Happy Year in Review
This time last year, we noted that Peter Drucker liked to sit down at least once annually and take stock of his performance over the previous 12 months. While we take pride in not repeating ourselves on this blog—and are not about to do so now—we do admit that today’s post will explore the same themes about looking back and forward as the calendar turns. Hey, it’s the season.
Indeed, today’s post makes a very simple point that Drucker liked to stress: If you want to be effective at anything, if you want to grow as a leader or an employee or simply as a person, you should regularly review your performance against your goals.
“All of the people I’ve known who have grown review once or twice a year what they have actually done, which part of that work makes sense and what they should concentrate on,” Drucker wrote.
He himself made a habit in these sessions of deciding what to concentrate on during the next year to get the most out of it. “I’m not saying that I always follow my own plan,” Drucker averred. “Very often something comes in over the transom and I forget all my good intentions. But so far as I have become a better and more effective consultant and have gotten more and more personally out of consulting, it’s been because of this practice of focusing on where I can really make a difference.”
Like Drucker, few, if any, of us always live up to our resolutions. But when you see a successful person in action, you’re very likely seeing someone who is successful at self-appraisal. “The critical factor . . . is accountability—holdingyourself accountable,” Drucker wrote. “Everything else flows from that.”
From all of us at the Drucker Exchange, we wish you a happy, successful andaccountable New Year.
How—and how often—do you review your performance as measured against your goals?
