Before you get carried away with resolutions, look back.

As leaders, we don't look backwards enough.

I've trained hundreds of people and organizations on goal-setting, and I can probably count on one hand how many of those set up systems to revisit and assess those goals later (at least, on their first pass--I don't let them get away with that for long!)

Goal-setting is full of the emotions we feel more comfortable with - enthusiasm, optimism, desire - and so it's understandable that people and organizations have regular routines around goal-setting.

The much, much harder work is reflecting on those goals later. Why? You're likely to feel a lot more uncomfortable. Reflection requires facing failures, shortfalls...reality...and with that reality tends to come a lot of judgement around what it means to have failed or missed targets. Most of us bear the battle scars of being held "accountable" (i.e. to blame) for our or our leaders' earlier hubris, and as a result, have a fear of what reflection might mean for us, and so we avoid it all together.

Don't avoid the discomfort.

It's in reflection that we learn the the most. The saying "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" needs no further evidence than a company's annual goal-setting routines. As leaders, our job is to navigate the discomfort and get to the other side: a clearer-eyed view of what we and our teams are capable of. We need to learn, and to do that well with our teams, we have to start with ourselves. We need to practice looking at our failings with curiosity instead of judgement so that we can set the example of this for our teams.

If you're looking to set goals or resolutions, do these 3 things first.

1. Pull up the last goals you set and ask yourself about the goals themselves (don't look at the results yet):

   • What was I hoping to accomplish?

   • Why did I choose these goals over other ones?

   • How many goals did I set at one time?

   • How did I articulate these goals? Was I moving towards something positive? Away from something negative?

   • Would I choose these goals today? Why or why not?

     
     

2. Now, look at the results of pursuing those goals. What actually happened?

   • How did the way the goals were articulated influence how I or my team pursued them?

   • Did I abandon some? Forget some? Why?

   • Were there other goals at-play that weren't on this list? For example, did my list say to be more customer-centric but I was actually pursuing a revenue goal?

   • How much was I able to accomplish? What can this teach me about my capacity?

   • What pitfalls and blockers did I run into? How can I anticipate those next time?

     
     

3. Next, set up some guardrails around the next goals you will set

   • How many goals do I think I can reasonably pursue at one time?

   • Who else might I need to include in my goal-setting to ensure I have the buy-in and information I need to set a goal?

   • What accountability or systems do I need in place to support a goal that I set?

Even if you've already set your latest goals, it's not too late to go through these three steps and adjust. The important thing is to learn enough from the past that you can set yourself up for more success in the future.

Once you've done this a few times for yourself, you will find that the discomfort of reflection is vastly outweighed by the clarity you gain, and you will be a much better leader for that clarity. As a bonus, you will be able to model this for your teams and set them up to reflect without creating new battle scars.

Let me know how it goes!