One of the foundational elements of success is goal-setting. Without goals, leaders are left to navigate the business world blindly without clear direction and tangible next steps.
At Dardis, we teach our students early on the importance of goal-setting. Through the Dardis Academy, we encourage interns to set their own personal sales goals for the summer. In addition, we provide an extra incentive for them to reach their goals through a trip only obtained by a set amount of sales.
A Forbes.com article from January highlighted four key steps to achieving goals in 2013, and even though we’re more than halfway through the year, these goals from Nathalie Lussier, creator of The Website Checkup Tool, can still be applied:
1. Getting clear is the first step.
First, take out a sheet of paper or a blank document on your computer, and write out every single thing that you want to achieve in 2013 (and beyond)…Once you have a list of everything that you can imagine for your company in a the next few years, it’s time to prioritize.2. Rate your goals by profitability and what excites you the most.
This prioritizing exercise allows you to clearly see what ideas don’t fit with what you want to create and achieve.3. Meet your new best friend: your calendar.
Now it’s time to choose those things that are the highest priority for you and your company and slot them into your calendar. Schedule each of the projects and items that you want to achieve, month by month. Be realistic about what you can achieve in a given month and what steps it involves.4. Don’t forget to plan for life events, too.
When you do step 3, don’t forget to take it one step further and write down any personal trips, holidays spent with family that you usually take off, or other personal events that you know about ahead of time. That way, you won’t be surprised when “real life” intervenes and you have less time to work.
These are only the first few steps needed to fully achieve your goals, but by following these initial actions, you’re sure to set yourself up for success in the remaining months of 2013!
Photo credit: By Chris (originally posted to Flickr as DSC_0051) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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