Stay accountable and focused on where you’re taking your business.

Summer is almost over and schools will be back soon. For many the ‘normality’ of work will return.

During January to March, many focus on goals and targets for the year and in the book ‘The 12 week year’ it was discussed how many businesses focus on year end (the last month of the financial year usually) for achieving targets. I recently spoke to someone under pressure to get the bills done and out that month as year end results would be looked at. Why would you want to check billings and targets only once a year?

So many business owners wait for year end to assess how they have done or what is achieved. Focusing monthly on your management accounts and headline numbers is a great way to stay on track all year round. The pressure of a monthly deadline and targets becomes the ‘norm’ and we get used to targets and what we’re achieving.  How we compare to budget or targets.

Whether or not you set a yearly target for 2018 in number terms or focused on the bigger picture of where you wanted to take your business through 2018, we have 19 weeks left in 2018 to make more of an impact.

If you are serious about achieving targets, you must have a plan in place for reviewing them regularly and checking in to see where you’re at with them.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE 

If you hadn’t set any specific goals, now is not too late. Much can be achieved in 19 weeks and with focus and with clarity, comes energy and drive to motivate you to achieve more for the coming months.

ACCOUNTABILITY 

Follow through and accountability is the tougher part (for some). Setting the goals for many is easier (although not always). Keeping yourself and track and staying motivated while others are on holidays can be tougher. Having an accountability partner is crucial to helping you stay focused if you find you’re struggling with this. Checking in with a phone call or email to say you’re hitting targets or ticked the list you wanted ticked, spurs you on to achieve even more in the next week or month.

SLOW DOWN AND CELEBRATE 

Looking at goals regularly and staying on track also allows you to slow down and reflect regularly also. Many business owners move on to the next thing so quickly, they never stop to check-in. A serious target may have been met, and perhaps no time out was taken to really enjoy that success. To me, that feels a little sad. I want to enjoy every success along the way and take the time to reflect on how the good days really feel. I’m not talking about massive celebrations, but mini celebrations to enjoy the here and now in our business. Things will always move on and you will always be ‘busy’ so prioritising time out for reflection and celebrations could also be part of your routine for the end of this calendar year (if you don’t already do this).

Remember, there’s plenty of time to make changes for this calendar year. Knowing how to stay on track or reminding yourself of your key motivator can help. Take time out and enjoy how far you’ve come. Celebrate the wins.

For anyone interested, I held some ‘Goal focused’ workshops earlier in the year. There is a follow up free workshop planned for October revisiting goals, staying on track and motivating yourself and others to stay accountable. This will be co-hosted with Jo Collins of Sales Performance. Numbers, Goals and Sales tips will be discussed on the morning.

Details will follow and be published on LinkedIn soon – if interested, you can email me to reserve a spot. Wendy@williamsmerrigan.ie