Prepare your team for the New year

As the year draws to a close many leaders are busy tying up the loose end for the current year. However if you're a pro-active leader you should also be focusing on the year coming up.

Lots of people leave their goal setting for the start of the year, however now is the time for you to consider some major goals for next year.

How can we take the best of our goals this year help them to drive our future goals.

What are the best three things that your team can achieve next year? How would these goals take momentum from this years work. It is important to isolate any work or goals that can help to take a run-up and enter in full stride for the new year.

Now that you have taken stock of goals that can drive your next years results, you need to check  which team members are most influential in this work.

Each time you meet with your team members you need to congratulate them on their great work this year and then take the initiative and explain how their current goals can flow into a big result for next year.

As team leaders it's important for us to identify and keep our team momentum, this way we avoid the roller-coaster effort and corresponding results.

Help your team finish the year on a high

Only a few weeks to go and we'll close the books, performance and all other measurables for the year. So what should we do to get our team in the best possible position. Hopefully we have all been keeping an eye on our team members and how their performance is going. Now is the time to take quick action to get over the line in the best shape.

Do a quick review on each members goals for the year and note which goals look comfortable and which are just below par. Take a moment to explore each of the areas that are below the expected performance and choose the one that has the best chance of success if  tackled with some extra effort over this last month.

For all our members look at the task/goal we think we can rescue. Examine why you think this goal is looking behind schedule, is it something they can control? If you stepped in could this come back on track?  The best option is for corrective action your team member can take as they will gain knowledge and confidence if they can work through it themselves. How ever if it takes some intervention from you that is OK. Afterall the team performance is hightened by each member contributing as many of their goals as possible.

Next time you have a short meeting with each member, firstly have them explain how they think each of their goals are coming along. They may or may not be aware of any slipping goals. This is where your homework will pay-off. Now it's time for you to gently appraise their efforts and work with them to come up with a rescue plan. The more you can have them contribute ideas for the rescue plan the more they will feel ownership and inspired to get it done before the year ends.  Be open about your thinking and be honest about how you can help.

It's our job as leaders to monitor our teams' performance and provide guidance and assistance where we can. By practicing this we'll be making our team stronger and more productive.