Assess your current leadership role
Before you start setting professional goals, consider a thorough review of your current role in the organisation. Look at specific responsibilities that you personally handle and see how they have evolved over time.
If your duties and responsibilities have changed over time, make note of these. It can help you to identify professional areas that require more focus and improvement. Feedback from your employees and colleagues can prove invaluable here.
The way you may use KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure the performance of your team, then consider using the same metrics to evaluate your personal output at work. These KPIs can provide further clarity on setting goals that can actually make a difference to your organisation.
Evaluate the impact of your leadership style
Your choice of leadership style is often determined by a complex array of factors like personality, professional experiences and needs of the organisation. Each style has its place in management– there is no single perfect style that can work in all situations.
However, as your organisation grows and evolves over time, you may have to reassess the validity of your current leadership style. For example, an authoritarian, hands-on style may work best if you have a smaller organisation with a few teams.
In larger organisations with more capable employees, a delegative or democratic leadership style that empowers employees may be more appropriate. To decide whether you need to focus on improving your leadership style, look at how your current approach is affecting employee’s morale, productivity, and teamwork.
Reflect on past performance
In most organisations, leaders review the previous year’s performance to identify the current state of the business. This is an important step that can help you set informed and impactful professional goals as a leader.
To gain a comprehensive view, start by reviewing major milestones and setbacks faced by your organisation in the previous year. Analyse your individual contributions in each situation. The important thing here is to identify areas where you struggled, either as a team leader or in a more professional capacity.
You may want to have a closer look at the following aspects in your year-end review:
- Any crucial decisions you took and the rationale behind them
- Your soft skills like communication, empathy, time management and adaptability
- Outcomes of training and other professional development activities you engaged in
- Any repetitive behaviour patterns that led to poor decisions
Combining feedback from stakeholders with a thorough self-assessment, you can identify key areas in your leadership and professional capabilities that can help you improve.
Pay attention to employee expectations
In the post-pandemic job market, business leaders can no longer afford to ignore employee expectations. Here are some highlights from a 2023 Indeed post on employee expectations and the future of workplace culture in India:
- 88% of employees want flexible work arrangements
- 57% want employers to provide better work-life balance initiatives
- 61% want more positive and inspiring leaders
- 50% of employees want upskilling and learning opportunities
While some of these demands are related to wider organisational policies and HR strategies, some are directly tied to your leadership style. If your employees desire career development opportunities, you may want to explore goals related to mentorship, one-to-one coaching and constructive feedback.
Assess the current state of organisational culture
Workplace culture is one area where your leadership skills can play a definitive role. Toxic culture, lack of diversity and inclusion, gender imbalances and abusive behaviours from managers can do serious harm to organisations.
As a leader, you have the opportunity to set a positive example for others. You may want to explore ways in which you can address pressing issues like psychological safety and discrimination in the workplace, consider making inclusion and belonging a focus for your professional goals in the upcoming year.
Utilise the SMART framework to set sustainable goals
The S.M.A.R.T framework is a tool commonly used by organisations for managing objectives. Originally introduced in the 1980s, the framework can be applied in a wide range of situations, including the setting of personal/professional goals.
SMART is an acronym of the five essential properties you need for a particular goal to be practical and achievable. They are:
Specific
Your goal should be clear and well-defined. Try to avoid vague language as much as possible when defining goals, as they can lead to misunderstandings and lack of direction. Use straightforward language to provide exact details of the following things:
- What do you want to accomplish?
- Why is it important for you and the organisation?
- How do you plan to achieve it?
For instance, AI technology is poised to revolutionise all aspects of business, including leadership. A potentially worthwhile goal in this context would be to learn more about the AI tools used in your industry. Possible avenues could include seeking the advice of AI experts, enrolling in industry-specific workshops/courses and experimenting with pilot AI solutions.
Measurable
As you work towards your goals, you will need some way to measure your progress. You can achieve this by establishing certain criteria for success. Quantitative metrics (like “increase employee retention by 20%”) are preferable to vague qualitative assessments (“improve employee loyalty”).
Once you have zeroed the quantitative metrics, try to add systems or routines to regularly track your progress. In case of the employee retention for example, you can use a combination of HR data and employee feedback surveys.
Achievable
Here, you can try to find a balance between realism and challenge. A realistic goal is one that you can achieve with the resources, time and knowledge at your disposal. It is challenging when it tests your capabilities to the maximum extent without causing unnecessary frustration.
When trying to set professional goals as a leader, time is perhaps your primary limitation. Ideally, you want goals that do not distract from core responsibilities. If it is some sort of self-improvement objective, like improving your communication skills, see if there are workshops and courses you can realistically attend.
Relevant
This step is where all the preparatory effort described in the previous tips can prove beneficial. By assessing past performance and seeking feedback from employees and other stakeholders, you can identify goals that are relevant to your current situation.
A relevant goal is one that can have a meaningful impact on your career and organisation once you achieve it. Such goals can have a much greater chance of success – when you know the tangible benefits, you will be more motivated to stick with it until the end.
Time-bound
The final step is all about deadlines. They help in creating a sense of urgency and can help you prioritise your tasks and resources in an optimal manner. Once again, the deadlines have to be practical and realistic. Setting very short deadlines can result in frustration and burnout.
Final thoughts – be mindful of work-life balance
With the rise of hybrid work arrangements, there has been an increasing focus on the importance of striking a balance between work and personal life. While the discourse primarily addresses the needs of employees, it is equally valid in the case of employers as well.
As a business leader, it’s particularly important that you lead by example. In fact, you can add spending time away from work or finding a new hobby as a valid professional goal.
