Career TOOLBOX #36: Rock Your Midyear Goals

5 Steps for the Next 6 Months

While some firms are disciplined to execute mid-year goal reviews with their employees, in most cases the bosses are too busy growing the bottom line. With July approaching and the summer weather finally here, it’s easy to let go of the career reigns. Yet it’s this very moment that matters tremendously to what happens to your professional path in the following year. This is even more critical when you work for yourself.

The bad news? You’re halfway through the year and can’t change anything that’s happened during the winter and spring. The good news? You can make a great impact during the summer and fall.

1. Read. Track down your annual goals, set either by you or by your boss, back in January. If you work for someone, they should be easily accessible to you and should have been explained, upfront, by your manager. They are usually a trickle down of organization/department/you. If you are the boss, pull out the business plan you sweated over to prepare for this year.

2. Review. Go through these objectives and see what you’ve accomplished vs. what’s been neglected, then determine the reason for the gaps. Is it because the company shifted direction? An unforeseen project fell into your hands? Company restructured? Whatever the reason, get the goals adjusted and speak with your boss regarding signing off on them so that you’re measured against what is vs. what was.

3. Regroup. How do you step up now? Will you improve your skills by taking a class or seminar? Is your marketing plan, including social media, reflecting what you want to signal about your organization? What are you communicating and to whom?

4. Reorganize. Do you, as a boss, have to make personnel changes so that the best people are in the jobs? Is it time to evaluate your vendors and professional partners to see if they’re still a good fit within your organization? Once those decisions are made, be sure to share them, openly, with your team, so that they are clear and on board.

5. Relaunch. Markets never rest. And sometimes the pace of business moves quicker than we’re prepared to handle. In those cases, it makes most sense to let go of past goals almost entirely because your firm now has a completely different specialty. In order to best attract the clients that will benefit from from this re-branding, consider your past investments a sunk cost and move onto where the profit is. If you work for someone, and are smart enough to understand that your skills aren’t where the company’s goals are, either reposition yourself within the organization or start looking for a new job.

No matter what you do right now for your career, be sure to examine if the near past, present and near future align. Because if you don’t rock your own boat, someone else will rock it for you.

Reprinted with permission and gratitude from CoolCleveland.com.