It is hard to believe, but 2019 is almost finished! This past year was filled with its share of challenges, opportunities and hope. As I reflect on it and our team’s successes, it fills me with a sense of accomplishment and that familiar feeling, that all leaders share, of needing to achieve more.
Yes, believe it or not, 2020 is upon us and will be here in less than a week. Leaders across the world are thinking about the new year and making plans to lead their teams to greater heights and achievements.
What about you? Are you planning your team’s success for the new year?
Before deciding what we want our teams to accomplish next year, we should set our own personal goals first. Setting your personal goals first will get you in the correct mindset for leading your team to set theirs.
Personal Goals
Start by focusing your personal goals on three categories: Personal Growth, Relationships and Professional.
Personal Growth goals fall into three specific categories: Spiritual, Mental and Physical.
Spiritual goals should focus on your core self, your values and purpose in life. What do you deeply believe in? How does what you believe in give you purpose? Where is your spiritual journey taking you? These are some questions to start with as you formulate your spiritual goals for 2020.
Mental goals may include certain books you plan to read or classes/seminars you plan to attend. Set a goal for learning and stretching or reinforcing what you already know. Commit to read a certain amount of leadership or self-help books. Look for seminars in your local area or sign up for classes designed to help you become better.
Physical goals may involve starting or changing your exercise routine, a change in your diet, a certain weight target, etc. Staying fit and active will only enhance the other areas of your life, so make it a priority in the upcoming year.
Relationship goals should focus on your immediate family. They can also include extended family, dear friends and coworkers. Relationships are vitally important to our overall wellbeing and health. Focus on tangible ways to strengthen those relationships, such as taking up a hobby or learning a new skill together. When setting your relationship goals, ask yourself, “What do I plan to contribute to these relationships to help enrich them in 2020?”
Professional goals are what you are planning for yourself and your team at work. Think of goals that will stretch you and enhance your specific job, such as learning a new skill or receiving a certification. As for your team, you should guide and coach them as they set their own goals.
Team Goals
For your team to be successful in reaching goals next year, you must include them in the planning process. Have a meeting with your team to set goals as a group for the new year. Doing so will create solid buy-in and make achieving those goals more likely.
Where I work, we have already started planting the seeds about this meeting within our individual department sales teams. With a minimum baseline, our team will decide their goals for the upcoming year. The team will collectively set their department goals while the department supervisors and I are available for coaching and advice. When we conduct our goals meeting in January, they will have some well thought out, specific goals ready to bring before the entire team.
As you work through your personal and team goals, make sure they are positive, purposeful, measurable and attainable.
Positive goals bring joy and excitement to you, especially when you think about accomplishing them. Each of your goals need to have an element of positivity. If they do not, they are not worth trying to reach.
A purposeful goal describes what you are trying to accomplish. In other words, when you write your goal you should see the purpose behind it. For example, you may have a physical goal of losing 20 lbs. in the first three months of the year. The purpose is to become healthier, feel better, and look amazing.
Goals must be measurable in order to stay on track and provide motivation for accomplishment. As you work toward your goal, have checkpoints along the way to measure how far you have come. The 20 lbs. you are working to lose can be measured weekly as you weigh-in. When you see positive movement, you are likely to keep the course in reaching your goal.
Above all, make your goals attainable. You want to make sure the goals stretch you and your team, but they also must be realistic. For instance, I have a goal to maintain my physical fitness level in 2020. This is attainable. It would be unrealistic for me to set a goal to become so physically fit that I could play professional football, however! Your goals, and your team’s goals, must be something that can be attained.
Yes, we are less than a week from the new year and it promises to be an amazing one. I wish all of you nothing but success and prosperity in achieving your personal and team goals in 2020. Remember, set your goals first and then lead your team well in setting theirs!
Leadership Bricks 
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