Business Goals.. The New Year is a great time for re-evaluating your firm’s business objectives. It’s a time to consider everything you’ve accomplished and determine where you’d like to take your legal practice for the future.
But reaching your New Year’s business goals isn’t always easy. Thankfully, the following 5 tips will help you reach and your legal firm’s goals for the New Year while teaching how to improve the way your organization develops new ideas for the future.
Make Your Goals Concrete
It’s one thing to think, say, or write your goals. But there are many ways to make them more concrete and help you attain them. Use tools that allow you to visualize your goals and the progress you make.
Making your goals more concrete increases your motivation and helps you navigate the decisions you make along the way. More importantly, these can be shared across your entire organization to increase a sense of teamwork and accountability.
Establish updates periodically to ensure that everyone is meeting their objectives related to a given business goal. These are great opportunities to answer any questions your team members may have when moving forward.
There are software platforms that make it easy to track your goals for the coming year. Highrise and Basecamp can help you track progress, share relevant data, and keep everyone organized.
Turn Goals Into Actionable Steps
One of the biggest mistakes legal firms make in their New Year’s goals is failing to outline the actions required to meet those objectives.
Also, some goals can seem overwhelming as a whole. But they’re more manageable (and likely to be met) when broken down into achievable milestones. This also fosters motivation and momentum as each stage is completed.
Actionable steps increase clarity, which prevents unwanted confusion and the missteps that can delay the achievement of your firm’s business goals.
Brainstorm Along the Way
Brainstorming is the source of your New Year’s business goals. But it’s also important to implement brainstorming as you move forward in your goals.
This keeps your entire organization engaged in the process and can shed light on aspects you may have overlooked when first setting your firm’s goals.
Brainstorming lets you leverage the talents of your team while making them feel more invested in the goals you’ve set for your practice.
Be Time Specific
Your firm’s New Year’s goals should be specific to the time in which they need to be reached. Having a time set to achieve your goals helps you establish the steps you need to take throughout the coming year.
A deadline also provides a reference point for everyone on your team as they manage their responsibilities related to your goals. Be as specific as possible so there isn’t any confusion.
Be Flexible
It’s hard to know exactly what the New Year will bring. Your firm will likely face unexpected challenges as you move forward in achieving your business goals.
As a result, your goals may need to be modified. This is to be expected and shouldn’t be a reason to get thrown off track. The ability to be flexible in your goals is an essential trait of any successful business.
Be willing to make decisions around your goals when you’re faced with unexpected changes. This keeps you on track and helps your firm come up with the right solutions to maintain your momentum.
Listen to the feedback you receive from your team, clients, and the legal industry. Understanding what they need will determine the strategies you implement in achieving your business objectives.
Your goals may not change, but the action steps required to meet them will.
Putting these 5 tips into place helps you reach your firm’s New Year’s business goals. Let us know what strategies you’re using to set and meet the objectives of your business.
If you need help in determining what your objectives should be for the New Year, let us know in the comments below. We can help you identify the critical needs of your legal firm so that you can develop a strategy that provides measurable results in 2016 and beyond.
