How do you review a year like 2020?

In a normal year, November is when I pull out my goals for the year and see how we’ve done. Maybe there are one or two areas where I can buckle down the last 6 weeks of the year and make up the gap between my January self and my November reality.

But 2020 is different. Everyone gets an A+ for surviving – no need to check the January goals.

Still, there’s a lot to be learned by looking back!

Here are 4 Questions I’m using with clients to help look back over 2020 and find focus areas for 2021.

What went well?

Even in a year like 2020, there were some bright spots!

Bright spots are things that are going well or where you are getting unexpectedly good results. Where are the upside surprises?

• Is there one area of the business performing better than others?
• Are there one or two employees that are exceeding expectations?
• Is there a project that produced outsized results for a client?

What is different about that bright spot? How can you replicate that success in other places?

What went poorly?

It’s important to acknowledge our failures too. Not to wallow in them, but to learn from them. Just as we are looking at what’s different in the bright spots, what contributed to the failures? We don’t want to point fingers. Instead, look for solutions.

What should we STOP doing?

With the upheaval and change we saw in 2020, there are likely things you have been doing that are not getting results or aren’t even relevant anymore.

Taking some time to identify them and cross them up will free up time and energy for…

What should we do more of?

Having looked at your bright spots, and noticed where things went awry, focus now on where you want to invest in the year to come.

Spending an hour or two working with your team to review the year can pay big dividends in the year to come.

How have you done annual company reviews in the past? How will that change in 2020?