The Benefits of Setting Personal Goals as a Team

I’m Melissa Shanahan, and this is The Law Firm Owner Podcast Episode #271.

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Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week's episode, so glad you're here. We have a fun topic today. So here's the deal, here’s why I decided to do this episode.

It is not uncommon when we lead a strategic planning retreat for a firm, and/or in a group setting… It doesn't have to be for one firm. But for Mastery Group, so that they are focusing on their own firms. Syndicate is another group that we lead. And then also, private clients. Where it's just us and them in a room.

And it's not uncommon to hear, “Man, I wish I had this kind of a day for my life, not just for the business.” And I think every time, “I know, right?” It is remarkable what kind of clarity you can have about your future, about what it's going to take to achieve your future, about the things you need to do in order to be on track for your future. There's so much that goes into our planning process in helping people get really clear.

It's like a clarity retreat. It's kind of what it is. We all have things that we'd like to make headway on in our personal lives that would improve the quality of our life, and would support the progress for the plans that you're making on the business side.

The stronger and the healthier that you are mentally, physically and emotionally, on a personal level, it lends itself to the success on the business side of things. It lends itself to the success in many areas of your world.

One thing that has come up within Mastery Group, some within Syndicate, some within private, it really depends on the client and what they're craving, is we have them set a personal Rock as well as the Rocks for the business.

Now as a reminder, and if you listened to last week's episode, I talked about Rocks a bit. Because goals are the numbers that you're shooting for in our world, in our sphere. This is how we label certain elements of planning and progress. When you're shooting for a number, that's a goal, the number is a goal.

Now the effort that you're going to put forth in order to get yourself to the goal is called a “Rock”. So people have personal goals, even if they're not stated with clarity, they have things they want to make headway on. And so depending on the client, when we are in conversation, when it comes time for Rocks, and after we've set things for the business, then we ask, “What do you want to go for, for yourself?”

And yes, it will likely serve the business's goals, and Rocks and the success of the business and the progress that you'll see there. But what do you need as a human? What needs to shift for you? Do you want to set a goal around something? If you do, then let's figure out what you need to actually do in order to put yourself on track to meet that goal for yourself. We end up coming up with something that makes sense for them.

We have begun doing this inside of Velocity Work. So when we have our leadership retreats, we discuss and have one personal goal for each of us. And then we figure out what we have to do in order to put ourselves on track for that goal. And we are accountable to that.

Now, what we started doing this time, was we rolled this out so that all of our team members, after we have our retreat leadership retreat, we have a meeting that is usually about a half day… Maybe two to four hours, depending on the quarter… where we cover all the things that are necessary to cover with them and share with them that came out of our retreat.

So when we do that, we gave space this time for the entire team to say, “This is a goal I have. And this is what I'm going to do in order to help myself get to that goal.” And we have a spreadsheet set up, there's a tracker, and every Monday we have to update our progress.

So every row is one week, and then every column is a person. And so you put in the progress, and it's a number. It's like, “Where did you get to?” This has been super fun. I am doing a podcast on this today, because here is what I've noticed.

Our team culture has improved since we began doing this. It's a way for the team to connect in a way that makes them proud and keeps them accountable to what they said they wanted. And it helps us connect on something other than just the work and the clients and the members. Which that's all really great to connect on, but this lets us connect just as people.

We have a Slack channel set up called Goal Getters, which is a funny name. And in there, that's where we post updates about our progress. Everybody, I think at this point, has taken a picture of them doing what they said they were going to do, and we all keep the tracker updated.

My executive assistant prompts every Monday, “Okay, here's a spreadsheet, everybody fill it out.” And it has been very fun to work towards. It's given us something in common that is outside of the work.

Already, since we've began doing this, which was in July… So it's been about a month, I would say, we started doing this… the energy is different inside of the company. And people are making headway on things that they've been wanting to make headway on in their own life, but they haven't been balancing or managing their time in a way to do it. And now, they are.

And so, from my perspective as the owner and as the leader to look at this team of people who are killing it at work, they're doing a fantastic job with the responsibilities that they have inside of Velocity Work. And they are fulfilling a piece of something in their own world that they've been putting off. And that is cool to see.

So I wanted to share this here with you all today. Because if there is an opportunity for you to do this, you should do it. Now, here's a few things that you don't want to do.

You can't do this flippantly. You have to be very, very intentional about this. Because if you do it, and it flakes out or flames out, then not only is it just not happening, it sort of sets the tone that we don't finish what we start. And that is not what you want.

The whole point of doing this is to create a culture of progress and to create a culture of commitment to the things that matter. And so this needs to be something that everybody commits to.

At the team meeting that we hosted after the leadership retreat, we got buy in at that meeting to do this. And everybody said, “Yeah, I do want to focus on something for myself.” Great. What is that thing? And we gave them space to write some things down and to come up with some ideas.

And then they would share and we would help them refine it. Okay, how do we set a goal around that thing? Or, okay, what is the effort you're going to have to put forth? We helped them get clear on how they were going to make this happen. And because we spent some time doing that… We probably spent an hour total on this. And because we spent time doing that, now everybody's engaged.

Now there has been one time I piped up. I said, “Yo, there's a few of you that haven't filled in your spreadsheet, fill it out,” and then they fill it out. And they're glad they did, right? So there's been a little bit of that.

And this is new, so I realized I'm sharing something that's pretty fresh. I don't have a ton of history with it. But already, it's worth it. So I would make sure to present this well and help them think through their things. Don't have them do it on their own and then submit it, that's not going to work.

That's like me showing up to a call with the law firm owner and saying, “Okay, go think of these things and think it through on your own. Let me know what you decide.” They're never going to email me back; a very small percentage of people would email me back.

That's the thing about this, people need help thinking through what they're shooting for, how to get clarity around what makes sense, deciding what they're going to do, and maybe getting creative with what they're going to do. So having discussion and support around this is very, very important. It doesn't take long, but the space has to be there.

Second thing is you need a tracker. So you have to set up some sort of very simple spreadsheet that everyone's going to enter in on a very specific cadence. It could be daily, could be weekly, whatever you think; monthly is probably too far out. I mean, you all know what it's like when we are working towards something in our personal world to only have to check in monthly. Yeah, that's just not going to work.

People need more engagement than that. They need to be higher engaged in reporting on how it's going for themselves more often than that. So you need to have a place that there is reporting.

And then you need to have a place where you can have fun and a sense of community and support and cheering each other on. For us, that's a Slack channel called Goal Getters. But for you, it could be something else. So whatever you use, use a tool you already use and create a space just for this.

I'll tell you, it's been great for me also, as the leader, because I don't want to flake out on this team. They're all engaged in this, and my participation and commitment towards the things I said I wanted are really important. And it isn't just up and to the right with my progress, I struggled a bit. We were out of town, I was on vacation, and I still was working towards accomplishing the thing I said I would do; that's for personal growth and personal development.

But it wasn't as pretty, I got a little further away from my goal before I started making headway towards it. And that's good for them to see. I didn't stop when it was going the other direction, I just kept on. My action and the decisions I make to take action are not based on the number that's popping up. The result that I'm getting is based on a commitment to the end goal. So I don't care what happens with that number. I'm going to take action and I'm going to do the things I said I was going to do anyway.

So it's a really good practice for you as a leader to do what you say you're going to do, to build that muscle of trust and strength with yourself and to build the muscle of integrity when it comes to execution. It's a great practice. It's a skill that you are forcing yourself to develop in a way that is going to transfer to the other side, to the business side. And you're going to honor what you say you're going to do on the business side, as well.

It's been a really beautiful process inside of Velocity Work for us. I know we have dabbled in this a bit with clients, in terms of getting them to state some personal things they're going to shoot for in the quarter that we're planning for, so that they are supported, and they're more whole coming to the business and to the execution of the business and not showing up as a shell of themselves.

I hope this episode inspired something for you guys that you can do within your firm, within your team, that will bring everybody together and create or strengthen the culture of making progress in doing what you say you're going to do.

It's not about perfection. And you don't fail if you drop off for a day, you don't fail if the numbers aren't where you want them to be, you keep going. And that is a muscle that the more you use, the stronger each individual becomes on your team, and the stronger the culture is inside of your company as well.

Have fun with this. And if any of you decide to develop this, or if you've got something really great going on, it's very similar to what I've said, shoot me an email, I'd love to hear about it. I think these are things worth celebrating.

These are things that help us play the long game, so I'd love to hear about it. Melissa@velocitywork.com.

Thank you. Have a wonderful week, everyone. I'll see you here next Tuesday.

Hey, you may not know this, but there's a free guide for a process I teach called Monday Map/Friday Wrap. If you go to VelocityWork.com, it's all yours. It's about how to plan your time and honor your plans. So, that week over week, more work that moves the needle is getting done in less time. Go to VelocityWork.com to get your free copy.

Thank you for listening to The Law Firm Owner Podcast. If you're ready to get clearer on your vision, data, and mindset, then head over to VelocityWork.com where you can plug in to Quarterly Strategic Planning, with accountability and coaching in between. This is the work that creates Velocity.