As the saying goes, the only thing that doesn’t change is change itself.

With the seemingly ever-increasing pace of work-life these days a whole lot can change in the first half of the year. Perhaps you have been proactive and worked with your leader to establish some work goals for the calendar year. Chances are, those goals were agreed upon before the end of the last year which, in turn means, chances are, you began thinking about them even earlier.  

By the time the calendar turns toward the back half of the current year it’s conceivable almost a year could have passed since you first began thinking about the goals you are currently pursuing.  Some questions you could be facing are: 

  • What if what was important a year ago is no longer a major priority?
  • What if your work time and efforts are going toward a goal that has less value than other challenges that have come up in the past months?
  • Is it better to hunker down and finish what you said you would do or to pivot your time to new priorities?
  • Will a move like this increase or decrease your leader’s confidence in you? 
We should never be afraid to reassess where our work is heading. A good leader will see this as a characteristic of strength, not as inability or unwillingness to finish a task.  

Your goal is to move the mission of the work forward through the best levers available to you now.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Over the course of 6-10 months, it’s entirely conceivable that the available levers have changed.  As you look at your goals for the year it is healthy to begin to put critical tension on them. Here are three questions to keep in mind.  

  1. What’s changed?  
    • Often, our attention is drawn to the urgent and not the important. It’s a never-ending challenge that team members at all levels of the organization will struggle to discern. Did what was urgent in the last quarter of last year draw you into it’s snare? Was it a simply a “small fire” that now is not one of the major concerns?  
    • One metric to help discern this can be “threat to mission.” Is the goal work you are focusing on factors that, if ignored, threaten the ability of the organization to do its best work in pursuing the mission? If it is not, then you might have gotten hijacked by the urgency when you decided to go after it. Don’t be afraid to pursue the topic and evaluate where your time is going and to what purposes with your team leader. The good ones will understand and want your time spent on things that most matter.  
  2. What might need your assistance?
    • Maybe the work on your objectives has generally gone well and you feel ahead of it. If you’ve got a good handle on your individual progress, then begin to ask yourself what are areas you would like to grow your skills? What competencies would make you an even more valuable team member? Is there a work team that you could ask to join?
    • The goal would not be to take over or steal any perceived credit; it simply would be to learn more about a new area of potential expertise. If the areas you would like to grow are in a perceived weaker area of your competencies, then this gives you a terrific opportunity to gain experience without the pressure of the objective delivery sitting on your shoulders. If you’ve got some freedom to lean into joining some new teams, take it! 
  3. What elevates the work?
    • If you don’t have access or ability to join another team then take a good look at where you set the original goals those months back. What can you do to take them from a solid return to an outstanding contribution? What can the things you’ve learned and observed over the past months contribute to your current thinking? What’s an extra touch you could add to the work that would truly make it stand out?
    • It’s easy to mentally begin to move to the next thing when the original objective is hit without pausing to push your thinking again. In my experience, it’s natural for most everyone to check the box and turn in the assignment. That’s going to be good enough to get by in most cases if you’ve indeed done the work. Taking some time to pause and think through what is one more tweak, angle, or thing that would really make this work stand out can make the difference between good work and stand-out work. The team member who can successfully do this will absolutely get on their leader’s radar.

Photo by Surface on Unsplash

It’s admirable to have annual goals, and it’s a strong statement on your contribution as a team leader when you can hit them. It shows you are both dependable and conscientious about your work. The consistent practice of this alone will put you into a smaller group of higher preforming team members among your work group.

Taking some directed time and proactively evaluating both where you are on the goal and if they are still the best goals is a potential differentiator for you.

Adapting and improving your goals will separate you from the strong performers and move you toward the elite contributor status. This will help you to grow your influence both with your fellow team members and your team leader.