In my first year as a manager at Xerox, I did so many things…incompletely.
I had so many goals that my focus was never on any one goal long enough to really make an impact. I’ve since learned this is a classic mistake of new managers when setting goals.
Here’s the thing: that first year I was busy, really busy. I worked so hard and so many hours and moved a lot of things a little bit forward, but I never really got to ‘end of job’ on anything.
I remember being so disappointed when I was writing input for my annual review because I really had nothing to show for all that hard work. I felt a little embarrassed at how hard I’d worked for so little results.
As I started the next year, I reached out to Graham, who was an excellent leader in our organization, to ask for some coaching and mentoring. In our conversations he helped me narrow in on the ONE thing that was most important so I could commit to action there.
Years later, as I was studying for my coaching certification, our master coach Mike Jay always had us start coaching conversations by asking ‘what’s most important?’. It’s a beautiful way to narrow down to the heart of the matter.
Try this ONE thing
That’s my advice to you: pick the most important goal and start there.
Go here to get my FREE guide My #1 Secret Success Tip: Narrow Down Your Goals to find out how you can narrow down your goals.
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