Business Operations

By Mike Leigh

Executive Summary:

We are now well into the new year; how are you doing on your goals and resolutions for 2022?

Send your questions or comments to Mike@ OpXSolutionsllc.com

Accomplishing goals

Many people are good at setting personal and professional goals. Many companies invest time and money into creating strategic plans. Unfortunately, many of those goals and plans are never completed.

I’m in the business of helping companies and their leaders achieve their goals. After many years of experience, I’ve learned that although intentions and planning are usually good, leaders and companies struggle in the execution. If you struggle with goal achievement, or strategic plan execution, consider these ideas:

Write them down. Writing down your goals makes them more tangible. It forces you to add clarity to your thoughts as you put them down into words. And the act of writing down your goals helps you to “internalize” them and keep them on your mind.

Be specific. Goals are more readily accomplished when they are written as SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-sensitive/Tangible). A vague goal (“Increase revenue next year”) will not be as effective as a SMART goal (“Increase revenue in our services business by 20% in 2022)

Track your progress. Making your goals specific and measurable allows you to track them. Without tracking, there is no way to know if you are making progress, or if you need to make an adjustment to your plan. Make your tracking visible and review it often.

Tell others. This is a common trick used to help achieve goals. When you tell others what your goals are, you develop a greater psychological need to be successful and not fail in the eyes of others. Another benefit is that most of us like to help others be successful (which is why Kickstarter works so well), so those we tell our goals to will often help us to achieve them.

Break it down. Goals need momentum. Many fail when they don’t get started and are unable to gather momentum. To help build that momentum, break down your goal into small, actionable steps that can be easily accomplished. Assign responsibility and a deadline to each step. As these steps get accomplished and progress is made, motivation increases, and momentum keeps you moving forward.

Check your attitude. How bad do you REALLY want that goal? You need to be honest with yourself and decide if the goal is worth your time and energy. If not, drop the goal and work on something more important.

I define success as the progressive realization of worthwhile, predetermined, personal goals. I hope you achieve your goals and greater success in 2022.