It is that time of the year where the hustle and bustle of the holidays has started and we are asked to set our personal goals for the new year.  Unfortunately, most of us view this as a “check the box” activity that we are required to do but see little value in return.

This year try approaching your goal setting differently!  Use the goal setting process to gain greater organizational clarity, ensure your personal alignment to achieve results, and establish a foundation for personal accountability and success.  We will explore clarity in this week’s blog, and alignment and accountability in goal setting over the next 2 weeks.

Clarity:

Now is the perfect opportunity as you develop your yearly goals to seek and gain greater clarity to the vision, mission, and values of the organization and departmental direction.  During your process of setting goals gather all of the information you can concerning the vision, mission and values for both your organization and the department you support.  How can you effectively set a goal if you don’t know where you are going? Find out what success looks like so you can plan on how you will get there. Do your research. I think you will find the exercise itself will provide invaluable insight as you develop your 2017 goals and personal plan of development.

Want to gain even more clarity?  Ask for your formal job description if you don’t already have it. How does it describe and define your role and responsibilities?  Job descriptions are rarely ever used in goal setting but it should always be a starting point so you clearly understand what is expected of you in performing your role, which give you the ability to plan appropriately.  As a part of this exercise you can continually update the formal role and responsibilities as they evolve and change each year.

Gaining clarity will serve as the first building block in setting meaningful and relevant goals.  Next week we will take what you have discovered while gaining clarity and begin to align your actions, activities, and behaviors to your organization and department direction.

Until next week!