Year Beginning Meeting Tips

The new year is closely approaching, and it’s time to start planning for 2019. When we set goals, we are prioritizing what we want to accomplish in the upcoming year. We are also giving our team a vision—a game plan for how we are going to reach these goals.

Setting goals ahead of time for a full year can be an intimidating task, which is why I am going to help you get started. My number one recommendation is to begin your year with one meeting that is solely focused on setting goals for the year.

7 Ways to Prepare for Your Year Beginning Meeting

When I start planning for my team’s year beginning meeting, I prepare by asking myself these seven questions:

1. Do you have a solid plan developed to ensure your meeting comes together well? One way to ensure your meeting is worth everyone’s time is by communicating clear roles and responsibilities upfront. Think about who needs to come prepared with what information. Are there questions you can ask beforehand to help save time?
2. Do you have a method to cascade your meeting message to others? Think through who should or should not attend this meeting. You want to be very strategic about who is involved in the conversation. You can also use this time to think about if there are any gaps in your team. Maybe you want to consider adding new team members in the near future.
3. Does your team have a clear understanding of what metrics need to be measured to ensure this meeting is successful? Communicate with your team beforehand and explain what you want to leave the meeting knowing, so everyone has the same expectations.
4. Are you learning from previous meetings? If you have ever had a year beginning meeting like this before, think back and assess the strengths and weaknesses of that meeting. After you finish this year’s meeting, ask yourself the same questions and document for next year.
5. Do you have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that support your organization’s goals? It’s great to have goals in place, but if you don’t have KPIs to measure how effectively you are achieving your objectives, then you risk stagnancy. In your meeting, make sure to establish KPIs alongside each goal.
6. Do you have a theme that aligns with your objectives? You want your goals to be challenging, but also achievable. One way to make sure you can achieve your goals is by having a theme. This way, when you complete one goal, you are also making strides on another one. This also creates clarity and consistency.
7. Do you have an inspirational, educational, motivational session marked on your calendar to set your team up for success? Sometimes we are so focused on the day-to-day of our business, we have a hard time stepping back to plan for the future. You might want to consider bringing in a third-party facilitator who can keep your team focused on the goal at hand.

The Benefits of a Facilitator

If you already have a year beginning meeting planned, great job! If this wasn’t on your radar, don’t sweat it. You are not alone. I want to encourage you to plan a goal-setting meeting as soon as you can and consider inviting a facilitator.

Tony Jeary International (TJI) has had 30+ years of experience making meeting magic happen…

• We strategize with clients on the list above.
• We bring bundles of best practices to the prep and delivery stages.
• We know how to balance humor, value and inspiration so this is a meeting your team looks forward to every year.
• We have done everything from small meetings to large meetings with a 25-million dollar budget.
• We have written two dozen books on the subject.
• We can supercharge just about any year beginning meeting with our proven methodology.

Strategic Remembering

Have you ever had an energizing meeting, then a month later, lose focus on the goals your team discussed? This is because all new data is stored in our short-term memory if we don’t reinforce, repeat or use this information right away.

Click here to watch our video on “Strategic Remembering” to learn about eight ways to help new information make it into your long-term memory.

Let’s talk about how 2019 can be your best year ever!

As the new year begins, TJI can assist you in checking off all the boxes. Our team has been doing this for many years with hundreds of companies.

Tony Jeary can be your keynote speaker and strategist for the same fee. We create experiences that few can match and understand how to make every dollar impactful and every minute productive, so you can achieve your RESULTS Faster!

Email us today at info@tonyjeary.com, or call us at 817-430-9422, and let’s discuss.