I love the beginning of the year! The cleanliness of the desk, the new gadget, the clear head put to work, the craving for new plans, the clean agenda…

It’s true that I have a habit of throwing away everything that has gathered in that dubious pile of papers that came to me and that I haven’t touched for months, almost without looking. I will consider myself experienced enough when I have the courage to simply throw them away without inspecting them at all. This year I managed to keep about 2-3 pages of the 1m high pile and I decided that 2020 is the year without paper!

The unseen line between the years gives us the opportunity for many things, as well as to set new goals and plans for our professional and personal lives. I admit that for years I prefer to put together the so-called two lives and treat the time allocated together. I don’t consider myself an example of organization, but no novice, and I believe that a good plan makes as much as a happy year full of achievements. I’ve also known a lot of ways to plan at the beginning of the year, some more scholarly or approximately, and I can say that there is no model in itself just as there is no person who perfectly resembles another.

I always start by setting my strategic and specific objectives for the year ahead, and this activity begins with revisiting the plans of the year that has just left us. Of course, setting strategic objectives must take into account the path that the organization and you as a person have traveled so far, and the medium and long-term vision you have. Enrolling the annual objectives in a medium and long-term logic is essential to be able to have a coherence of development and day-to-day work. Personally, I re-align and rethink the long-term directions by analyzing external factors and the social and political, regional and international environment; that is why the beginning of the year is also a good time to inform ourselves, read analyses and informed points of view. Only a correct understanding of the trends in the industry in which we work can show us where and how the main long-term directions should be adjusted.

There is a format called the Balanced Score Card that offers me a method that I consider effective to divide the objectives by areas. Starting from the strategic objectives (in my case of the organization) I set strategic and specific objectives at the level of each area (operations, financial, development-sales, innovation, personal development) and then I list the actions for 3-6 months for each objective by establishing the responsible, the deadlines and possibly the success factors. And so, the plan is ready! All that remains is to put the actions and checkpoints on the agenda, form the work teams and start the year.

In my position, communication is particularly important for a successful year. A start of the year is important for the CEO as well as for every colleague working in the organization. It is totally inefficient to set plans and objectives that do not take into account the plans and objectives of the company and others. At the beginning of the year, I pay special attention to communicating the organization’s strategic objectives to management in the first place, but also to the rest of the colleagues. The communication of personal objectives and the predictability of the directions that the organization will take are extremely important for the coherence of the activity. My colleagues in management set their own objectives starting from those of the organization and can contribute to amending and improving them. During periodic meetings, I communicate within the company up to the level of execution what its strategic objectives are and what are the specific objectives of that department. I believe that any colleague in the group of companies has the right to know where we are going and what the main concerns are because each of them embarks with me on a journey and has the right to know where we are going, where and for what they will make their personal resources, such as time and passion, available.

A good plan is a good plan also to the extent that we revisit and review it periodically. It is obvious that things change over the course of a year and there is a need for a constant realignment of objectives with what is happening in the external and internal environment and a matching of activities. Although the unpredictable is the one that dominates the real course of events, this evidence does not detract from the value of planning. It often happens to me to hear the remark: we plan in vain, things happen “as they want”, as if “things” had their own conscience and wills. In reality, precisely because of the effect of the unforeseen it is important to have a solid planning that ensures contingency plans and the return to the line of strategic objectives.

Experience has taught me that solid planning and transparency of objectives are essential in an organization and, therefore, I allocate to the end of the year reflection and decoupling from events, and to the beginning of the year – planning and setting objectives, as well as extensive communication within the management team and the rest of the organization. I don’t think you have to be at the highest level of the organization to think about making a communication plan up, down and to the side of your position regarding the objectives and actions you have in mind. Giving and clarity to the set of objectives and actions in an organization makes it successful!

A new year is another year, it will prove different and always surprising regardless of the steadfastness of the activity and the quality of the planning. This is wonderful and makes the daily delight of our activities. I think encouraged by the multitude of challenges and changes of direction that my activity will encounter in 2020, I think with emotion about risks and pressures, and I happily throw myself into the roller-coaster that awaits me, convinced of the safe finish, because: “everything ends well, if it’s not good, it means it’s not over”.

Article published in Careers Magazine.