Welcome back from the holidays! At Quantum Leap Insights, we are always seeking to innovate and part of our process of continual learning is using this season to set performance goals.
Most of us would be thrilled to have more time, and we all recognize that it is a resource that we have to invest wisely. Since the return on our use of time is directly related to the impact that each potential activity could have, yearly goal-setting is a critical step to ensuring that we spend our time on what matters most.
With that in mind, here are a few helpful resources that have inspired our thoughts about the year ahead, whether that means focusing on accelerating success in your current role, looking outside of work for more balance, or considering an exciting career change.
These articles are curated from the broadest perspectives (setting work and life goals as part of an overall strategy) to the most tactical (how to track your progress in goal achievement):
- HBR – Use Strategic Thinking To Create The Life You Want
- Why We Like It: This article outlines 7 key steps to applying BCG’s corporate strategy process to developing your own life plan. It’s broad, thought-provoking, and a great read for considering what’s most important to you and how to align your overall weekly schedule to achieve the life you really want.
- CNBC – Don’t Be So Competitive At Work, Says Best Selling Author Simon Sinek: How To Get Ahead Instead
- Why We Like It: Simon Sinek provides a POV on sustainable success – developing an infinite mindset for skill-building and continual learning that can be applied multi-directionally rather than just winning single outcomes.
- Forbes – Performance Goals Examples
- Why We Like It: While this isn’t as broad or inspiring as the first couple articles, if your company operates on the popular SMART goal-setting system this article provides some tactical examples that are helpful springboards.
- What Matters – Google’s OKR Playbook
- Why We Like It: The Outcome and Key Result format is widely leveraged for planning and it’s always helpful to have a refresher on how to optimize your approach to writing OKRs before writing them.
- Bullet Journal – What is The Bullet Journal Method
- Why We Like It: It’s one thing to write out goals, but it’s another thing entirely to stay on track and achieve them. The best path to results is to log your activities daily. This is super tactical, and it works.
Happy goal setting and here’s to a great year ahead!