Whether you’ve had your review or are gearing up for it, asking career-related questions can help increase productivity. These questions can help you set new year goals.
Set achievable new year goals for better performance
Now that a new year has started, you might be sitting down with your manager to discuss your performance over the last six or 12 months. While this can be nerve-wracking if you’re unsure of what feedback you’re going to get, it can also serve as a great way to begin a conversation about what and how you can improve your work performance over the next year.
Whether it’s positive or negative, or a combination of both, yearly reviews are a great time to stop and think about what you should continue to do at work and what you can begin to work on. Simply, set some obtainable new year goals for yourself. Whether you’ve had your review or are gearing up for it, ask yourself these three questions to put a professional development plan in place that’s achievable.
Ask Yourself These Three Questions to Set New Year Goals
What Are You Good At?
This should be a pretty easy question (related to your new year goals) to answer. You likely know what parts of your job you excel at and what skills you have that set you apart from others. Maybe it’s project management, organization or leadership. Or maybe it’s a hard skill that you’ve worked to become proficient in and you’re now an expert on your team.
Make a list of all the things you’re good at. Although this isn’t a time to be humble, consider whether your co-workers and manager would agree with your list. That’s a good way to gut check yourself and make sure you’re being realistic. There is always room for improvement, but when looking for goals to set, these are probably the areas you can focus less on.
What Needs Improvement?
Be critical here. Are you a constant procrastinator? Is there something you’re always asking for help on? Reflect on past performance reviews, too, and think about how that feedback fits into where you currently are in your career. It can be challenging to be hard on yourself, but this is where your goals are going to stem from. Take a step back and leave your ego behind.
Then write these things down, too. Think of it like a pro/con list. There will always be cons — that’s what makes the pros stand out.
How Can You Get There?
Now that you have areas of improvement identified, prioritize which ones you want to work on. Maybe one of the hard skills requires a course, class, or certification. That may not be feasible right now, so put that further down the list of new year goals to tackle at a later date. Once you have your list prioritized, give yourself deadlines to check in on your progress. This could be a weekly mental check-in that you didn’t put off any tasks until the last minute that week, or it could be a monthly review of how you’ve improved a specific skill.
By asking yourself these three questions to set new year goals, you can critique your current skill set and consider where you should spend your time in order to continually improve. Not only will having a solid handle on your personal goals help you, but it will be invaluable when asking for resources or help from your manager, team or company.
