From Reflection to Visualization: A Framework for Goal Setting and Strategic Planning

Journal of Financial Planning: December 2023

Jessica Harrington, PCC, is an executive business coach with Carson Coaching (www.carsongroup.com/coaching). She holds a bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University and a master’s in leadership and organizational development from the University of Texas at Dallas. She’s passionate about partnering with firm owners to bridge the gap between their current situation and their desired success. Carson Coaching is the exclusive coaching partner of the Financial Planning Association.

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‘Tis the season for goal setting and strategic planning! I love the change of seasons. It’s refreshing and helps bring new life to what’s possible for the future. While fall has always been my favorite season because it helps me to remember to slow down just a little and reflect, late fall and early winter are my favorite times of year as a coach because I get to help my coaching clients take a moment to pause and plan.

While the technical definitions of “goal” and “strategy” differ, I maintain they are interrelated. Goals are more broad, long-term outcomes whereas strategy is the specific plan you’ll use to meet objectives, plans, and goals. Goal-setting and strategic planning, which are often thought to be different, are actually the same in different contexts. Goal setting is done on an individual level while strategic planning is goal setting on a firm level.

While budgeting and planning for larger firms usually takes place in the fall, if you run a smaller firm, you have more flexibility to take time in December or January to do your goal setting and strategic planning.

But there’s a framework to approach both at the same time. And this time of year is the ideal time to follow the framework. First, start by celebrating your team’s success from the previous year and doing something enjoyable, like a fun outing or celebration.

But after you celebrate, it’s time to get back to work. Here are the elements of the framework you can use for your planning:

Reflect on the Year

Many times, we’re so focused on going forward we don’t take time to step back and acknowledge our hard work, achievements, growth, and the opportunities we seized the year before. Reflection gives you the opportunity to be in the moment with your successes.

For example, I’m coaching someone who had an outstanding year of 25 percent growth over her previous fiscal year. But this fiscal year, she was constantly saying, “We’re not where we were last year.” But you may not always be able to grow by 25 percent. You’re still helping people when you grow by $30 million instead of $50 million. Reflection helps you put into perspective that not every year has to be the same, but that doesn’t mean something negative.

Reflection also affords you the opportunity to catch things that didn’t go how you’d planned. For example, you might identify that in the beginning of last year you set a goal to do something, but you didn’t achieve it, and you can dissect why after reflecting on it.

One common hurdle to reflection is not making the time to do it. You shouldn’t do this type of work in between client meetings—you really need to remove yourself from the day-to-day to get into the proper mindset to really reflect and think. While ideally you want to answer all 14 questions in the Annual Reflections Guide, you might only be able to answer six because not all of them will resonate with you. So, if you come across a hard question, don’t let that stop you. Just keep answering until you identify some wins and some losses.

Take Inventory of Where You Are as a Business and as a Person

This part of the framework is made up of several elements.

First, there are different key performance indicators to track for your business. The best business management you can do is to be able to track these KPIs and understand why any changes may be occurring.

• Net new assets. NNA is the assets you had come into the business, less the assets that left via client distributions or exits—not taking into account the market changes. This is a good one to understand whether you are truly growing.
• Families served. Sometimes we get so focused on assets and dollars that we forget about the impact that we’re making with these families by helping them to achieve their goals.
• Growth and retention. You might have a lot of growth, but you might not have the greatest retention. Both of those are really important, but you need to ensure there’s a good balance.
• Revenue. Track to ensure you have healthy margins.
• Client introductions. Are your clients introducing you to the people that they care about? And are they introducing you to the types of clients you are best suited to help?

Second, you want to keep abreast of what’s going on in the industry and profession as a whole by conducting a SWOT analysis on an annual or biannual basis, and examine your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in light of current trends.

Third, assess your technology implementation. What technology have you actually implemented in the past year, and how well have you done so? What I see with many planners and advisers is they add a lot of different technology and they’re not utilizing half of it well. To assess your technology implementation, you first want to conduct a technology inventory to see what you’re using. I also recommend having a champion for different programs. For example, have a champion for your CRM, a champion for your planning software, and a champion for your communication software, like email systems.

Lastly, don’t forget about your PPIs—or personal purpose indicators. You likely have a purpose beyond just making money, and you need to measure progress on that, too. Vice President of Carson Coaching Sarah M. Cain says, “PPIs are used to track whether you’re making the kind of change or impact you want to make in the world.”¹

Your PPIs can include your volunteer work, charitable giving, your identity, and culture. PPIs are important to include because at the end of the day, you want to look back and have accomplishments that are about more than just revenue. You want to make a change, and sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that and end up at the end stages of your career saying, “I wish I would have done more to give back.” This helps ensure you make these things a priority.

Imagine the Future

Take away some of the guardrails you have in your mind about what’s possible. What do you see?

Why shouldn’t we imagine more? Visualizing yourself being successful is so powerful. It creates connections within our mind and allows you to believe that what you’ve visualized is possible. We don’t visualize this way in the day-to-day. We’re so focused on the next thing that we don’t give ourselves the freedom to ask ourselves: if nothing else mattered, what would I be doing?

Invite your team to do an exercise of what’s possible by asking them these questions:

• What would we do as a firm if nothing was standing in our way?
• What is the most important thing that has to be done this year?

You likely ask your clients to visualize what retirement looks like for them so they can connect emotionally to their future selves. You can use this similar exercise on yourself and your team to connect emotionally to what’s possible in this next year.

Six Practical Tips for Goal Setting and Strategic Planning

Goal setting and strategic planning can seem overwhelming, but to help it feel less so, here are six practical tips:

1. Set SMAC or SMART goals. SMAC goals are specific, measurable, achievable, and compatible; and SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Choose the one that resonates with you and set goals with those things in mind.
2. Prioritize and plan out goals. Focus your team’s actions on things that will get you to the goal by breaking it down in simple steps. Don’t try too much too soon. Keep it simple. I like using quarterly breakdowns, but you might use eight-week sprints or monthly ones. The thing to keep in mind is to keep it simple.
3. Confirm that you have the resources and tools needed to accomplish the goals. For example, do you have the budget to pay for the goals? Do you need outside resources like freelance workers to help take over tasks that are putting stress on your team?
4. Check for understanding. This is one of the biggest issues I see: when people set goals and have the resources but haven’t communicated clearly to their team what’s expected of them. Ensure everyone is clear on the goal and focus, knows what they are responsible for, and knows what “done” for their tasks looks like.
5. Create accountability for your team. Review your progress toward your goals on a regular basis—whatever works best for you—whether that be monthly or quarterly.
6. Expect the unexpected. It’s rare in life that things go exactly as you imagined. If a goal that you set in January isn’t serving you well in June, readjust. Sometimes life throws curveballs, and you don’t need to stay attached to a goal that no longer serves your firm or your clients.

Be Intentional

You now have a framework to set goals for yourself and your firm, starting with reflecting on your pains and victories from the past year to visualize what’s possible in the future.

And note that sometimes you do reach your goals much faster than anticipated. In that case, you can be intentional and take time to enjoy your achievements, or you may decide to push to hit an even higher goal.

Either way, while using this framework, stay positive and engage a support system, like a coach or your FPA communities such as your Knowledge Circles. 

Endnote

1. Get more information about PPIs in this video from Sarah M. Cain: https://carsongroup.wistia.com/medias/1p7xssmyjg.

Sidebar

Annual Reflections Guide

Kick off your reflection of the past year by expressing gratitude for the people, places, events, and things that have been meaningful. Then you can answer any the following questions to help guide you:

1. What went exceptionally well this year? What were your successes?
2. What were you most proud of this year?
3. What were some of your biggest challenges this year?
4. How did you show up as a leader this year?
5. What must you or your business improve, develop, or change in order to progress faster?
6. What opportunities can you see that you haven’t pursued?
7. What, if anything, is holding you and your team back right now from performing and executing at your highest level? What must happen to eliminate this obstacle?
8. What did you learn about yourself this year?
9. What did you learn about your business this year?
10. Knowing what you know now, if you could go back and give yourself advice at the beginning of the year, what would it be?
11. What lessons learned do you want to carry forward with you into the new year and beyond?
12. Were there any major shifts in your values, mission, or vision this year? What caused those?
13. What 10 things are you most grateful for at this point in time?
14. Who are the five people you are most grateful for right now?