It happened again. Another year flew by! It’s time to start reviewing the progress we made in 2021 and get a plan in place for 2022. For many people, that’s easier said than done. But, never fear! We’re going to help you analyze what happened over the past year and get on the right path for moving into the new year.
Step 1: Look at your goals for the past year
You can’t measure how you did during the year unless you know what you were trying to accomplish. If you wrote out SMART goals for 2021, break them out so you’ll be ready to analyze how things went during the year.
If you didn’t write out goals for 2021, take a minute and think about what you were trying to accomplish for the year. This will help you as you start to analyze the year overall.
Step 2: What went well in 2021?
Now that you have an idea of what you were trying to accomplish, look for what went well during the year. What goals did you hit? What positive surprises did you have?
List out the successes you had during the year. This is your time to acknowledge the positive. What growth did you experience during the year?
Your answers to this will depend on what type of goals you had. It might be that you added a certain number of clients, hit a revenue goal, or brought on new team members. Don’t gloss over the successes you experienced. Really take time to dive in and list out all of the things that went well this year.
Then take a moment to celebrate this. It’s easy for some leaders to overlook successes in the quest to continue growing. Take time to enjoy the positive results of your work. Make sure you celebrate with those who helped you reach those successes as well. Thank your team. Thank your clients. Make sure your family knows you appreciate their support and how it played an important role in you being able to experience that success.
Step 3: What went wrong in 2021?
Now we’re going to look at something everyone hates to recognize—FAILURE. We want you to move past the emotional, punched-in-the-gut feeling that so many people experience when they think about areas where they failed.
Failure is part of life and a part of business. You’re not going to get it all right all the time. Ignoring it or pretending that it didn’t happen doesn’t help you grow. Instead, it keeps you stuck. If you want to make 2022 better than 2021, you have to recognize, acknowledge, and learn from your failure.
So, list out what went wrong throughout the year. Where were the major problems? What were the small bumps in the road? What goals did you not hit? And what unexpected and unpleasant surprises occurred?
Keep in mind that this process will only be as helpful as you are honest. If you make excuses or justifications during this step instead of admitting the things that went wrong, you won’t be able to make the progress that is possible in the next step.
Step 4: What do you need to realign?
Now it’s time to look over the list you made in Step 3 and determine where you can realign. What changes need to be made in 2022 to help you make progress on the things you failed at in 2021?
In order to do this, you need to reflect on and ask yourself “why did this fail?”. You need to dig in to see what the obstacle or problem was that derailed what you wanted to do.
Here’s a simple example: In 2021, I set a personal goal of reading one book a month. That seems like it should be ridiculously doable since I enjoy reading. I failed to hit it. Why? My justification mindset would say it’s because I’m a busy wife, mom to 3 children, and I work full-time. But the justification doesn’t help me do better next year. The truth is that I didn’t prioritize sticking to this goal. I didn’t make time on my calendar and I wasn’t intentional about accomplishing it. I have a choice for 2022. If I want to hit that goal, I need to schedule time to read that allows me to move through books at a faster pace. Or, I can determine that the goal obviously wasn’t important to me and does not need to continue to be a goal in 2022.
I know that’s a very simple example, but hopefully, you see how it can apply to leadership and business goals as well. You may have to push yourself to dig a little deeper to determine why it didn’t go well and what the action needs to be in the coming year to make it different.
Step 5: Set your 2022 goals
Looking over the lists you created in the steps above can help as you set your goals for 2022. Look at the things that went well and determine what new goals you can set (if possible) in those areas. Look at your realignment list for the failures and think about what new goals you can set with that information in mind.
Here are some other blog posts to help you as you set goals for 2022:
- How to Break Down Goals into Actionable Tasks
- Being Intentional with Your Goal
- The Importance of Buy-in During the Goal Setting Process
- How to Get Employee Buy-In For Your Goals
- Failing at Goal Setting? See Why Breaking Down Goals is the Answer
- Why Goal Setting is Crucial for Leadership
Incorporate this process into your routine
The best thing about this process is it’s something you can do on a regular basis. In fact, if you do this regularly, it will feel much less overwhelming at the end of every year. You will constantly have a clear picture of where you stand on your goals which will allow you to pivot as needed throughout the year. You will waste less time and make move the needle more.
The SPEARity app is designed to help you do this on a daily basis. It creates a platform for you and your employees to enter and track your goals for the year and break them into actionable steps. The app helps keep you on track and moving toward accomplishing your goals so you have a clear picture of where you stand.
