Set Three Top Goals for the Year
Why is it important to set goals for the year?
First and foremost, goal setting provides organizational direction and purpose. This activity creates focal points for the Board’s time and energy.
Second, it enables the Board to determine through an objective measurement whether it had a successful year or not. Successful execution is whether the Board is moving the community/building along in a meaningful direction. This annual grade allows the Board to assess its goals for the following year.
Third, goal setting enables Board members to avoid the last minute anxiety that accompanies the approaching date of the annual meeting. Board members typically spend an inordinate amount of time and energy prior to annual meetings trying to complete or commence projects as a way to justify how they spent their time between annual meetings.
Benefits of Annual Goal Setting
The Board avoids always being reactive. Being proactive requires less emotional and mental energy. This approach allows Board members to be intentional and purposeful concerning how they spend their time. Spend is the operative word here. Because Board members have lives outside of Board-related activities, they can only allocate a certain amount of physical and mental energy to building matters. To do otherwise risks burnout and overall poor decision-making.
Goal setting allows individual Board members to take ownership of a particular issue and see it through resolution. By letting an individual Board member take ownership of a particular issue, much more can be accomplished because Board members are engaged in matters that they are particularly passionate about or are well suited and qualified to handle.