New Year: A time for personal resolution or greater good intentions?
Asks Andrew Penker Chartered FCIPD, MSc and the Founder of XSectorMentor.com and an independent HR Consultant.
Originating from the ancient Babylonians around 4000 years ago, who apparently made promises to their gods for the coming new year, through to early Christian times when prayers and ‘resolutions’ were made for the new year, one thing is certain only a few of us actually succeed in realising the resolutions that we make.
At a time when for many of us, we will reflect on the previous year and make plans for the coming year, there is often an interconnection between our personal and professional goals which may also connect with our wellbeing in terms of financial, physical, social and emotional objectives.
These goals could be in the form of post-appraisal performance development plans (PDPs) or fitness schedules or financial forecasts, savings and investment plans.
With our goals and resolutions being so interconnected it is weird that we tend to disconnect these from other people who may be able to support, cajole, and challenge us to achieve these objectives. Perhaps that is why so many of us fail to achieve them?
Over the past 18 months I have been involved with a number of companies on a range of different projects and have noted that there remains common needs expressed by line managers relating to how they can goal-set, prioritise and achieve their objectives.
To explain how to approach these issues, I would suggest using the prioritisation exercise from ‘What Colour is your parachute?’ by Bolles, which is a leading guide to job-hunting and career planning, and the Pareto principle, the ubiquitous 80/20 rule or the law of the vital few.
Let me explain how these can help:
Prioritisation
Create a grid with any number of your goals (although this works best with around 10), Now compare your listed goals against each other i.e. 1 v 2, 1 v 3, 1 v 4, and then 2 v 3, 2 v 4 etc. in terms of their importance to you.
Next add up the amount of times each goal is placed at a higher level of importance than the other and you will evidence a new prioritised list of your goals.
80/20 rule
With an ordered list of prioritised goals, you can determine how much of your time you should devote to the achievement of these goals. By spending 80% of your time on 20% of your goals, you should achieve more than by spending an even amount of time on all of them since for most of us our higher prioritised goals will provide greater benefits to ourselves, our colleagues, and our companies.
To assess the impact of this approach, consider reviewing your goals and their achievement every year especially in terms of the amount of time you invested in their achievement.
Connecting your goals with others
Should you wish to have a mentor who could help you in achieving your goals in 2022 then please visit: https://xsectormentor.com/ or email: andrew@xsectormentor.com if you’d like a demonstration of our programme, which is a pioneering approach to personal, professional and business improvement through connecting professionals and companies from across sectors and professions.
