Time for a Mid-Year Goal Review

In just a handful of months, 2020 will be wrapping up. With the challenges this year has brought, you may be ready for 2021 to here as quickly as possible. While that may be the case, there’s still time to make an impact personally and professionally over the next few months by completing a mid-year goal review.

We’ve already discussed how it’s a great time to do your mid-year team member performance reviews (link to team review blog). It’s also a great time to mid-year goal review for yourself. If you did set your top goals for the year back in January, whether just your own goals or collaborative team goals, it’s important to take a look and see how much progress you’ve made, what opportunities still exist and what goals need updated (or nixed).

With that in mind, here are a few steps you can take when completing a mid-year goal review.

Measure your progress so far.

A big part of the SMART goal formula is setting goals that are measurable, so you can see your progress. If you set a specific measuring criteria at the beginning, use that to now gauge where you’re at with each goal. Are you on track? Are you ahead or behind schedule? If you’re behind or not on track, what obstacles or issues are getting in the way? What’s the best way to clear those obstacles?

If needed, set up a plan to get back on track.

If you or your team as a whole is off track with your goals, set a plan of attack now to regularly track and review where you’re at.

• Write your goals down if you haven’t, and keep them accessible – whether they’re in a notebook, on your computer or on your bulletin board.
• Set some ongoing time to review goals and stick with it. Whether it’s weekly or bi-weekly, you be the judge. Make it part of your daily routine. If you’ve set goals with your team, involve them too. Set a regular staff meeting or check-in just for goal review.
• Make sure you’ve set actionable steps for each goal. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when tackling a goal as a whole, but if you break it into smaller steps, it’s much more doable. Set realistic deadlines for your action items too. If you’re struggling to keep these deadlines, what’s the reason? Were they unreasonable or did changes in resources prevent you from meeting them?
• Set a measurable aspect of each goal and assign it a number. That way, you can continually use that number to help measure your progress.
• Track each goal by the amount of time you spend on it. This can help you identify areas where you’re getting stuck or spending extra time.

Celebrate success and evaluate remaining opportunities.

If you’ve made great strides in some areas, reward yourself (and your team). Share these successes with your team and what progress has been made. This will help keep everyone excited and motivated to keep moving forward. On the flipside, take a closer look at what things you have yet to accomplish or are struggling with. Try to pinpoint the reason(s) why, so you can find a solution for the remainder of the year. Are your resources available to meet these goals (time, money, knowledge, team support) good enough or is a lack of resources the problem? Or perhaps these goals/action items aren’t top priorities anymore and your goal list needs adjusted? That leads us to our next step.

Update your goals as needed.

Are your set goals still attainable or still relevant? Did you set goals that were too high? Or are you missing key pieces to achieve them? Maybe goals you made at the beginning of the year don’t carry as much importance currently. Now’s the time to consider all these things and adjust accordingly. Once you’ve had a chance to review what to keep, add to, remove, etc., update your current list and actions.

Setting goals each year is a key element to growth and advancement as a leader. But it’s easy to make goals in January then toss them aside. If you truly want to make your goals a reality, you have to continually evaluate what’s working, what isn’t and what needs updated. So as the year winds down, set yourself up to finish strong.

Need additional support meeting your goals? We’re always a phone call or click away. Schedule a consultation with one of our practice management experts today