Effectively Setting Goals During Year-End Events

Year-end and start-of-year meetings are crucial tools in celebrating past successes and setting the tone for the year ahead. From aligning on strategies to educating attendees, these meetings are the perfect opportunity to set goals.

Setting goals for the upcoming year ensures that the entire team is working towards common objectives that fit into the organization’s larger vision. Live events are an incredible tool because they provide a dedicated environment to bring the entire team together without distractions, allowing attendees to connect with each other and providing unmatched opportunities to hear directly from leaders.

Of course, just as important as creating goals and designing strategies to achieve them, is communicating them. With the right, thoughtful event design you can make sure your goals are shared effectively and in a way that inspires attendees.

Talk About Performance from the Previous Year.

If you’re setting new goals for the upcoming year at this event, odds are you had goals for the past year, too. These goals should absolutely be acknowledged.

Start by reminding everyone what the organization was hoping to achieve over the past year and the strategies put into place before sharing whether or not the goals were reached. If the year was a success, make sure you’re celebrating the team’s overall performance as well as giving additional recognition to high achievers on the team.

Acknowledging (and celebrating) past goals reminds attendees where the company was a year ago, providing important context for where they are today. It also shows your team that the goals you’re setting today truly matter. They aren’t being set arbitrarily and then forgotten about – they are created for a reason and the organization is truly invested in the results. This sets the expectation that this year’s goals will be taken just as seriously.

Set SMART Goals.

The first key to effectively sharing goals is making sure you’re setting the right kind of goals. SMART Goals is a common framework we see used. Here’s what it stands for:

Specific.

For most organizations, “increase profitability” is incredibly general – and it’s also kind of a given across every industry and most job functions. For sales teams, goals like “Increase profitability by reducing overhead costs, expanding our footprint with existing customers, and securing two new customers each month” is much more effective. It goes beyond sharing the obvious goal of business growth and shares what growth is expected and how the team expects to get there.

Measurable.

If the team doesn’t understand how you’re defining success, they may not understand what exactly they should be working towards. For sales teams, things like individual or team quota increases or client conversion thresholds will help them understand exactly what is expected of them. For marketing teams, implementing specific new technology on a certain number of accounts or expanding a campaign in a clear geographic area lets them know how their work will be judged.

With the creation of clear benchmarks also comes the opportunity to create and implement a reward system. A clear, objective system incentivizes people to hit their goals.

Achievable.

Goals should be a stretch and challenge members of your team to work hard, innovate, and push themselves. However, if the goals aren’t realistically attainable, people may not feel inclined to try. Telling a research and development team of 20 designers to completely redesign the organization’s entire portfolio and software may seem like such an impossible feat that they don’t really commit to it. However, asking them to improve a few clear metrics on a set number of products and make key updates to software will feel like it’s something that can be achieved with hard work.

Relevant.

Your goals for your team should align with your company’s overall objectives. If they don’t, what’s their purpose?

You want everybody at the meeting to understand what the vision for the company’s future is. However, if the goals you’re setting for that specific department or job function don’t seem to be relevant to reaching that vision, the team members may feel that the goals are arbitrary and don’t really matter.

Time-Bound.

This is a big one: establish deadlines and milestones for each of your goals.

For many teams, the obvious deadline is the end of the fiscal year. However, some specific goals, like preparation for an event or product launch, may need to be completed in a different timeframe. 

Regardless of what your timeline is, make sure it’s clearly communicated and there are plenty of milestones along the way. This lets people know not only what they are working for, but when they are looking to achieve it by. The milestones provide important checkpoints along the way. These check-ins help your team break down goals into actionable steps, creates a natural schedule to follow, and allows you to make sure you’re on track to hit goals throughout the year. This is especially important as it allows you to course correct if any challenges arise and avoid last-minute rushes.

Align Goals with Event Elements.

When designing event content, picking speakers, choosing entertainment, or outlining the content of leadership presentations, consider how you can target each component of the event and weave in your objectives.

If your goals are to increase sales, make sure leadership presentations clearly outline strategies and effectively share data. If the goal is to roll out a new product, consider having hands-on workshops so people can experience using the product, use video content that shares specs in an exciting way, or emotional storytelling from somebody who could benefit from it.

On the other hand, if you want to push a more collaborative workspace, highlight teams that worked together to create big wins over the past year to show how they worked together and why it was effective. If it has been a challenging year, a keynote speaker who talks about overcoming adversity could inspire attendees to overcome difficult circumstances.

It’s also important to consider what might send a message that is counter to the goals and tone. Overly celebratory experiences may not send the message that goals are important after a year where they have not been achieved. On the flip side, if it’s been a great year, make sure your team feels recognized and celebrated.

Encourage Open Discussions.

You want your team to really buy into the goals, and part of that is understanding what they are, why they matter, and how they can be achieved. Allowing attendees to ask questions will communicate that their voices matter while also increasing their understanding of, and commitment to, the goals. Attendees may also feel invited to share their ideas, which could lead to great new strategies to implement!

From open Q&As, to sourced questions and panel discussions, let your audience be part of the conversation.

Create a Follow-Up Plan.

Communication should not start and end with your event. If the only touchpoints your attendees have are annual sales meetings, shareholders meetings, marketing summits, or conferences, they may forget or lose their enthusiasm between events.

Consider gathering in smaller groups for mid-year or quarterly meetings. Divided by job functions, geographically, or other metrics, these smaller meetings can address concerns more specific to the group, allow them to complete new training, and help attendees understand how they and the company are performing so far.

Consistent follow ups can also be achieved through virtual meetings or content. From a highlight reel sent a few weeks after the event to regular monthly content highlighting specific wins throughout the year, delving deeper into specific strategies, or giving updates on company performance, frequent touchpoints keep everybody aligned.

After the initial thrill and inspiration from the meeting has worn off, touchpoints remind attendees what they are working towards.

Designing an event with the purpose of effectively communicating your goals is the key to inspiring your attendees to take action. The AVentPro team is here to help you create an engaging and impactful event centered around helping you achieve your goals. Reach out today at [email protected] or call us at (204) 226-5565.