What Did You Like Best About 2011?

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How will you evaluate 2011 to make a great 2012?

Can you believe it’s December already? Time flies when you’re having…well… fun! But, what all have you done in 2011? Let’s take a look at that in an effort to celebrate a good 2011 and plan for a great 2012.

This year for the entire month of December, each Monday Moment will describe a contagious concept designed to help you evaluate your year. Whether you utilize these tools with the team at the office, your direct reports, senior leaders or even your family, they’ll help you build on the successes you have, keep you from repeating unwanted mistakes, and re-energize the team effort and energy for the coming year. Let’s get started with this first concept or method for closing out 2011.

Liked Best, Next Time

This is a simple evaluation method and simply requires that you create a list of what you’ve liked best about this year. Here are some examples to get you started:

–          Were there significant wins?

–          Were there personal or professional goals achieved?

–          Were there any near misses that you’re glad you got through or got over?

If you have a team, or others that work with you, invite them to make their own lists of what they liked best, as well. You can then have them present these at a team meeting or merely compare note in an informal gathering.

The Liked Best portion of this tool can also be used for determining awards and rewards. Unless however, those items on your list are measurable objectives that team members have known about for some time, it would be inappropriate to use this data for year-end financial remuneration.

Once the Liked Best lists are done, it’s time to build on, maybe even plan for or dream big about what you’d like to do next year. With a clear grasp of what you, and the team you lead have liked best, you’re next step is to determine what you’d like to do next. This could mean any of the following:

–          How would you like next year to improve?

–          What would you like to do next year that didn’t get done this year?

–          Would you like next year to be just as great as 2011 with no changes?

The Liked Best/Next Time tool is your first step to data gathering. It’s a tool contagious leaders use in preparation for sharing feedback and/or creating an action plan. If you’re in a corporate or association environment, include as many departments as you can in this process.

It’s difficult at best to grow if you don’t know where to go. It’s hard to know where to go without knowing where you’ve been. And above all, in a state of confusion, people freeze or stagnate. I guess you could say confusion is contagious, but so then is clarity and confidence that you’re going in the right direction.

What did you like best about 2011 and what will you do to allow 2012 to be great? Stay tuned next Monday for Step 2 and feel free to share these with colleagues who may not be recipients of our Monday Moment.