Adam Lueken
Last week, we talked about New Year’s resolutions for your practice and some example areas you may want to concentrate on. Now, let’s discuss how you can take these general areas of advancement and build your specific, actionable 2021 practice goals.
No matter what the size of your practice is, your annual goals are critical. They are the driving force for everything you will seek to accomplish and how you will continue to grow. Therefore, it’s important to put in the right amount of time and energy when planning your goals. One approach you can take is the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)®, a system of management and goal planning created by Gino Wickman. This can help you reach your practice goals by establishing “rocks,” which are three to seven quarterly goals you need to achieve in order to hit your long-term targets. Essentially they are the foundation of your larger annual goals and will help you identify your actions, measure your progress and help you maintain work/life balance in the process.
Identify Your Rocks
First, set a mission statement for the year. In order to achieve your long-term annual goals, you will need to set and achieve short-term goals, basically how you’ll get there. These are your rocks. To begin with, write down everything you want to achieve in the first quarter of 2021 (January through March). It may be a big list at first, but that’s ok, as long as you’re able to keep them SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely). This will not only save you time and effort, but will also help get you closer to achieving the goal. If you can’t measure what you want to achieve, the rock will likely not contribute to the growth of your practice. Keep them challenging but achievable. Make sure they’re relevant to your practice’s success and commit to a set time frame to stay accountable.
Set Your List
Now that you have a working list, it’s time to whittle it down to your priorities. It’s a good idea to aim for three to seven rocks per quarter (five is the target number). For everything you’ve previously listed, decide to keep, nix or combine with another rock. Keep in mind not to set rocks that are too complicated, unrealistic or not key factors in what you want to achieve. It’s also a good idea to plan for potential obstacles, which is another good way to tell whether or not a goal is achievable. Get your team involved as well. Assign rocks to those team members and practice leaders you feel can best succeed with them and communicate your expectations.
Set a Plan to Track and Measure
Even if your rocks are realistic and specific, don’t forget to think about key performance indicators (KPIs) for each. These metrics will help you determine if you’re on the right track with your rocks in the beginning and throughout the year. Setting and monitoring the right metrics can also help your practice:
- Identify the current performance levels of your team.
- Track progress on achieving business rocks.
- Focus on driving growth in key areas.
- Drive accountability among team members.
Also, achieving your rocks will be challenging if you don’t have the right system to track and analyze the progress of your activities. It is important to find a way to monitor the outcome on a regular basis. By tracking and controlling outcomes, you can be confident that your strategy is working in your favor.
Meeting annual goals is just like setting annual goals – it doesn’t happen on its own. To help you’re your practice objectives for the quarter, you should also consider building an EOS scorecard. A scorecard helps track progress, predict issues before they arrive and meet rocks by operating proactively, not reactively.
Need help with your 2021 goal planning? We’re always a phone call or click away to help. Schedule a consultation with one of our practice management experts today!