With 2023 already upon us, the month of January always provides a great opportunity to focus our attention on the year to come. Regardless of whether you work to a financial or calendar year cycle, now’s the perfect time to review whether you have the right formula to achieve success with your team this year. While there are no guarantees of what 2023 will bring, there are certain actions you can take  to ensure your team is ready to face the challenges ahead and embrace the successes to come. 

Read on to learn five important actions to prepare you and your team for a successful year.

1) Set goals with your staff — both personal and professional

Without providing your team with a clear picture of what their work priorities, goals and deliverables for the year are and helping them to understand what success looks like, you’re likely to find employees underperforming and lacking motivation.

Performance goals provide a clear vision of what work and deliverables are highest priority, they highlight what a successful job looks like, and help identify the key steps for how to get there. Setting goals also allows the leader and the employee the ability to monitor progress and make appropriate adjustments along the way to ensure achievement.

In order for businesses to be successful, it is important to ensure your team has clarity around how they connect and contribute to your organisation’s strategy, and how their role aligns with your core function. Helping them to understand the big “rocks” or deliverables they will personally contribute to the organisation meeting its goals, assists in centring and aligning efforts towards achievement.

Why not get your individual team members to help you identify how their work aligns with the priorities of your organisation, or at a lower level your team function and deliverables? Ask them to help in identifying appropriate priority goals and how you will define and measure success. This activity can assist in empowering employees and helping highlight the contribution they make to the organisation’s overall success.

As leaders, it is essential to foster an environment that supports goal setting and encourages employees to strive for excellence in their job role. Setting performance goals that align to critical organisational success factors is one thing, but almost just as important is encouraging team members to set their own personal goals, as this helps them to develop goal setting muscle and encourages high performing behaviours and ownership.

An effective goal setting activity is having employees write down a key personal goal they would like to achieve in the coming year. It could be anything from increasing sales figures, developing a new product or service, or improving customer service. Then, have each team member share their goals with the team and work together to come up with strategies on how to achieve them. Make sure to break down big goals into smaller, achievable tasks. This will give everyone clarity on what needs to be done and create a shared sense of purpose. After discussing each goal, have everyone write down their individual action steps and commitments. Finally, assign accountability partners to ensure that everyone follows through on their commitments.

By engaging your team in meaningful goal setting activities, you are helping to create an environment of accountability, collaboration and growth. Everyone will be able to understand their role in achieving the business’ objectives, leading to greater success.

2) Invest in training and upskilling your leaders

Good leaders are essential to the success of any business. They provide guidance, leadership, and a vision for the team, while also creating a culture of collaboration and growth. It is therefore vital that leaders receive ongoing training and upskilling to ensure they are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to lead their teams effectively, and that they are able to build relationships that inspire and motivate performance.

Some key areas for leadership development include:

1. Interpersonal Skills: A great leader must be able to connect with their team, establish a two-way trusting relationship and foster collaboration. A wide range of skills can be learned through training and development such as effective communication, listening, problem solving and conflict resolution skills. 
2. Leadership Development: Leadership training builds awareness and supports leaders in developing the skills to connect, motivate and inspire performance in their direct reports. Leadership development also focuses on the skills required to manage the work within the team such as  goal setting and delegation, planning and prioritising work, and creating an environment that encourages employee engagement and satisfaction. 
3. Strategic Planning: Strategic planning development helps leaders develop a plan for achieving the company’s goals in a focused, timely and cost-effective manner. Leaders learn how to evaluate data, anticipate changes in the market, and craft strategies that will drive success.
4. Operational Excellence: Training in operational excellence teaches leaders how to optimise processes and increase efficiency. This type of training covers topics such as time management, process improvement, budgeting, effective resource allocation and inventory management. 
5. Change Management: Change is inevitable in any business. Leaders need to be equipped to lead their teams through periods of transition and adapt to new environments. Change management training teaches leaders how to prepare for, communicate through and manage the change process without disrupting morale or productivity. 

With the right skill sets, leaders can create a positive team culture, improve processes, and drive performance through their people.

3) Build on your culture

When it comes to culture, it’s easy to think of a few buzzwords or have a preconceived idea of what culture should be. But culture isn’t as simple as words or a one-size-fits-all solution. Culture is the combination of shared beliefs and values among a company’s employees and how these beliefs and values shape the behaviour of everyone within a group or organisation. 

Think of it like this; how do things really work around here? Ignore what the policies, procedures, strategic plans or values tell you, and instead think about whether the ‘walk’ matches the ‘talk’. Often it’s the unwritten rules that really define a workplace culture so ensuring your actions and ways of getting work achieved match your written rules is the first step in determining whether your culture is constructive and helping to support your success.

Whilst they appear to be fun, having bean bags and a ping-pong table doesn’t necessarily equate to having a fun workplace culture — particularly if leadership don’t interact with frontline staff, employees are micromanaged, or following the rules doesn’t apply to the management team. To create a positive workplace culture, leaders should  begin by focusing on these three key areas: 

1. Open and transparent communication: Encourage honest and open communication and two-way trusting relationships between team members and leaders so everyone feels they can freely express their ideas, concerns and opinions, and that they are valued and appreciated for their contribution. Make sure any issues are addressed promptly and fairly. 
2. Recognition and appreciation: Acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of your employees, both publicly and privately. This will show them their efforts are appreciated, encouraging further motivation and dedication. Remember though that not all employees like public recognition; know who does and find a quiet space to individually recognise the ones that don’t.
3. Empowerment: Give your employees autonomy in their roles and allow them to take ownership of their work. Empowering your staff makes them feel valued, encourages initiative and motivates increased effort and performance.

4) Plan ahead

Planning ahead is essential for any business to reach success. Knowing the goals that you want to achieve, what resources are needed and when you need them, and how to get there is the key to achievement. One of the best ways to ensure success in the long-term is to plan for the future. 

One way to do this is to dedicate a day or multiple days throughout the year for setting and reviewing progress against team goals. By setting a road map you will help align and guide your team towards goal achievement. Set periodic check-ins every quarter for you and your team to track your team goals and review how you are progressing towards achieving them. This is also a great opportunity to discuss the wins so far, the challenges that lie ahead, and the steps that need to be taken in order to reach those goals. 

Another way to use planning to help achieve success is to prioritise tasks. By creating an organised list of tasks and assigning them according to priority and importance, you can make sure that your team is focused on the most important tasks first. This will help your team stay on track and focus their energy on what needs to be done most. 

Planning also helps create focus and clarity in the business. By taking the time to plan out your goals, you will have a clear vision of what needs to be done including how you will achieve it. This will help everyone in the business understand what needs to be done, who is responsible for each task, and when it needs to be achieved.

Planning helps to create an efficient workflow, keep everyone on the same page, and helps  to achieve goals faster and with greater accuracy. 

5) Recognising and appreciating your employees

Creating a positive and productive work environment starts with rewarding and recognising your employees. Recognising employees for their hard work and achievements is one of the most effective ways to motivate and inspire them to keep pushing themselves to do their best. When employees are given recognition for their efforts and achievements, they become more engaged, energised, and willing to contribute to the success of the organisation.

Although not everyone can allocate a recognition and reward budget within their business, rewarding employees for their successes doesn’t need to be expensive, or even have a monetary value. Simple things like verbal praise, recognition in team meetings, bonus points, or a hand-written note of appreciation can make a huge difference in employee morale and performance. You can also give out small rewards like gift cards, extra time off, or professional development opportunities to show employees their hard work is valued.

When done well, recognition fosters a culture of excellence, drives innovation, and helps to create better performance enhancing habits. Research shows that when employees are rewarded for their performance and achievements, it boosts productivity, morale, and engagement among the team, which in turn helps the business meet its goals and objectives.

Whatever the new year brings you and your business, arm yourself with the tools, skills and resources to set and achieve success, and the rest will follow.

Want to learn more? Book a chat with one of our highly experienced HR & People Consultants today.