Goals in 2010

I have been working for a few days looking back at my 2009 company results and looking forward to my 2010 goals. Have you set new goals – or perhaps dusted off your old ones?

The results of this time of reflection have been somewhat bittersweet.

• The company’s (AskDrCallahan) revenue and profit was up – but not anything to be that excited about. Of course some business people are telling me I need to settle and be glad I am still in business. I am. I am blessed – but I do not settle.
• My time in 2009 (hey, that rhymes) was spent poorly. A lot of time in busy work and a lack of aggressive action. I was just too  timid to burst through some doors to make things happen.
• I was coasting – not really goal driven. In part, my goal setting process was so complex I spent more time setting and changing goals than I did making them happen. Also, I was often overwhelmed not knowing what to do next.
• Many of my goals were not mine – I did not own them.

All this has led to some new goals and perhaps more importantly some new methods of self management. First the new methods….

• Set the goals that are measurable and specific. You know, goals that you know when they are done and have a deadline. I teach this stuff – but often fail to follow my own advice.
• Write down WHY I wanted this goal. This one thing made several of my goals change. I was amazed when I had to answer the why question – on some I did not have an answer.
• Make things easier. I tend to over-complicate things and then get frozen in complexity (my wife laughs in the background). One example is our household budget – which I would pull numbers from Quicken and put into Excel for further analysis. No more – use Quicken’s budget now and go with it.
• Be bold in 2010. I am tired of being timid waiting for the right time to do things. I need to get off my butt and do them (Of course now I have a written record of what I said – so this should help).
• Delegate. I am TERRIBLE about this. I hesitate to do it and when I do often struggle to get the results I wanted. Fortunately I have been blessed to be surrounded by very capable people who seem to know how to get it done even with a poorly laid out vision. This is all my own problem  – and I intend to fix it. Anyone know of good workshops, books, or other material that could help?

Now here are some of the goals I have for 2010. (I will spare you the whole list)

• Attend a networking event each week. I tend to hate going out in public and doing these things unless I am the speaker. If I am speaking I feel like I either add value or not – otherwise I feel like networking events are an odd mix of people selling. But in reality, every time I go to a networking I get real results. New business deals, new people I meet with interesting stories, and new people I can help.
• Take a course on learning and remembering people’s names by Feb 15, 2010. I know a lot of us struggle with this – but I see some people who seem to remember people’s names – so I know I can get better. This is not a gimmick to get business – I want to focus on people as part of my core beliefs. And knowing and using people’s names is a great way to show people I value and respect them. I also am terrible about not using people’s names when I do know them – I plan to do better.
• Do one talk per month on Escaping Cubicle Insanity. This is an area where boldness comes in. I love to give talks – kinda fun for me. But I so often think that nobody wants to hear what I have to say. So I wait until asked to speak. It was pointed out to me just the other day that the “cubicle insanity” is something of value to people and I am doing a disservice to others by not putting it out there. So time to be bold and speak. (And to be bold – if you have a place you would like to hear about Escaping Cubicle Insanity – let me know and we will make it happen if at all possible.)
• Develop a social media connection pool of 10,000Twitter, 1000 LinkedIn, and 5000 Facebook by October 31, 2010. I must admit, I really struggled with the WHY on this one. I am pretty new to social media – and I am not sure why these numbers except from input from others who know. But this is somewhat a leap of faith – not knowing where it will take me.  But you can help – and connect to me any or all of the ways above.
• Increase the company pretax revenue 2.7 times by Dec 31, 2010. No, this is not how it is really worded, but to avoid putting real numbers on the page, this should suffice. The company for me is really a series of companies that do different things. Two issues you might note – I am talking revenue instead of profit. The reason I am NOT measuring profit on this goal is ease of measurement internally AND I know our expense structure. A doubling of revenue means more than a doubling of profit – so I am happy with that. A second note comes from the comment I have gotten from some business leaders who say in the next few years businesses had best brace for survival instead of growth. With Congress out of control, many businesses are afraid and just want to make it through. While I certainly see their concern, I refuse to live in fear, instead I plan to be able to adjust to what is going on and profit. A group of fools may be making the rules, but we do not have to be foolish in how we adapt to them.
• Run 3 miles (at one time;) by July 2010. I used to run a lot, and have gotten out of it. I really was not that interested in starting into running again, but I keep finding myself surrounded by runners like Suman and Jill, so I am motivated. I was going to do the marathon thing as a goal, but that is just not me. 

I must admit putting these goals out there seems a little open to me – I tend to be very private and reserved. Of course, this is not everything, I will keep some specifics to myself, but this is a lot for me to be public about.

Now what about you? Do you have goals? Want to share any? Better yet, how can I help you meet any of your goals?