Setting goals is one of the best ways to hold yourself accountable for personal and professional growth. Since we are just settling into 2020, now is a great time to prepare for the upcoming year by setting realistic goals that you can achieve. At work, you should take it upon yourself as a leader to meet with your team and identify goals they can work on, as well. To set the best goals that everyone can accomplish, follow these steps.

Step 1: Brainstorm

Before you can set any goals, you really need to know what exactly you want to accomplish. Everyone has tons of things they wish they could be better at, so list out everything you or your team member wants to improve upon. Try to come up with professional and personal goals, as it can be helpful to stay on top of both at once.

Step 2: Decide

Once you have plenty of goal ideas, it’s time to decide which two you want to pursue. Do your best to choose a personal goal that is completely separate from work. This means it should be a goal that would not change if you were to leave your career field. For example, you may want to save up for a house, learn a new language, or start a side business. On the other hand, your professional goal should have something to do with the work you complete each day. For managers, that might mean creating in-depth development plans for your team, or conquering your inbox each week. The choice itself is up to you.

Step 3: Define

After you’ve decided which goals to strive for, the next step is to define exactly what the goal is. Having a specific goal will allow you to easily track your success, without getting stuck on peripheral tasks. An example of a poorly-designed goal is: “Get better at training others.” A well-designed goal might instead say: “Schedule time with each employee to go over new policies and procedures each time they arise.” This is something that you can clearly check off, rather than leaving it vague and up to interpretation.

Step 4: Complete

Now that you have your goals clearly defined, there is nothing left to do but complete them! Set up a time slot each day to take a few minutes and work toward your goal. If your goal does not have any current objectives, you can take that time to set up another small goal that you can either work on concurrently or after you have completed your current goal.