Four entrepreneurs share their tips for holding you accountable to your annual goals

As an entrepreneur and business owner, you no doubt know the importance of setting goals. Goal setting is what moves the dial and takes you from dreamer to planner to doer.

Goal setting is imperative not only for you as a business owner, but also for every member of your team. One of the characteristics of a good leader is their ability to motivate people to push themselves a little more than usual, to encourage their growth and development, and to hold them accountable to their goals and the goals of the organization. company.

But, while you're busy holding your team accountable, who's holding you accountable? Are you checking in with yourself along the way to gauge your progress? One of the biggest challenges (and accomplishments) is discovering the best ways to hold yourself accountable to your goals.

I wanted to learn more about the goals that entrepreneurs set for themselves and their businesses at the start of the year and how they hold themselves accountable to those goals in mid-2022. Here's what four industry leaders had to say:< /p>

1. Take Control of Your Calendar: Odaro Aisueni, Senior Financial Planner at Plancorp

Odaro Aisueni's goal for this year is seemingly simple: say no and control his schedule. It aims to be more selective when it says yes and more liberal when it says no. However, this is easier said than done. There is a constant back and forth between wanting to do something that will produce immediate results and biding your time and waiting to reap what you sow. Aisueni says that when deciding what your time is worth, both personally and professionally, you should always ask yourself one question: will it help me get closer to my long-term goals?

Aisueni's goal for 2022 grew out of a larger, long-term goal. Controlling his schedule helps him stay accountable to his 15-year plan, which he breaks down into 10, 5, 3, and 1-year goals. If something isn't helping him get closer to his 15-year goals, he doesn't add it to his calendar. In the same way, he encourages his clients to stick to their investment plans rather than deviating to achieve short-term gains that will have no quantifiable impact on their return on investment.

According to Aisueni, the first rule for holding yourself accountable when controlling your schedule is to be honest with yourself. He recommends being honest about what you can do, how you can spend your time, and what tasks you can prioritize to create a balance between short and long-term goals.

2. Create Feedback Channels: Allison Esenkova, General Vice President of Pariveda

According to Allison Esenkova, who runs Pariveda's Houston office, creating feedback channels is key to holding you and your business accountable to your goals. She thinks it's essential to include the whole leadership team when creating goals for the company. In Pariveda's case, this leads to goals that are deeply connected to the company's goal of developing employees to their full potential. In turn, this creates more value with and for the company's customers.

His company runs a strong mentorship program, performs quality assurance on appraisals, monitors the growth and promotion of its employees, and more. These factors create frequent and safe channels for upward feedback, so management can measure goal progress not just by the numbers, but also by how employees perceive their progress and success.

Esenkova believes you should approach goal achievement with a coaching spirit. She sees everything as a learning opportunity, whether or not her team achieves the goal. She also holds herself accountable for modeling the behavior she expects of her employees. This way, the Esenkova team feels comfortable providing feedback, and they can measure goal progress and success through the eyes of employees.

3. Measure your results: Dr. Kim Villeneuve, co-founder of bluSPARC

The most important thing