As we reach the mid-year point of 2021, you may be sitting down with your broker for a performance review, checking in with your coach for a tune-up, or simply doing your own gut-check about what you have accomplished thus far. Whatever the case, this is a good time for you to look back at your goals for this year and find out how you’re doing so that you can plan ahead for the next six months.
Whether you’re taking part in a formal process or simply checking in with yourself, here are some steps to help you organize your own mid-year review and ensure that you are on-target to achieve your goals.
1. Revisit January goals
The first step toward evaluating your progress is revisiting your original goals. Whether you jotted them down in your planner or created a comprehensive strategy document, it’s time to take a look at your original idea and the implementation process you outlined.
You may find when you look back that there are critical milestones you missed or aspects of your plan of action that you failed to put into practice. By reorienting yourself to your original ideas, you’ll better understand where you should be at this point and where you are going in the months ahead.
2. Crunch the numbers
If you made your goals measurable, you should be able to put together some numbers to find out how successful you’ve been thus far. Whether you were focusing on lead generation, conversions, website traffic, or overall revenue, getting all of the relevant numbers together is an important aspect of understanding your progress.
Often we guesstimate then wonder why we’re not getting where we want to be. Gathering real data is essential for measuring your success and charting a course for your next steps.
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3. Look for performance gaps
Take a look at your data and trendlines and determine where problems seem to arise or things simply don’t add up. Is there a month where revenue was lower than normal? A two-week period with no new leads? Maybe there was a week or two where spending was higher than usual.
Now, figure out what was going on during those times. Were you ill? Was your administrative assistant out of the office? Did you implement a new marketing strategy or onboard a new support staff member? Understanding the cause and effect of your process and how it correlates to performance can help you plan better for the next time there’s a change in your routine.
4. Identify areas for improvement
What have you been doing that really works? What platforms are performing better than others you’ve tried? Where are you putting your time and energy and what is the return on that investment? How consistent are you at implementing best practices for your marketing, management, and communications?
Dig deep and really determine what you need to do better. Put your ego aside and get honest with yourself. What would it take to improve? More time? More efficiency? Outsourcing or bringing in additional support? Find out what you need to improve then plan how to implement that improvement consistently and reliably.
5. Re-dedicate yourself to your long-term outcomes
Take some time to evaluate your end-of-2021 goals and find out what is still possible, actionable, and appropriate. Maybe some things that were priorities in January are no longer high on your wishlist. Maybe some things that you hadn’t even thought about have become more important in the ensuing six months. Re-orient yourself toward meaningful, long-term goals.
Once you have redefined or reiterated your goals, take some time to shift your mindset toward them. Visualization, affirmation, coaching—all of these may be important in helping you achieve the objectives you have set for yourself.
6. Create milestones for H2 2021
Break up your long-term goals into shorter milestones for daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly implementation. Determine what it will take to achieve your overall intentions and what practices you’ll need to implement along the way.
Where needed, share these milestones with others or delegate specific tasks to members of your team. Need more consistent social media posts? Share that responsibility or develop an accountability partner to ensure that someone is always checking in with you. Want to complete a new certification or designation? Partner up with a colleague and take the necessary steps together to give yourself a better chance at success.
7. Remember that it’s never too late to begin again.
Okay, maybe you’ve revisited your plans from January and realized that you forgot to begin in the first place. You might as well give it all up as a lost cause and wait for next New Year’s, right? Wrong. There’s no time like the present to get your goals in place. Just be sure to remind yourself to set new goals for 2022.
The time between now and January 1, 2022 will be over before you know it. Will you be further along the path to your goals by then? Even if you don’t have time to reach all of your targets and implement all of your previous plans, forward is always the right direction. Re-calibrate, re-start, and re-ignite your enthusiasm so that you can end the year on a better note.
