After the holiday’s have come and gone and the first week back in the office is completed – the year gets really cracking those next two weeks. Most people I know – come back to the office refreshed and ready to go. From a work perspective, budgets for the upcoming year should be set (well, at least the first half of the year for most folks). Emails and meetings over the past couple of weeks – have laid out some of the details for 2010. Most senior leadership teams have already had their key face to face meetings to help shape 2010. Communications have gone out to their teams. The fury of activity – high! The level of excitement – high! The push for starting off 2010 is coming to a head. On the personal side, most of us are looking forward to additional changes that we are setting our goals to achieve. So, what do you do?
So simple work reminders:
- Face to face meetings with key teams and programs are a great start to the year. Getting everyone together, especially any new members and building solid relationships help. Setting out to understand the overall objectives and priorities for 2010 – will get everyone on the same page. Look for team building exercises that help to get everyone tighter aligned.
- Document, document and when you think your are done, document some more. Getting everything down in digital paper is key to keeping everyone focused. For me, my teams have their Management by Objectives quarterly to help (we always attempt to list out the very high level stuff by quarter in January) and we use our internal social media group site to keep all stuff in front of us – at all times.
- Develop your teams cadence calendar for the year. Every team has certain deliverable that are due weekly, monthly or quarterly. To help with planning of the team and each individual go ahead and set the calendar up as much as you can.
- Have some fun – get together and do stuff that takes you away from the office (maybe dinner or bowling). Make sure that you have nothing planned around work. Just go out and enjoy each others company.
On a personal note: Last year, I wanted to spend more time writing, set up this blog and give back to the community more. Each one of those, I did a pretty good job of achieving my goals. Not 100% mine you, but better than 80%. I found that if I opened up my goals to more than myself, I achieved better than expected. Like work – documenting and holding regular reviews help to make things go smoother.
This year my three goals are
- March toward my goal weight and maintain throughout the year. The holiday eight hit me! I have to get down to my goal, stick to it and insure I do not deviate to far. As I get older, this is much harder.
- Time for a huge change at work. I have been pretty much doing the same stuff for about 8 years. I enjoy doing it, but I need to actively change the landscape. Many would say, change does a person good or when you feel comfortable – it is time to get uncomfortable. I truly have reached the point, where I am going to do something different.
- Get out more! I stuck my toe in the water with the community activities. For me, I started slowly to see if I could do this. Well, I have time and the passion to do more. Time to add 1 or 2 more to my list. I have plenty to give – time to give it away…
What are some of your professional and personal goals for 2010?
On Sunday, I wrote my post. When I got to in the office Monday morning (after my flight) – I was informed that the group that I work in is going away. Surprise, shock, and worry have moved up the list..