To effectively plan for the New Year of business, it is important to recap your transactions in 2020, review their effectiveness, and realign your goals accordingly. Each autumn, I recommend that all business executives take serious look back at how they filled their work days and weeks.

As 2020 was the year of the unexpected, this exercise requires an even deeper level of commitment than in the past. In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes how paradigm shifts change our lives and how we view the world. With its impacts on our health, careers, the economy, and our interpersonal relations, the Coronavirus certainly qualifies as a paradigm shift. COVID19 has changed our lives and the way we conduct business. As executives, it is important to acknowledge this and to take the opportunity to close out this year with intention and care so we are able to plan effectively for the year ahead.

Consider these questions

As you reflect on 2020, here is a series of questions for you to consider:

  • What projects did you complete or put in motion this year?
  • What aspect of your business has given you the greatest gratification and fulfillment?
  • What part of your job has created the most frustration, disappointment, and displeasure?
  • Were there areas where you discovered you were vulnerable?
  • What unique qualities do you bring to others around you?
  • What is your one greatest take-away from 2020?
  • What are the projects or actions you could take that would make you successful in 2021? What will you accomplish, where will you grow, and what impact will you have on others? 

Develop a plan for the new year

In light of the fact that it has been an upside down year and, that there is the promise of more change to come, a 2020 recap, review, and realignment of goals will take time and effort. Focus on the best of your past and use those results to develop an exciting, enthusiastic, and directed plan for the New Year.

Get tips and tricks like the above in The Art of Sales books. Or subscribe to the FREE monthly articles here.