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21 Questions to Help You Reflect on 2021 and Set Your Goals for 2022

Reflect on 2021 and Set Your Intentions and Goals for 2022

 

I asked my connections on LinkedIn and Facebook:

“If you could choose one word to describe 2021, what would it be?”

Some of the one-word responses included:

accelerating, adaptive, agility, busy, chaotic, courage, devastating, eye-opening, grit, emotional, faith, growth, hope, humbling, inspiring, interesting, opportunity, prodigious, reset, resilience, risk, stressful, transformational, unusual and a ‘waste.’

What is your word to describe 2021?

What will be your word for 2022?

I encourage you to start your planning process by first reflecting on this chaotic year we have had. Making a note of the lessons learned will help you clarify your takeaways, address areas of challenge, and help set your intentions and goals for 2022.

2021 Reflection

2021 Reflection

 

2021 Reflection Questions

  1. What was your greatest lesson this year?
  2. What were the top three challenges you overcome in 2021?
  3. What was the best decision you made in either your professional or personal life?
  4. What accomplishment are you most proud of this year?
  5. What did you learn about yourself that you were unaware of pre-COVID?
  6. What new skills did you acquire?
  7. What new habits did you integrate into your day?
  8. What did you fail to do?
  9. Are you a different person than you were this time last year? How?
  10. What exhausted you, and on the flip side, reenergized you this year?
Goal Setting 2022

Goal Setting 2022

 

2022 Intentions and Goals

  1. What 5-7 professional goals do you want to achieve in 2022?
  2. What 3-5 personal goals do you want to achieve in 2022?
  3. What are you going to STOP doing next year?
  4. What are you going to KEEP doing next year?
  5. What do you want to START doing next year?
  6. What are you planning to do to enable you to step out of your comfort zone?
  7. What relationships do you want to focus on improving in 2022?
  8. What technical or personal qualities do you want to strengthen next year?
  9. How can you improve the integration of your work and personal life?
  10. Are there any improvements you need to make to your work environment to be more productive?
  11. List 3-5 individuals (professional or personal) who are in your support circle that you can rely on for help and advice?

 

Upon answering these questions if you need some direction on setting your goals for 2022, please get in touch to book a complimentary 15-minute goal setting strategy session.

If you are interested in learning about how professional development or executive coaching can help support your leadership or your leadership team, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com to schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

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Take Action Now! Clarify Your Goals for 2022

Clarity of YOUR goals helps ward off procrastination providing direction and increasing productivity. To move forward, I encourage you to carve out some time, sit down and write what you want to achieve professionally and personally by year-end.

CLARIFY YOUR GOALS

WRITING DOWN EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT

=

A GREATER CHANCE OF ACHIEVING IT!

 

  • Decide what you want professionally and personally by year-end. Write it down; it will help you be accountable.
  • Define all that you will have to do on the list, to complete your goals by December 31, 2021.
  • Prioritize your task list from what you need to do first to last, assign due dates to essential tasks.
  • Take ACTION on your goals, be relentlessly consistent in action, move through the items on your lists by or before your due dates.

Clearly defined goals can motivate you into action. You know the next best step to take, so take it!

No procrastination is required!

Concentrate on your most important task, continually work on the next best step until complete- it is this simple!

Take Action Now

Take Action Now – Jenny Reilly Consulting – Executive Coaching and Consulting

 

Improve Your Productivity, Performance, Output, and Results

 

Concentrate on your most important task, continually work on the next best step until complete- it is this simple!

Focus 100% | Do it well | Finish it!

We all have too much to do in too little time; the sea of rolling tasks and responsibilities can be handled if you focus on the most critical job first until finished.

  • Habitually set your daily priorities
  • Start working on the most critical item first in your daily schedule. Don’t be tempted to put it off because it is challenging or complex; get working on it straight away at the beginning of the day.
  • Block time in your schedule daily (preferably morning) to work on your high-value projects. Do not allow yourself to be interrupted.

Time to focus on what is important and get it done – TAKE ACTION NOW!

 

If you are interested in learning about how professional development or executive coaching can help support your leadership or your leadership team, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com to schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

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Team Member Development

As we near year-end, after you have conducted your quarter 4 review and set your intentions for 2022, I encourage you to list each person in your team or small business and connect with each one of them. This discussion is not an annual review but a check-in on their professional development progress. If you had identified professional development training or areas of focused development previously, then check in on progress or completion and outcomes. If not, use this time to identify the individual’s technical or soft skills gap and define an improvement plan. Professional development does not have to involve time away from the job. It can be as simple as the following:

  • Hold a lunch and learn on defined topics requiring attention. The topic should address a bottleneck or choke point in a process or the operations, at the beginning of the session plot where individuals rank their knowledge and again at the end of the session.
  • Reference a relevant book, podcast, or online training session (e.g., LinkedIn Learning module) that will assist. Ask the individual when they can finish the item and set up a time to follow up in their schedule and discuss their takeaways and how they can be implemented in their position.
  • Have a standing agenda item on the individuals one-to-one to ensure the topic identified is actioned.
  • Discuss professional development themes that can be a focus for each quarter in 2022. 
  • Implement a daily huddle with the team for a maximum of 15 minutes to focus on priorities, discuss challenges and obstacles and determine an action plan to move forward.

If you can encourage and practice having a desire to learn and be better in one position, in addition to demonstrating action and relentless follow-through, team members will develop and be encouraged to always be on the lookout for how to do things better and improve.

If you want to learn more about, leadership, team member development, and executive coaching for you, your team, and your business, reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com or schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session via Jenny Reilly Consulting Calendly.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

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The Power of Asking a Great Question

If you are helping a client, colleague or team member with a problem, asking the right and relevant question will help guide the conversation. Don’t assume what has occurred. Ask specific questions to obtain the background information that will set the scene to enable you to be of assistance. Often you will find, when asking a series of questions to attain information, the individual that you are assisting will often resolve the issue themselves as they verbalize the background and the steps they have taken so far to resolve the issue.

It is not often the knowledge that is missing to prevent an individual from taking action; it is the motivation to follow through and execute on what is required to resolve the situation—working out how to encourage motivation to act and getting buy-in to execute increases the attainment of results. Possessing the self-confidence to take the next best step in a situation also often requires the ability to help an individual feel empowered to do so. 

When a situation or challenge is shared, that is problematic, asking questions and eliciting ideas from the individual on how they feel the situation could be addressed. It can be as simple as ‘Do you have any ideas on how this issue could be resolved?’ or ‘Is there anything that you could do to help with xx?’ this will develop their capacity to see themselves solving the problem and building their resilience and responsibility muscles that in turn will increase their self-confidence

  1. Ask specific questions about the situation to obtain background information and question on what action they have taken to date to resolve the issue/challenge.
  2. Test the motivation of the individual to execute the action steps to resolve the issue/challenge. 
  3. Ask individuals for their input, suggestions or ideas on how to solve a problem.

Executive coaching can bring you, your team, and your business support and elevated success,  please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com or schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session via Jenny Reilly Consulting Calendly.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

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Quarter 4 Goals | Your Playbook for Success

For many, at the beginning of the year, you may define business, professional and personal goals and have the best intentions; however, life happened, and you may not be on track to accomplish all you had originally set out to do at the beginning of the year. It is now time to refocus and end the year well.

What will you professionally focus on in Q4?

I discuss Q4 business priorities with many of my Executive Coaching clients. For those of you that do not have a clear plan for Q4, and to assist you in thinking about how you can approach this activity, I have outlined some areas below that I am working on with clients that may help you formulate your areas of focus for Q4. 

What are your key business areas of focus in Q4?  

When conducting a deep dive on my business quarterly, I focus on the following areas:

  1. Client Base + Customer Acquisition
  2. Financial + Revenue Generation
  3. Operational + Execution
  4. IT + Digital
  5. Human Resources + Attracting & Retaining
  6. Sales + Marketing
  7. Administrative + Process
  8. Process Mapping + Improvements

What are your professional and personal goals for Q4?

I set my annual professional and personal goals; however, I also conduct quarterly reviews, and where goals need to change, I pivot and update this list as the year progresses. If you have not done this in 2021 yet, it is time to look back at your original goals. Cross off what you have achieved to date, review what is still outstanding and analyze if those goals still stand as important or need to be completed in Q4. 

As we are in the year’s home stretch with only three months remaining in the calendar year, it is a great time to redefine focus areas for the remainder of the year. Are the goals you initially indicated that you would be working on this quarter still relevant? Due to your current circumstances, do they need to be updated, abandoned, or a new pivot introduced?

The following are eight areas that I think about during my quarterly review. You may include more or less and should base the categories on your situation. When I focus on areas of priority moving forward, I initially rank myself on each item below. We are only as strong as our weakest link, so that is why it is important to look at your whole life canvas and evaluate where you rate yourself, pivot and correct direction if necessary and be confident in the direction you decide to take. 

  1. Career – where do I want to be in my position by December 31st, 2021
  2. Financial – quarterly financial goals
  3. Intellectual – technical or interpersonal professional development focus for the quarter
  4. Parental – areas of focus with each child
  5. Physical – body health and exercise goals
  6. Psychological – attitudinal and emotional focus
  7. Relationship – areas to focus on with significant other
  8. Social – extended family, social and collegial relationship focus

Recognize what is and what is out of your focus of control.  ~ Jenny Reilly

Momentum - jenny Reilly Consulting

Keep the momentum going:

  • Once you start on your goal, connect with your motivators (your ‘why’ for working on the goal) and set a habit frequency to work on your goal daily.
  • When possible, it is best to work on a goal on a specific day/s weekly, to enable consistency in pushing the goal forward.
  • A final note on motivation, when you are working towards something, start with the easiest task first just to get started.
  • Attaining a quick win will help your momentum. 

Focus on what will provide you with the biggest impact professionally and personally in Q4. Once you have reclarified your goals for Q4, break them down into manageable steps, map out your milestone dates, and notate them in your calendar. We need to understand that obstacles may arise in the quarter to slow down progress on our goals; however, if you proactively plan what and how you will complete each step, you will have a greater likelihood of not being derailed and attaining your goals on, or before schedule. 

Take decisive action on your goals. I think of quarters as sprint runs. I have the energy and focus to work on complex projects over three months. A quarter is long enough to make a real impact and short enough not to get bored with the actions required for completion. 

Objectives are not just achieved magically, and work has to be intentional, focused, and planned to make things happen. 

Define your Q4 focus

  1. CLARIFY: When you detail your focus for Q4, it will help you clarify what action you need to take and provide you with the right mindset to move forward.
  2. DESCRIBE each area of focus into a specific goal statement when you detail what needs to be done, how you will do it, and when it provides you with a framework to work within.
  3. ACTION: Taking the first step on a goal is always a motivator to help you take the next. For each action item required, ensure you assign due dates for the activity, so you can map out what can be done by December 31st, 2021.
  4. PRIORITIZE: Having defined goals for the quarter will enable you to prioritize your work to ensure you stay on track and will assist you from falling into a procrastination rabbit hole.
  5. VISION: You can’t go anywhere unless you know where you are going – having your goals to focus on, daily reviewing your list and scheduling the next best step for each will help you formulate a path moving forward.

Your Q4 goals should be thoughtfully formulated. They should motivate action, have clearly defined tactics and an implementation timeline. 

  1. What do you believe you can accomplish in Q4? 
  2. What are your top five priorities over the next 90 days?
  3. What metrics will you track?
  4. How do you see the next three months rolling out in your schedule?
  5. What is your intention, what steps are required, and when will you do it?

Q4 with your team

With each of your teammates at your next team meeting:

  • Evaluate what worked well (in Q3 or over the last three quarters), what did not, and learnings/take-aways from both
  • Determine what action will be continued
  • Provide kudos to those who accomplished goals in the last quarter

If you encountered any wins, setbacks or failures, acknowledge them, learn from them, analyze what went wrong, what went right, and how you could have done things differently to improve the outcome. Reflection on January – September will enable you to facilitate greater progress in Q4. 

 

Achieve your Quarter 4 goals by answering some of these questions and focusing on your key professional and personal areas. If you need support with your strategy and priorities to hit your end of year targets, my executive coaching and business consulting support can help you, your team, and your business excel, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com or schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session via Jenny Reilly Consulting Calendly.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

 

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