Setting Goals for the year ahead

As we head into the final month of the year, we inevitably start thinking about setting goals for the year ahead. But when it comes to setting goals for your business, it’s common to get blocked or feel like you’re not doing it right.

• Do you set one overall big stretching goal?
• Do you consider what you realistically can achieve and start there?
• Do you look at what you have achieved this year and add an incremental improvement, such as plus 10%?

For a lot of business leaders, setting goals can feel overwhelming, which often leads to procrastination. Maybe you set out with good intentions to write down some goals and targets to achieve in the year ahead, but they don’t ever make it from your notebook to the boardroom or beyond.

Setting goals in your business helps you to:

• Get focused on what is important
• Make decisions
• Grow and expand to the next level

When we work with business leaders to set goals, we know that the biggest hurdle is usually the over-thinking that goes on inside their heads! Quite often they get hung up on the ‘how’ they are going to achieve something, so much so that they never actually get around to doing it. Get out of your head and set some targets for things you want to achieve – it could be that you want to reach a certain profit target, it might be an increase in your headcount, it could be a goal of on-boarding X amount of new clients – get it down on paper. Think about who you need to involve and share these goals with – are they to be communicated out to the whole business? Are they going to translate into people’s objectives and key results or key performance indicators? Will people be rewarded if they hit them?

Consider whether you are motivated by setting yourself big stretch goals and targets or whether that scares the living daylights out of you. If you are setting goals for other people in your business, it is key to take this into consideration too. Everyone is different and only you will know whether it is going to motivate you and others or freeze people into inaction and fear of failure.

You want to get clear on the intention behind your goals and then communicate that – set the expectations for what success looks like and then drill into what you and your people need to make these goals a reality. For instance, if it is on-boarding more clients, do you have a sales and marketing strategy and budget to support this?

Have you got the right mindset to set your business goals, or do you need to seek some external advice? If your business has reached a plateau in certain years, it could be that you would benefit from hiring someone who can help you with a different perspective and viewpoint. The biggest challenge for people in leadership roles, or business owners, is maintaining a growth mindset – particularly when faced with external forces such as the current cost of living crisis. Having someone to turn to who can help you to explore different ways of looking at things in your business can often be a catalyst for growth and change.

Finally, just like puppies aren’t just for Christmas, goal setting in your business doesn’t have to just be an annual event. You can start every month, week or even day with a simple goal setting exercise – ask yourself what are the top three things you want to achieve?

Science has shown that the process of writing your goals makes you more inclined to achieve them – especially if you have other people in your business helping you. So what are you waiting for? Grab that pen and paper or open up a blank document and get writing!

And if you would like some support setting goals for your business, get in touch – we would love to help! Email: hello@dicebusiness.co.uk