Annual goals are more than just checkboxes; they can be a roadmap to your professional growth and success in the corporate world. As neurodivergents, understanding goal setting is helpful for thriving in our careers.

Understanding Annual Goals:

I’m going to walk you through how to approach your annual goals. Everyone approaches goals differently. Some think of them as an annual box to check that are set early in the year and then forgotten until the end of the year when HR reminds us to do the self-review. 

Others look at them as an opportunity to grow and enhance their learning. And many see them as a key part of growing their careers and utilizing the annual goals to look for a promotion or at the very east, work towards getting a more significant raise that goes beyond a cost of living raise.  

Many HR departments hope that we will treat the annual goals thoughtfully and in a way that help us do some professional growth.

The Language of Goals: 

Every’s job and every corporation is different. Many might use various terms to describe goals, but a goal is still a goal. That said, be sure to talk over with your boss if there are higher level goals that impact the goals you set. 

• Before we start with this year’s goals, let’s take a moment to reflect on what we did last year? You may have been asked to do a self assessment on last years goals. If you did or didn’t, put that on hold for a moment. 
• Instead, let’s just do a free think and make a list, just do a brain dump and it doesn’t have to be perfect, but think and list all of the things you did. There are no wrong answers here. It doesn’t matter if it was big or small, but just list out everything you did. 
• Sometimes I find looking back at my calendar helps remind me what I did and who I might have worked with. Give yourself some thinking space to work on this, but don’t over think it.
• Once we have our list: 
• What stands out to you? 
• What brought you joy or 
• What maybe jumps out that you’d rather not do again? 
• Take a few small notes as to why or why not you have joy or annoyance at any of these items:
• As you look at the things you liked doing — what if anything could identify as an area where you had some growth, did some learning or maybe even expand your role a little more?
• Likewise if you had areas of frustration, why? Did you need more learning or experience or skill building one tat thing? Is that something you’d like to do this year? 
• Save these notes for our annual review, but for the moment let’s set those notes aside. 
• As we review last year’s goals — what aligns with your list of things we got done? Do you see any of your goals on the list? Why or why not — and don’t judge yourself as you think about it. Just stick to the facts of why or why not — this will help us in our annual review conversation too.
• Do we see any themes, any patterns anything that jumps out to you? Anything that would be helpful to pull forward to this year or anything you’d rather leave to last year?
• Sometimes when we look back we might see good ideas that didn’t work out because our priorities shifted. That’s OK. Or maybe we see something that sparked an interested but we didn’t have time or we got distracted. Note all of that as possibilities for this year’s goals. 

Reflect on the goals of the last year:

• Take a moment to reflect on these things, and ask yourself, what do I want to do this year? What can I build off of from this list? 
• Now lat’s also pause to reflect on what we also HAVE to do this year?
• For many people this is where that hopeful inspiration gets a little disheartening because we can be overwhelmed by an ever-growing to do list.  
• Here’s my challenge to that — can we find an intersection between what you have to do and what you want to do? It could be small and it might always seem obvious at first, but see if you can find. Way in?
• And what about career growth? Is that something you want to think about? 
• And saying no, not right now, is an OK answer too. Maybe you want to just grow within your role? That’s great too.

What’s expected of me at work?

• When I do this exercise with my team we hone in on the question:
• “What’s expected of me.” This is a question Gallup uses every year within their employee satisfaction surveys. It’s often the biggest question employees struggle with if they’re overwhelmed or just having frustrations in their job. It’s also a great topic to talk about regularly with your manager in your check-ins.
• If you have it during the goal setting window; it can be a moment to confirm with your boss if you both have the same expectations of what your role is and what each of you expects from one another 
• This could generate a conversation on how you are either growing in your role, need to grow or how the role itself is evolving. 
• it could be a good moment for you to better understand if the growth your feeling is aligned with your manager’s perspective. 
• There’s is of course that 10,000 ft view of “what’s expected of me” which means yes this is the basic general idea of my job; for example, your job title might be video editor or writer. So I generally, as your manager, would expect you to be editing or writing. But if we both also expect for you to grow skills associated with your job and the projects, this is a good time to talk about those. Or if you’ve been a video editor and now you want to be a producer, this I also a good time to talk about how to work towards that.

Questions for you and your manager:

• Some questions to consider or talk over with your manager (and note these same questions can work for that annual review conversation too): 
• What new skills do I want to grow in the new year that are associated with the work I am already doing now? 
• Will I have the time from my manager (and the OK to do so)? 
• How can I track and document this work so that it’s seen in my annual review? 
• Are there any funds from the company or our department that can allow me to maybe take a class or something more to help me grow or gain more skills? 
• What might be some projects we have coming up where I can implement both the opportunity to try these or can take more time to learn something new? 
• Or work with someone else who might be able to teach more about what they’re doing that I might like to learn more about? 

Tips for goal settings

• If you’re really overwhelmed with an endless to-do list, make it easier on yourself and look for all the entry points in the work you’re already are doing or plan to do in the new year. The goal here is to avoid taking on too much extra work and feeling more burned out. Instead we’re looking to find small ways into the work you’re doing now. 
• This is also a good question to think about if your company requires anything specific from your annual goal settings? 
• Where can you find alignment in your daily work to something that is being asked of you?
• Yes, you totally can take on those big things too, and I always tell my team but, manage expectations for yourself around the work you have to do.
•  If we say yes to this big thing, what are we saying no to? Again, the goal is to avoid burnout, overwhelm, or not getting something done. It’s not a perfect system, but if we try and think about it now, it might help us if or when the stress hits later.
• How do I make this stick and not have it be a wasted exercise? 
• This is the critical part of making it all stick! Again, the check in with your boss 
• As you do check-ins throughout the year, bring the progress on these goals back with you to your manager. You will need to make a point to own these topic. 
• You always want to be your own advocate for growth and advancement. And if your goal is to grow into a new role, check out the next video in this series about that… BUT as I said earlier you don’t want any surprises at your annual review, so if these topics are being reviewed and talked about as part of your check-in then you and your manager should ideally be on the same page for the expectations of your role at work and be having those conversations regularly. 
• Remember in your check -in with your boss, you can bring agenda items too if you’re not. And if you’re not doing check-ins with your boss? Maybe look into how to start that. Our brains need the structure of things like a check in…