It's All In your Perspective: Are You Running Your Business Based on New Year's Resolutions or Business Goals?

by Janice Giannini

As a trusted business consultant and advisor, Janice has been helping clients achieve their stretch goals and create a new normal since 2005. She engages with senior executives and teams, particularly in complex businesses where misalignment is blocking their desired success, to develop and execute practical business strategies and plans. Clients have found her especially helpful when they recognize they must integrate an eagle’s eye and worm’s eye view in order to identify and remove obstacles. Janice has consistently taken on those challenges that others chose to run from. This typically involves those challenging times when failure is not an option and integrating business, technology and people changes must be accomplished simultaneously. As a result, many of her clients are complex organizations who won't settle for anything less than developing widespread professional competence.

Let's look at resolutions vs. goals from a different perspective

A resolution can be viewed as something we desire to happen aka "desirement". Frequently it is arrived at through inadequate consideration of: 1) why they are important, 2) just what it will take to achieve that desire, 3) fully understanding the consequences of those actions and 4) level of planning needed. There are no compelling consequences of not achieving the resolution. There may be initial passion for the resolution; sustainable passion, perseverance and emotional commitment to the end result are frequently in question.

A goal can be viewed as a need aka a "requirement". Frequently these goals are arrived at through careful consideration of: 1) why they important, 2) the resources needed to achieve the requirement, 3) fully understanding the consequences of the action plan, and 4) detailed plans. There are frequently compelling consequences of not achieving the need. There may or may not be initial passion for the needs; there is clearly sustainable passion, perseverance, and emotional commitment to achieving the "requirement".

As you are sitting in front of the TV tonight watching the game or your favorite show, take a pencil and a blank piece of paper with you. Down the left margin, list your top 6 to 8 business goals for this year. At the top of the middle column write "desirement". At the top of the far right column write "requirement".

Go down the list of 6 to 8 goals; put a X in the appropriate column. Are you satisfied with what you see? Is it working out for you the way you need it to work out? Do you know what changes you need to make in order to move the x's from 1 column to the other column? If the leaders on your team did the same exercise, what would the picture look like?

As always, we are here to help you get the results you both want and need to achieve. No matter how busy we get, we will always make the time to help you and the people you care about. You just have to ask us.