So today walking with Mark is sitting with Mark because it’s eleven degrees in Des Moines right now and I’m not going outside in that.

I thought I’d talk a little bit about goals and the importance of goals to brokers international and what I think goals can do for your organization. Every year at this time, we set our major goals of the company, not only as a company, so that might be our sales goals or the number of customers we want to do business with or our SLAs for the year, whatever those goals might be. We set them at a corporate level or at an entity level. And then I encourage my management staff to set them by Department or by team. I believe that goals are a huge motivator within an organization. I think they can help measure success right.

So we have KPIs and we have all kinds of metrics that we pay attention to, but that overall goal lets us know where we stand. It’s the score of the game. I also think that it helps to foster team cohesion and teamwork. I think when people are working towards one direction and they know what that goal is and it’s clear and it’s concise, I might find myself at times either overworked and asking for help or underworked and asking for a little more work. And I want to succeed. And I want our teams to succeed because we have this one goal in mind. I also think it provides focus and a motivation not only for individuals, but for teams and for the company as a whole. But I’ll caution you, there are a few things that you have to be really careful of if you’re going to set goals.

First and foremost is don’t procrastinate to set them. If you’re setting an annual goal, don’t wait until March or April. Do it now. Make sure everyone understands that January is as important as June, which is as important as December. Don’t set unrealistic goals. No one likes to see well, we did a million last year, and this year we’re going to do 18 million. So unless you’ve got a great story to tell and you really think you’re going to be able to hit those numbers, don’t set unrealistic goals because I think it demotivates.

I also think that if you set them, don’t forget them. To have a goal or a focus in mind and then not to bring it up again is a huge motivator, especially for those that bought into the goal. And I also think it’s important to celebrate the milestones within the time frame. So if you have an annual goal, make sure you’re visiting them on a monthly or quarterly basis so people don’t forget about them and or celebrate the success that we’re halfway there.

I encourage everyone right now throughout the December month, set the goals for the following year and advertise them and makes or everyone knows what direction you’re starting in 2021 happy new year.

Have a great holiday season and I look forward to hearing all about your success in 2021 bye.