Dec FAQ — Planning for next year

One Friday each month, I dedicate the post to looking at some questions I have heard recently from developing leaders. Sharing those questions and my thoughts for them is a way for me to spread the information to as many leaders and future leaders as possible. If you have a question about leadership, or just a situation you would like some additional insight on, please email me at Effective Retail Leader. Let’s take a look at this week’s question.

I want to have a solid plan in place for myself and my team heading into the next year. How can I build a strong plan that the team will embrace and can be successful with?

I held this question to be a way to connect many of the pieces together from the series of articles recently published on goal planning for the year ahead. Many of the ideas suggested in those provide a backbone for how you can have a solid plan for yourself and your team.

A solid plan for yourself

Having a plan for yourself is definitely the first step in having a successful year. What you want to accomplish has to be every leader’s starting point. It may tie into a larger team or company goal as well. As leaders, we must start with our vision for the year ahead.

Reflect

Take time to reflect on what has worked well in the current, nearly complete year. What didn’t go as planned? Why was that? What can be learned or changed from this year’s experiences? Make time to work through what this year meant to you. Did you achieve what you wanted? How can the learnings from this year be applied to the year ahead? This is all part of the reflection process. For more ideas on this, refer to Time for Fresh Perspective: On You. Conducting an Annual Review.

Realistic

As you are beginning to define your goals for next year, be realistic with yourself and with the time you will have. One thing we probably all learn from our reflection process is that we never have as much time as we thought we would (or hoped we would). Life is complex and there are always things that come up. Build the reality of how your world works into your plans and goals. This is all part of the planning process.

Routines

Your routines and habits may assist is managing your time better or prioritizing the activities that matter the most to you. Establishing new routines can be a way to tackle new or different actions that you want to achieve in the new year. This can help ensure the realistic approach you outline can be brought to life. If your routines are not aligned with what you’ve learned from the past and the realistic look you are taking, you will find yourself struggling to keep up with your goal achievements. Connect all of these pieces together to set yourself up for success.

A strong plan for your team that they embrace

The second part of your question touches on getting your team engaged so they will support and embrace the goals for the year. Here are some thoughts on how you can connect your team and your goals together:

Include the team

Let your team be a part of the goal planning and setting process. What do they feel needs to be accomplished? How would they prioritize? What are the concerns or obstacles they may face? Work through all the different pieces with your team so their voices are heard, and they can provide ideas and potential solutions to any challenges they may encounter.

Agree on the plan

Once all the discussions have taken place, agree on what the actions and outcomes will be. What are the expectations? What is the timeline? Who will own what outcomes? Do you have a roadmap of what actions will be needed? All of those should be part of the plan that everyone becomes a part of.

Build accountability

With those pieces in place, you have all the ingredients you need to have goals planned, actions defined, and everyone’s role identified. This is the foundation for accountability. As part of this, agree on regular team discussions on measurements, progress, and results. Include the timelines for follow-up meetings as a team and for individuals. This is a great way to ensure peer support, coaching, and most importantly, celebration as you work towards achieving the goals you have set.

With these steps, you can set yourself up for a winning year and your team will be excited to participate in the team’s goals and successes as well as their individual contributions. Goal planning, setting, and achievement are never as easy as they seem. Take time to think through how you want your discussions to go (both for yourself and your team.) Then define the routines you’ll need to follow through on the goals you have set for the coming year.

Join other retail leaders in continuing their development journey with Effective Retail Leader.com. SUBSCRIBE today to receive leadership tips directly to your inbox and monthly newsletters that provide many tools to help further develop your leadership skills. JOIN NOW!

No spam ever — just leadership goodness.