As the end of the year approaches, we always see a spike in workloads: the end-of-the-year push to get things done. But some things are much more important than others, which is why we wanted to share one of Maliasili’s favorite management and prioritization tools with you now: weekly goals. 

Weekly goals are perhaps the quickest and easiest tool you can use to keep your team informed, coordinated, and effective...

Why do weekly goals?

1. Prioritize what really matters – Weekly goals force us to look beyond our long to-do lists and to identify the most critical pieces of work we need to accomplish right now. Our checklist still matters, but if it comes down to box checking vs. spending more time on accomplishing a key goal, our weekly goals help keep us on track and focused.

2. Share what you’re doing with your team – Weekly goals give an entire team a quick glimpse at what it’s working on. It’s not a competition of who is busiest or who has the ‘weightiest’ goals, but instead a way to stay coordinated and informed and to encourage collaboration.

3. Hold yourself accountable – When you commit to something publicly you’re more likely to do it. 

How it works:

1. Identify up to (and no more than) 5 top priorities – these are the absolute most critical things you want to accomplish this week. They should always be in service of your personal annual work goals.

2. Share them publicly with your team – write them down and share them with your team. Do this every Monday, and be consistent. (Tip: consider using an online platform, such as Slack or Google Docs, to make sharing easier).

3. Update and share progress against your goals – reflect on your progress from the previous week and share a quick ‘status’ update of each goal:

   • Complete

   • Work Delayed because…

   • Ongoing but progress made…

   • Etc.

Top Tips:

• Be clear about what action are you taking and why – The goals you set and share shouldn’t be lengthy, but you do want to be clear about what you plan to achieve and why it matters (e.g. “Prepare for and facilitate communications workshop for Maliasili team”)

• You DON’T always need to have 5 goals – you may have just one critical priority that you need to focus most of your time and energy on, that’s great prioritization, embrace and encourage it!

• It’s okay if some goals are ‘bigger’ than others – some goals may be more important than others, but if you list them as a goal they are a priority for you and they matter. For example, you might have a backlog of emails that you need to get through or you might have a number of admin tasks that have been piling up that are important to tie off. What’s important is that you are taking the time to reflect on your top priorities and that those are the most critical things you need to get done that week.

• Be realistic about time – some weeks may be shorter than others, some goals will be much more time consuming than others. The process of identifying weekly goals should include thinking through how much time it will take to accomplish your work.

• Use goals to communicate about your schedule and time – Make a note if you are taking time off or if you are short on time due to travel or workshops in your weekly goals – a quick ”*” at the bottom of your goals is great!

Finally, take the time to train your team on setting weekly goals. Help them understand the purpose and the value of them. As a manager, give feedback on individual’s goals and use these to guide check-in conversations with them. As a reminder - print out this handout - and add it to your work space.

Read the full newsletter here: Maliasili Reader Issue 10

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