It is that time of year again: Appraisals. A journal can be a great help in preparing for appraisals and setting your goals at work.
When considering your Career Goals you should be considering both Corporate Goals (i.e. Your Employer’s Goals and Business Plan and what your Employer wants you to achieve) as well as your own Personal Goals (i.e. what you personally want to achieve). I find it helpful to dedicate a free-writing journal entry to each, before extracting S.M.A.R.T objectives.
Corporate and Business Goals Page – you should include a goals page that focuses on your company’s goals, vision and/or business plan. What are their plans for their employees and if you know – what are their plans for you – what do they want or need from you.
Personal Goals Page – Start with things that you want to achieve and contribute to the Company together with goals that will help you achieve your internal goals such as a promotion or a pay rise or being put in charge or a specific project or customer and build your way up to your Long Term Goals and even your 10 year plan.
Of course, if you are in the right job – there should be an element of overlap between these goals.
For each of these goals write a set of action points to go with them.
If you are using a Career Journal you might also wish to use a Career Development Goals Notebook to manage your goals and/ or a Career Progression Goals & Meetings Notebook which are specifically designed with career progression in mind.