How to set development goals that drive business goals

The beginning of the new year is a natural time to define two different types of goals. First, most professionals and teams formalize an annual business plan or goals that identify the outcomes they want to achieve for the year. Second, these same professionals (along with millions of others) share aspirations for personal and professional development, whether in the form of New Year’s resolutions, new habits, or “nudge words.” is identified.

Curiously, few take the next step of connecting these two introspection processes in a clear way. A simple, rapid approach to “crossing the flow” between business and development goals can unlock new levels of creativity and work-life integration by helping you grow in a way that directly advances your business goals. can.

Crossing the River: How to Connect Business and Development Goals

Combining business and development goals is a simple three-step process for most professionals with relatively little effort and very high impact. This process can be done at both the individual and team level. For teams, identifying more specific ways to improve team dynamics and common areas of development such as “be more transparent with each other” in the context of work rather than disconnecting it from work It can be a powerful exercise.

Step 1: Concretize a simplified version of your business and development goals

The first step is to simply write down a clear and concise statement of your top 3-5 business goals along with up to 3-5 areas of development.

A business goal is a specific result you want to achieve. Examples of simplistic business goals are: “achieve 15% organic growth,” “launch new products by June,” “reduce carbon emissions by 10%,” Promote a team member.” Many companies have more robust and formal goal statements or OKRs, but for this exercise, a simplified, pared-down version of the goals will suffice.

A development goal is an area of ​​personal or professional growth for the coming year. For many, these are negatives such as “strengthen one’s professional network”, “show more vulnerability”, “stand up for oneself”, or “manage work-life balance better”. I live on a regular level. For the purposes of this exercise, these goals do not have to be completely specific. Steps 2 and 3 develop more specific methods in light of your daily business priorities.

Complete this step by arranging your business goals on a piece of paper and your development goals on the left side to create a grid. You now have a 2-by-2 matrix where each cell is the intersection of a business goal and a development goal.

Step 2: Brainstorm opportunities to address each development goal in the context of each business goal

Now comes the fun part. For each cell of the matrix, brainstorm ideas on how to address development goals, especially in the context of driving business goals.

For example, let’s say your business goal is to have a new product available on budget by June. Left on autopilot, you will strive to reach this goal using the well-conceived strategies, habits, and management techniques that have brought you to where you are today. Now imagine that you have a development goal to “be more open to other points of view”. Because in the past I have struggled with keeping an open mind when faced with challenges. How can we work to be ‘more open’ in the process of ‘delivering new products’? What challenges might arise in providing the perfect practice ground to improve your listening skills? How can stretching yourself in the moment help you achieve your business goals?

As a non-trivial example, let’s say one of your development goals is to spend quality time with your partner and kids during the week. At first glance, this goal may appear to be in tension with achieving ambitious business goals. Correct the circle by using well-defined sprints and time-boxing to increase efficiency, and force more transparent conversations within the team to reduce wasted effort and tackle bottlenecks head-on. , or have a difficult conversation at the end. With an assistant on protecting calendar blocking. In this case, adding additional stretches that advance development goals may increase positive pressure to implement strategies that also advance business goals.

The spirit of this step is to push aside the first-level instinct that goals contradict each other. Embrace the “and” rather than “or” mentality, allow creativity and emergent thinking, and appreciate the magic that comes from finding multi-faceted victories that advance both types of goals together. Working on this exercise with a colleague, coach, or mentor may help push you out of your comfort zone.

Step 3: Prioritize and Wire the Most Promising Experiments

Assuming you have 3 business goals and 3 development goals, and you came up with at least 2 ideas at each intersection, you’ll find yourself staring at a collection of 20-30 potential strategies. one time. This step is all about prioritization and focus, picking a few ideas and putting them into practice as an experiment.

Look for a strategy that combines the following elements and select it as your first experiment:

• Simple. Strategies that can be implemented without completely changing the way we work can help create momentum for greater change.
• tangible. The more specific the idea, the more likely it is that it will actually come to fruition. “After I put the kids to bed, I write out my priority list for the next day at 9 p.m.” is more specific than “Be more organized.”
• fun. It might feel a little awkward at first, but can you see that we enjoy this experiment? Would giving it a try bring a little more joy into your life?
• Good bang for the back. Some experiments not only have a greater direct impact on business and development goals, but also lead to true multi-faceted success. If you need to “hire 20 people on your team” and want to work on “improving communication” and “promoting yourself more socially”, sign up to lead a company-wide hiring event By doing so, you may be able to: Check several boxes at once.

A final and important step is to incorporate the chosen experiment into the system you are using to manage your life. This could be, for example, setting a calendar reminder to be ‘more direct’ before a difficult weekly conversation, or adding ‘writing a thank you note to someone on the marketing team’ to your weekly to-do list. It’s like doing Otherwise, turn the experiment from idea to reality. For habit trackers, this is a great time to incorporate new habits into your daily or weekly rhythm and accountability system. As with other goal setting methods like the 3x3x3 approach, sharing your goals with others and enlisting their help increases your chances of success.

“Crossing the Stream” of business and development priorities is a simple but effective way to increase the odds of achieving both goals and fully harness the energy and momentum of the annual goal-setting process. am.