New Year...New Goals???

With the start of a New Year if you are like me it is a time of reflection, goal setting, re-commitment, and optimism. 

This year with the economy being what it is, the pessimism passed on by every major new organization, and the new President coming in on the 20th I feel it is a time to really look at where we want to go in 2009.

At my firm we always have a year end planning meeting for ourselves where we reflect on where we have been, where we are going, and how we can measure how we are going to get there and how we are doing....

This past week we spent New Year's Eve doing just this.  We have now established our goals for the practice, re-evaluated our best practices, and "tweaked" our leading indicators.

If you have not done so yet, it is not too late. 

The keys to setting goals is to make them S.M.A.R.T goals.   You should also look at your metrics on how you plan on getting there.  I am a big believer in Leading indicators.  Metrics should be something you can measure and control today that affects the future.  They should not be a reflection of where you have been.  It is good to keep a dashboard of past results, but they do not help change where you are going they only tell you where you have been.

If you are interested in learning more about leading indicators, I would HIGHLY recommend reading any of Ron Baker's books.  Particularly

It is an awesome book and a true guide of my practice.

Oh ya, One of my goals....writing in my blog more than once every 3 months......Happy New Year!

Comments

[Chad Bordeaux]

I look forward to reading more than once every three months!

I have about 20 books lined up before it, but I will add this one to my list.

[Everything Counts]

Properly set up goals define the very path to our success. With each of them achieved, we come one step closer to our desirable. They also provide a totally different type of confidence in us which help us move forward. But identifying and setting up goals the right way is very important. Improper goals can often mislead us to failures time and again.