Take An Innovative Mindset Approach Assessing Your Goals Mid-Year
As we reach the midpoint of the year, it's a crucial time for retail leaders to pause and reassess their goals and strategies. While this is a common practice, it's essential to approach it with fresh, innovative thinking. It can be easy to stay caught in the normal routines and even previous goal assessment processes. It is less about the process itself, and even the steps I can list below, but rather the mindset you have for approaching your current status. The five recommended actions listed are not revolutionary in themselves; that will come from how you think about each and the steps you take coming from your planning session.
It can be difficult to acknowledge the need for change. Personally, I am often a ‘completist.' I want to finish things I begin. It is hard to walk away from invested time, or activity. But I have also learned it is a necessary part of development and longer-term success. It can be as simple as not finishing a book I started but don’t really like, to bigger projects that have hours of work invested into that simply don’t add the value once promised. These are critical choices to free up valuable time for yourself to move on to more essential activities for the changing environment. We are all in a different reality than we had six or seven months ago when some goals or plans were created. Changing is not a bad thing.
Reflect on the past 6 months
Review the accomplishments and challenges you’ve faced so far this year.
Highlight the importance of acknowledging both successes and setbacks. What do these mean to you, and what can you do about it?
Your learnings may be great subjects for team meetings and follow-up one-on-one sessions with your direct report on the adjustments needed. Leverage your findings from your reflections.
Embrace flexibility and adaptability
Times change. We are all in different places than we were earlier in the year. Reset based on where you currently are, not where you thought you’d be.
Change is not failure. Adjusting now shouldn’t be something that is considered bad. Make the updates that are needed.
Recognize that change will continue to happen, and adapt along the way. Specifically, calendar milestones (i.e., mid-year) shouldn’t be the only places you look to make updates.
Continuous improvement mindset
Perfect is the enemy of good. Don’t get stuck in not moving forward because the plan or current state is ‘just right’ for where you need to get. Get started, build momentum, make adjustments along the way.
Look for development opportunities for yourself and your team. This can be both formal and information, but keep the movement (of learning) happening.
Work with a growth mindset. Expanding your options and opportunities will help you see further and wider in what you can accomplish.
Leverage resources
Review what you are doing versus what you should be doing. What can be offloaded to other people? Delegation can free up a lot of time to be spent on more critical actions.
How can you leverage technology better? Invest some time in understanding the advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI). There have been changes in the past few months that have moved this forward and can help save time in many areas for leaders.
Continuing with technology, are there new applications you can use to take work off your plate, or streamline your approach? You may be surprised how much time can be saved using new tools to manage things like email, summarizing information, and for supporting time management.
Prepare for the unexpected
Build contingency plans. What else might happen in the remainder of the year you need to address? Begin defining options for ‘Plan B’ or ‘Plan C’ now.
Identify the risks in the coming months. What are the obstacles that may come up you can begin to think about. ‘What if sales get worse?’ ‘What happens if sales get better?’ ‘Are any key team members or leaders at risk of leaving?’ What options will you have in these situations?
Think about the impact and how you would react in those situations. Then, if they happen, you will be mentally and physically more prepared to address them quickly. You may even identify options to proactively address those situations as you see early warning signs along the way.
As you reassess and update your goals at the mid-year mark, remember to approach the process with flexibility, innovation, and a growth mindset. Making adjustments to improve success should not be seen as a bad thing, in fact, it may be the smartest thing you can do. This is certainly a case where change is good, and something that as leaders we can embrace, model, and share with others for everyone’s improved success.
What changes are you making to your goals at the mid-point of the year?
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