Focusing on Your 2024 Goals
Cathie Leimbach • January 2, 2024
2024 has just arrived! May it be a Happy New Year full of achievement and fulfillment!
The first step in having a great year is to decide what will make it a great year for you. If you don’t have a destination – where you wish your life and work activities will take you this year, they you can’t map out a path to get there. If you haven’t yet set goals for this new year, then this week is the best time to determine a few 2024 goals with deadline dates.
Once you have some important measurable goals, it is important to hold yourself accountable to consistently take actions towards achieving them. Here are a few steps that will help you stay focused on these priorities.
- Review your goals daily to keep them top of mind.
- Set milestones indicating how much progress you wish to make each week or month.
- Review your progress weekly or monthly to see if you are meeting your milestones.
- When you meet a milestone, celebrate. Go out for a specialty coffee or go see a movie. For major milestones, you might go out-of-town for the weekend or treat yourself to dinner at a high end restaurant.
- When you miss a milestone, review the actions you have taken, what helped you make progress, what were your bottlenecks. Develop plan B that will enable you to make more progress in the coming week.
- If you are stumbling, get an accountability partner to encourage your success and help you stay on track. This could be a business colleague, friend, family member, or a professional coach.
- Keep taking the actions that yield progress.
- And, when each goal is achieved, celebrate!
Wishing you a year full of achievement and joy!
Tammy was furious. For the third day in a row, the hydraulic hose assembly line was falling behind. How could they keep customers happy when production was this slow? The target was 50 hoses per hour, with at least 98% meeting quality standards. Yet, after two hours, Tom's team had produced only 65 hoses, and six had failed inspection. Tammy marched over to Tom, the line supervisor. “This is unacceptable! You know our targets. Get your people moving!” She stormed off, frustrated and worried about falling further behind. Tom felt embarrassed and discouraged. He told his team to work faster. An hour later, production was still behind, and more hoses had failed inspection. Leadership Tip – Correct Kindly, Solve Problems Together Corrective action doesn't need to be harsh. A calm, respectful conversation can improve both performance and trust. Clarify the gap. Remind the employee of the agreed expectation and describe what you've observed. “Tom, our target is 50 hoses per hour, with 98% meeting standards. Your team produced 65 in two hours, and six failed inspection.” Explore causes and solutions together. Ask, “What's getting in the way?” Listen carefully. Perhaps a crimping machine needs adjustment or a new employee needs coaching. Ask, “What could we do differently? How can I help?” Agree on next steps. Ask Tom to summarize what he'll do. State what you'll do to support him. Agree on when you'll review progress. Bottom Line Kindness doesn't mean lowering expectations. It means helping people meet them. Conversation is Where Leadership Happens™ Be kind. Be clear. Hold people accountable. Have a conversation you’ve been putting off because you don’t want to sound harsh—or let the issue slide? Bring it to the Workplace Conversations Clinic on November 16 to discuss addressing the problem with kindness, setting clear expectations, and agreeing on next steps. Reserve your spot for the November 16 Workplace Conversations Clinic → HERE
“The same production line’s data is late again,” someone said. “Are we just supposed to keep begging for it?” Maya looked up. Two employees had stopped their own work to help track down the data missing from the weekly report to headquarters. She knew there had been delays. She hadn’t paid attention to how often or what happened when the data came in late. Each Friday, John sent the report out, and Maya moved on. Her team hadn’t moved on. They were tired of disrupting their own work to address the same problem week after week. The Symptom Late work. Repeated mistakes. People asking why they should bother when others don’t do their part. When there is a pattern of leaders letting missed deadlines slide, employees notice. Silence can leave people thinking that missed commitments are acceptable, even when that isn’t what the leader intends. Monitoring performance gives leaders a clearer picture of what is happening—and something specific to discuss with those involved. The Tip Here are three steps to noticing problems and sharing your performance concerns. Track the data. Look at information tied to the work, such as deadlines and errors. Maya could track how often data for the weekly reports arrived late. Walk around. Spend time where the work happens. Notice what people are doing and how one person’s work affects another’s. Maya saw two employees put their work aside to finish someone else’s task. Share what you find. Bring the facts and your observations to the attention of the person involved. Maya could say: “Your weekly production data was submitted late three of the last four weeks. Today, I saw Lee and Sam stop their work to get the raw data and do the analysis.” That makes it clear to the employee that submitting data late is not acceptable. Conversation is Where Leadership Happens™ Is there a pattern at your workplace that you’ve noticed but haven’t addressed? Join our Workplace Conversations Clinic on November 16 to discuss addressing performance concerns. Bring a situation you’ve been letting slide. Reserve your place HERE
