I’ve been hanging out on LinkedIn more frequently recently because the positive energy is contagious.
It’s the season once again for year-end organizational reviews and strategic planning sessions. There’s something magical and inspiring about these sessions that I’ve observed as a Coach/Consultant and Facilitator, and even as a leader back when I was working in corporate.
Isn’t it fulfilling to look back at how far you’ve come as a team?
Isn’t it exciting to see what new goals are waiting to be achieved next year?
Recognizing our wins and the novelty of new goals both give us that dose of dopamine that makes us feel oh-so-good.
But the big question is, how long will that feel-good-feeling last?
What happens when everyone is busy with their day-to-day firefighting and operational tasks? Who will see these strategies and goals through completion?
Success all depends on YOU and the systems you build around it.
Want to keep the fire burning longer until the end of 2026? Don’t forget to do these things before you part ways for the holidays.
Define Milestones and Checkpoints
According to Asana.com, “Project milestones mark specific points along a project’s timeline.” This could mark the completion of a particular phase or deliverable.
For example, if your goal is to launch a succession planning program your major milestones might include:
📍 Completion and approval of initial program design
📍 Signing of partnership with external training partner
📍 Launch of the Pilot Program
📍 Pilot Program Completion
Breaking down big goals into milestones make them less overwhelming and more manageable. 🗓️
Checkpoints, though may coincide with milestones, can happen more frequently. The goal of checkpoints is to monitor progress of tasks. 📋 This may translate to your weekly, monthly or quarterly updates.
When scheduling checkpoints, make sure to carefully assess and plan the timeliness and practicality. I’ve seen teams that have recurring checkpoints, only to keep cancelling them because everyone’s busy. (I mean, who isn’t, right? 🤔)
Agile Leadership Pro Tip: Be ready to pivot! Planning helps us in execution later on, but be aware and ready to shift gears or even change course depending on external factors or initial outcomes.
Define Roles
I’ve been to meetings and even planning sessions where all the great plans are laid out, but nobody knows who’s going to do what. And the worse part? Nobody wants to ask out of fear that they’ll be volunteered by default. If you ask me, this is not a good sign of leadership, or maybe it’s a sign that people aren’t actually on board or aligned with the plans. ❌
Defining and documenting roles clearly gets you a step closer to turning your plans to reality. Among the roles that should be defined are that of the Project Manager, Deputy Project Manager and Project Sponsor.
😱 Wait, what? It’s a project?
Yes! Translating your strategic planning objectives as mini projects help you better monitor execution and lead it to success. And because these are projects, also consider later on how you’re going to operationalize or institutionalize this later on. 🏭
Agile Leadership Pro Tip: When assigning roles, make sure to empower your people by giving trust, information and resources they need.
Create a Tracker
Having a nice slide with a cool diagram of what your 2026 will look like is nice. 🤩 It’s great to have a visual representation that helps your team understand and remember what the key priorities are.
But to make sure all these get done, there should be a live document that gets updated on how things are progressing. 📊 It doesn’t matter if you use sophisticated software or a simple spreadsheet. As long as you get to track the progress of each goal and action item, then you’re good. What’s important is that it gives you a clear picture of where you’re at.
Agile Leadership Pro Tip: Transparency and visibility help build trust and commitment. Make sure these trackers and reports are shared with everyone involved.
Align Individual Goals
Want to get things done? Get everyone onboard and involved. 🙌🏼
People want to see how their work contributes to the bigger picture. It makes them feel valued and helps them understand how they impact the business and make a difference. So make sure that your strategic goals are translated to milestones, and these milestones are translated to individual goals.
It is important that as leaders, you see how each employee’s work contributes to the bigger goals, and are able to articulate that in your goal setting discussions. 🎯
Agile Leadership Pro Tip: When sharing goals, don’t just share what needs to be done, also explain the why behind it. Also give room for people to come up with their own how when implementing the action plans.
Ensuring Success
Don’t let your amazing plans go to waste. Make sure you have the systems in place to lead you to success. But don’t cast it on stone. Be on guard because with the constant state of evolution, you might just find yourself back to the drawing board sooner than you think.
Schedule a call with me or send me a message hello@kurlydeguzman.com
No Special tools needed. You can start today, and do it consistently to make a difference. Coach Kurly de Guzman is a Career and Leadership Coach and one of a LinkedIn’s Top Voice based in the Philippines. She continuously seeks ways to help coaches, leaders and teams thrive through her newsletter, leadership and career development workshops as well as group and 1:1 coaching session for clients.
