Once your business plan is in motion, it’s important to stay on track. This means keeping yourself accountable and finding ways to stay motivated. Here’s how to do that effectively:
1. Make One Person Clearly Responsible
To make sure things get done, every SMART goal should have one person who is clearly in charge. When no one is clearly responsible, things get missed. Having one person in charge means they’re responsible for making sure progress happens, spotting problems, and solving them.
Business Examples:
- Sales Goal: If your goal is to increase sales by R8,000 per month, make the sales manager responsible. The whole team helps, but the manager owns the goal and checks if progress is being made.
- IT Goal: If the goal is to bring IT support in-house within 12 months, assign the operations manager or project lead to manage everything related to that change.
2. Share Your Goals with the Team
Telling others about your goals helps keep you accountable. When you write down your goals and share them with your team, it creates shared responsibility. Everyone knows what needs to be done and can help each other stay on track.
Business Examples:
- Social Media Goal: If your goal is to double followers and boost engagement by 20% on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook by December 31, share this with the marketing team. Show them monthly results so they understand what needs to be done and can take action together.
- Training Goal: If your goal is for 80% of the sales team to complete a training course by the end of the quarter, let the team know. Sharing progress builds peer pressure and helps ensure everyone finishes the training.
3. Celebrate Small Wins Along the Way
Don’t just wait until the final deadline to feel good about progress. Break your goal into smaller steps or “milestones” and celebrate them when you reach them. This keeps everyone motivated and feeling positive.
Consider breaking goals into phases like:
- Quick wins (done in 2–4 weeks)
- Momentum builders (done in 1–3 months)
These smaller wins build confidence and keep things moving forward.
Business Examples:
- Sales Goal: If the goal is R8,000 in monthly sales, celebrate each month you hit that target. You can also celebrate smaller wins, like generating 10 quotes over R1,000 in a month.
- Customer Service Goal: If the goal is an average rating of 4.5 by Q2 2025, celebrate when your team hits 4.0 consistently. Praise individual staff for great customer feedback—it keeps morale high.
4. Make Sure the Goal Is Exciting and Meaningful
Goals should be more than just numbers—they should inspire you. If you don’t feel excited or connected to a goal, it may not be the right one. A good goal should be meaningful, tied to your purpose, and emotionally engaging. If it feels important, you’re more likely to stick with it. Understanding the underlying mission, the joy behind the work, or the problem you want to solve connects the goal to your long-term vision and drives relevance and action. Remember also that setting unrealistic goals, can lead to disappointment and giving up.
Business Examples:
- Marketing Goal: “Grow leads from 50 to 75 per month” might sound dull. But if you reword it to “Increase leads by sharing our unique value on Instagram and building our brand community,” it becomes more exciting and meaningful. The excitement comes from building brand loyalty or solving a customer problem, not just hitting a number
- Product Goal: Instead of just “Launch Product B by year-end,” connect the goal to its impact. For example, explain how it will meet customer needs, open new markets, or solve a big problem. Highlighting why Product B is important and the positive impact it will have can motivate the team more effectively than just a deadlineThat connection helps keep your team excited and motivated.
In Summary
Keeping your business plan alive and successful means doing four key things:
- Assign one person to be fully responsible for each goal.
- Share your goals with your team to create accountability.
- Celebrate progress to stay positive and motivated.
- Choose goals that feel important, exciting, and connected to your bigger mission.
When you do these things, your plan becomes more than just words on paper—it becomes a real action plan that moves your business forward.
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Using this framework helps individuals and businesses set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely, thereby increasing the chances of achieving them1. It transforms vague objectives into concrete, actionable steps [previous answer], providing clarity, structure, and direction