2011 To Do List
Friday December 10, 2010
Colin Dawson from BBAP
It has been a year of challenges and in some ways we feel happy to be saying goodbye. However, now is the time to do some thoughtful analysis of your team’s accomplishments, challenges and, yes, failures?
§ Identify what worked well. Every year brings some success stories. If you or your team members are feeling low, it’s all too easy to focus only on the challenges that defeated you and the errors that contributed to your failures. Find the highlights 2010 brought and draw out the lessons you can use to improve your success in 2011.
§ Determine where you could have done better. No year, and nobody, is a complete success. Even if the last 12 months brought you and your team unsurpassed success at every turn, you can identify areas where you did not take full advantage of your skills and good fortune. Don’t worry about demoralizing your team, you can discuss areas of weakness without diminishing the strengths your team demonstrated.
§ Look for improvements you need to make. When you consider your team’s weaker areas of performance, can you determine patterns that limited your success repeatedly? Common areas may be, poor planning, over scheduling or over committing, poor communication and incomplete accountability. Take an honest look at your team’s successes and failures, considering areas that cause common stumbling blocks you can recognise and eliminate.
§ Seek opportunities you have failed to recognise. Every year brings fresh hopes and honest intentions for realizing new potential and achieving new heights in the months to come. Those good intentions often ‘run out of petrol’ as the months progress. Look back at your goals for 2010. Where did you fall short? What would you have done differently to realise better results? How can you build on what you now know to deliver better results in 2011?
§ Fine tune your plans and goals for the year ahead. Looking back at what you accomplished and at what you left undone, what will you add to 2011’s ‘To-Do’ List and what will you leave off? Not every goal is worth pursuing; to evaluate every potential target, you first need to identify one or two overarching goals that will guide your efforts in every area of your responsibilities. Test each goal against that large goal, by asking, “Will X help me meet Goal A?” If the answer is “No”, cross off the smaller goal or delegate it to a team member.
Add these five steps to your ‘To-Do’ list for 2011 to ensure that 2011 will be a year that you can look back on with pride and satisfaction.
Take care in the Festive Season and we will return to your screens in January 2011.
COLIN DAWSON
Email: colin@bbap.co.nz