until the next review time?
Having worked with various companies over the years, I’ve seen a lot of meaningless reviews and that's typically where we attach goals. I understand these take time and energy when we often feel we have none, but how can we expect ourselves or anyone else to improve if we aren’t talking about it? I’ve also decided that annual reviews need to be thrown in the trash--filling out forms once/year, is mostly meaningless. But the focus today is on goals; I can beat up on reviews another day!
The purpose of goals should be to move you forward, not to keep pace. If you set goals based on your current position (for you or for your staff), you’re missing the point. Goals should not be related to your current role; they should be preparation for the next. If you have areas of weakness in your currently needed skills, of course you need to work on those, but they should be an expected part of the job. Goals should be focused beyond—learning a new skill or helping in an area you don’t normally work, or almost anything that poses a challenge.
As we wind down the year (shockingly, I can’t believe it’s almost October!), now is a good time to start putting serious thought into where you’re going. Make a plan. Challenge yourself.
Be an example for your staff by showing them how you plan to move forward in your career!
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