What are your big goals for 2017? Email
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 06:00 AM


goals for 2017With 2017 approaching now is the time to set your big goals for next year.

The trick is to not set too many, otherwise you will get overwhelmed trying to push "too many small stones forward just a few feet". Instead, pick just a couple big inspirational rocks, and push them a mile down the road.

I learned this the hard way 20+ years ago, when we brought in a consultant to help us, and he steered us towards setting far too many goals, metrics and actions. We became inundated and stressed out. It was the year of “no fun,” burn out and mediocre results. Never again!

Now, when I work with my coaching clients, I ask them to set a single company-wide financial success metric, two at the most. And then identify the 3 (4 at the most) big rocks i.e. initiatives for the company to accomplish throughout the year in order to achieve their financial success metric.

Your ability to think big and bold--and your ability to boil down your vision for 2017 into the 3 big rocks--will help ensure a successful and fun year.

Take this a step further, and set a theme for each quarter that will drive the actions of that quarter and help them come alive. I agree with my friend, Verne Harnish, author of Mastering The Rockefeller Habits: you can pick a theme based on your company values, or on overcoming a challenge, or on a big idea that represents your top action for the quarter. Make it visual and exciting and get your team on board.

Jeffrey's Breakthrough idea: Strategy is meant to be simple, not complex. Leadership is showing your team what is priority and then keep them focused on it through all 4 seasons.

Take Action:

  • With your team set your 1-2 financial success metrics, and 3-4 big rocks (goals) for the year
  • Set a theme for the first quarter, and have each team member identify 3-5 actions they will drive forward in order to support the theme and the company's big rocks.

Jeffrey Scott, MBA, author, coach and Hall-of-Fame Consultant, is the expert in growth and profit maximization in the contracting industry. He grew his landscape company into a successful $10 million multi-discipline enterprise (15 million in today’s dollars), and he's now devoted to helping others achieve profound success. He facilitates the largest network of landscape business owner peer groups in our industry: The Leader’s Edge. His members achieved a 27% profit increase in their first year. To learn more visit www.GetTheLeadersEdge.com.  

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