How Much Did You Grow Last Year?

How much did you grow last year?

Jim Collins (Good to Great, B. E. 2.0, and many others) once said that you should be able to look around each member of your team every year and know how each of them has grown.

So, how much have you grown? In December every year I look back to see what I’ve achieved, what I’ve learned, how my health and fitness is, how my relationships have developed and grown. When I’ve reviewed the previous year, I decide what my key goals, actions and targets will be for the next year.

Where to start?

I use a simple and highly effective format developed by a fellow Vistage speaker called Pete Wilkinson, called a 1-3-5. The ‘1’ is the overarching Vision you have for the following year, the ‘3’ are the 3 objectives you have for the year, and the ‘5’, are the 5 Actions, with associated targets I will take.
With everyone I coach I use this or a similar framework like OKRs. Start with your one-year Vision at the top of the page. Write it in the first person e.g. “I will be running a business, leading a life…” etc. This is usually the hardest piece to write. Then go to the three objectives. The most obvious three objectives/ headings for the 1-3-5 are:
  • Business
  • Personal
  • Health & Wellbeing
A 1-3-5 table for objective setting

However, many people that I coach have added other headings like ‘mastery’ (what you will learn throughout the year) or they have given the ‘Business’ heading a different and more intentional one like ‘Become a better clock builder, not time teller’ (to quote Jim Collins again).

Of course, a 1-3-5 needs to be part of a longer-term plan for you and your business. What do you want to achieve in 5 or 10 years, or by the time you retire or when you are 80 and looking back on a wonderful life, lived on purpose?

Visuals can also help enormously in visioning your future. I was lucky enough recently to work with Brian Mayne who presented his outstanding session on ‘Goal Mapping’ to the leaders I was working with. In goal mapping you literally draw your future, and these powerful images are embedded in your mind as you work towards their achievement.

So now is the time to reflect on last year, bring your thinking together, and create some stretch goals for the year ahead. Can you make this your best year ever? That’s my intention. Good luck!

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