As an entrepreneur, you most likely have a list of goals for your business. But setting it and forgetting it isn’t the way to go. It’s important to revisit your goals periodically to make sure they still align with your vision.
The business landscape may change, or new trends may pop up, bringing new opportunities to re-examine your goals and shift your focus. Re-evaluating your goals also allows you to measure your progress and make adjustments where necessary.
When should you take a closer look at your goals? You should be checking in with yourself and your team consistently, whether that’s weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Apart from the consistent check-ins, you can also revisit your goals when there are changes in your organization, such as a shift to remote work, new technology innovations, a growing team across multiple locations, or an acquisition or merger.
Use the following five tips to re-evaluate and re-set your goals!
- Start with your long-term, larger goals.
What is the longer-term vision for your company? What is it that you want to accomplish or solve for? Write down your long-term goals, ideally documented for your team to look at also. A study conducted by Professor Gail Matthews found that people who write down their goals are 20% more successful in accomplishing them than those who don’t. Your team should be clear on what your company’s goals are, so that everything they do helps push the company forward towards those goals.
Once you have a list of your larger goals, break them down into smaller goals with a milestone of when you want to achieve them. By having a milestone in place, it gives you an actionable date to work towards, and you can track your progress along the way.
For example, if your long-term goal is to sell your business, a smaller goal might be to secure several major partnerships and clients. Set a specific, actionable goal for the quarter, such as “Secure [type of partnership] partnership with [target partner] by [date].” Hitting those smaller goals will help you to work towards the larger vision.
- Determine what’s working or not working.
Do your business goals still serve your target audience in the best way possible? Are there new opportunities to better your business for your clients and prospects? As you track your progress with goal milestones, you can determine what’s working or not working. A good company is always striving to improve, and that means analyzing the initiatives that are enhancing your business, and learning from the ones that don’t. In fact, sometimes you learn even more from your mistakes than from your successes.
If you learn that something is no longer working, don’t be afraid to let it go and adopt new processes. Often, the most growth is experienced with the most innovation. Reflect on both internal processes and systems as well as external ones. The success of your company is measured not just by revenue, but by the overall health of your company culture and its team.
Elon Musk and Michael Jordan use metacognitive strategies or what could otherwise be called high-level thinking in their approach. This means not only choosing to plan, self-monitor, and change methods if needed, but asking themselves strategic questions, such as “What can I do to help myself?”, “How else can I do this?”, or “Is there a way to do this even better?”
- Track your goals on a weekly basis.
If tracking your goals on a daily basis is what works for you (and I recommend this, of course), then go for it! But working towards your goals is about micro-steps that get you closer to success, so you may not see measurable results on a day-to-day basis.
Schedule some time each week to reassess your goals and track your progress towards them. You can utilize time blocking to set aside the same time on your calendar each week. Think about what’s worked or not worked the past week, and areas for improvement.
Use this time to identify new opportunities for growth. Is your current team built in a way that will help you go to your next level and achieve your business goals? Are there opportunities for training or hiring that can add to the structure you currently have? Revisiting weekly can help you to make sure you’re not wasting resources or time on something that’s not working and adjust to something that is!
Having key performance indicators (KPIs) / business metrics will help you:
- Set very specific goals (for your business and for you personally)
- Quickly help you Determine whether (or not) you’re on track to reach your goals (the firms and for you personally)
- Evaluate the success of your strategy based on these key metrics
- Pinpoint areas in your business that may need improvement
- Identify any opportunities and challenges
- Offer incentives to team members
- And they can even Assess whether your clients are happy or not
- Re-emphasize your goals consistently with your team.
Highlighting your goals with your team helps to keep you accountable to them as well as provide transparency, an important part of company culture. You can create visuals around the goals or bring them up in weekly or quarterly stand-ups. When you share your vision with the rest of your team, you get more buy-in from them as you’re working towards the goals together.
- Communication reduces friction and increases adoption.
Sharing your goals with your team can not only create accountability around them, but provide you with support. Use your time wisely by focusing on your strengths and empower other people on your team to fill in the gaps where needed. Don’t forget to explain the “why” behind any changes that you make! When people know the reasons behind your decisions, they are more likely to back you up on them.
Decide how often you want to re-evaluate and re-set your goals. Is it once a month? Once every quarter? How will you measure success? By regularly reviewing your goals, you are setting your business up for success and increasing its resilience. As the competitive landscape changes, you’ll be ready to change along with it and position your company to get ahead of the competition. Being able to pivot is a critical part of any organization and leading those changes will help you to grow as a leader and business owner.
For more help with goal setting, so you can grow your business and accelerating your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation.
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Do you feel like your business has plateaued or you are sick and tired of being sick and tired? Could you use a shot in the arm to make even more progress on your goals? Consider working with The Accountability Coach. I’m here to help you accelerate your results, so you can enjoy your ideal business and ideal life!
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