By now you’ve likely eaten all the good Halloween candy and the grocery store aisles are packed with holiday baking essentials, which means the end of the year is fast approaching. For team leaders and managers, now is the time to consider how to wrap up the year and look ahead. Our team is currently preparing for our annual Goal Setting Workshop to tie a bow on 2024 and set meaningful goals for 2025, and we hope you plan to do the same! Here’s how to structure a goal-setting workshop that celebrates past achievements, identifies priorities, and establishes a practical plan for the future. We hope this gets your leadership wheels turning and helps you hone in on what would work best for your team. 

Before the Workshop

Consider what your team will need to know in advance and what you want them to reflect on prior to and during the workshop. Does your team do better if they have a detailed agenda prior to the time together or will they respond well to a little mystery about the content of the workshop? If your team does better with time to process and reflect in advance you may want to provide them with questions to consider before the workshop. Is there data about 2024 they need to use to set goals for 2025? If so, make sure they have time to gather that data prior to the workshop to make the time together more productive.

Workshop Outline

1. Start by Celebrating Accomplishments

Before diving into what’s next, take time to acknowledge what your team has already accomplished. Celebrating success sets a positive tone and builds momentum for future planning.

Start the workshop by asking:

• What are our proudest achievements from this year?

• How have these successes shaped who we are as a team?

This reflection reminds your team of their capabilities and fosters a sense of pride. Recognition also reinforces a culture where effort and results are valued—an important foundation for setting new goals.

2. Define Success

Stephen Covey’s principle of beginning with the end in mind emphasizes the importance of envisioning your desired outcome before determining how to achieve it.

Pose these key questions to guide your team’s goal-setting discussion:

• What Does Success Look Like?

• What do we want to be true by the end of next year, semester, or quarter, and what will it take to get there?

• What barriers might stand in our way, and how can we overcome them?

These questions encourage future-focused thinking and provide clarity about the actions and resources needed to turn vision into reality.

3. Differentiate Between Types of Goals

Goals come in many forms, and helping your team identify and categorize them can lead to more intentional planning. Define these four types of goals:

• Personal Goals: Focused on individual growth and development.
  Example: Learning a new skill or earning a certification.

• Programmatic Goals: Related to specific projects or functional areas.
  Example: Launching a new program or improving an existing process.

• Team Goals: Collaborative goals that enhance cohesion and shared success.
  Example: Improving team communication or completing a major initiative together.

• Organizational Goals: Aligned with the broader mission or strategy.
  Example: Supporting a key organizational priority or metric.

Encourage team members to reflect on their own goals and to collaborate on identifying shared team goals. Ask: What meaningful outcome can we achieve as a team that none of us could do alone? Shared goals, in particular, can foster collaboration and build a more cohesive team dynamic.

4. Clarify Achievable Goals

We talk a lot about wanting to set goals, but a critical aspect of a goal-setting workshop is actually setting the goals. Encourage your team to hone in on a short, achievable list of goals making note of the type of goal (personal, programmatic, team, organizational). Consider if you want them to have maybe 1 or 2 in each type and determine how team and organizational goals should be set. 

Allow time for them to share their ideas and then ask them to commit to a set of goals. Try to keep them focused on setting goals and avoid the workshop getting sidetracked by premature or detailed discussions about achieving the goals. 

5. Schedule Time for Progress

Once goals are identified, the focus shifts to action. 

To ensure goals don’t get crowded out by day-to-day tasks take time during the workshop to plan out time to work on the established goals.

• For personal goals: Encourage team members to block recurring time on their calendars to work on these priorities.

• For shared goals: Schedule regular team check-ins or collaboration meetings to ensure progress and accountability.

This intentional approach helps translate aspirations into sustained action and will prevent team members from leaving the workshop thinking “when will I be able to work toward these goals?”.

After the Workshop

Goal setting isn’t a one-and-done exercise. Build in regular opportunities to revisit goals and celebrate progress. Following the workshop, set up recurring check-ins to review goals and address challenges. These might take place as part of typical team meetings or you may want to schedule times dedicated to checking-in on progress towards the established goals. Be sure to celebrate milestones and achievement along the way to maintain motivation and engagement. Recognition and accountability help keep goals alive throughout the year and reinforce the importance of the team’s efforts.

Leading your team through a goal-setting workshop ensures that your team’s aspirations are clear, actionable, and achievable. By celebrating past successes, identifying meaningful priorities, and scheduling time to act on them, you’ll inspire focus and collaboration while setting the stage for a successful year ahead. Adjust this workshop outline to meet the needs of your team and your hopes for 2025!