Do you know someone who sets the same New Year’s resolution every single year….and every single year, they fail? Could it be that they never really stop to examine how they’re going after their goals, and why they’re failing in the first place (beyond just giving up)?

 

These are the people who need a personal year-end review. Are you one of them?

As an aspiring Engaging Executive and businessperson, it’s important to reflect on your successes, failures and progress. After all, that’s the only way to move forward rather than backward. Check out our ENGAGE model with this Vlog.

While your manager or boss at the office may do something similar, if you actually are the manager or the boss, or if you’re just wanting to get a little more personal with the experience, a review with yourself can make sure you’re staying on track with the goals that are important to you and your career — not the goals that are important to your boss or your company (though those should be taken into consideration as well, if you do indeed feel you have room and space to grow and thrive at your company).

 

The Questions

So, what kind of questions can you ask yourself during a year-end review? This is a good time to see what you’ve learnt and changed and how you’ve grown.

  • What new skills have you picked up? (Maybe you picked up a few things from the Engaging Executive handbook!)
  • Were you able to apply these skills to your job? If so, what were the results?
  • Did you accomplish anything you had set aside for yourself as a long-term goal? If so, what worked? If not, why not?

 

On the flip side of things, a year-end self-review is also an excellent place to be honest with yourself regarding your shortcomings.

  • What could you have done differently?
  • Where did you fail?
  • Why did you fail?
  • How can you make sure to not fail in the same ways next year, or which failures can you let slide, because they didn’t really matter that much anyway?

The important thing about a year-end review is mostly to be completely unbiased about your progress, so that you can make a better assessment of your needs and goals for the upcoming year ahead.

 

What will 2018 do for you?

Beyond just setting goals for 2018, look at what goals you accomplished in 2017, and why they worked and why they didn’t. We have a great model to help you and anyone else with GROW, read on here.

Those people who set the same New Year’s resolutions year after year…there’s no wonder they keep getting the same results — failure! If you don’t learn from your past mistakes, just working harder won’t actually help anything…You have to switch up your means of getting what you want.

If what you want is a better career, a faster upward trajectory in your field, more influence in the office or a better overall presence among your peers, then this is the year you’re going to want to read ENGAGE.