Worksheet: Set your intentions

Are your new year’s resolutions already being crowded out by your everyday demands? If so, you’re not alone. But don’t give up yet!

Instead, try this business ”Mad Libs” exercise my colleague, Mel Shahbazian, and I designed to help our executive coaching clients get their resolutions to truly stick.

We advise our clients to look at their goals individually and holistically. Filling in the blanks enables you to identify where your own professional goals align with your company’s or team’s goals. These do not have to line up perfectly, but it is important to recognize the distinction and use that information accordingly.

We hope it will be thought-provoking and that clearly setting your intentions will help push you to greater success in 2023.

Let’s start with your own individual professional goals.

Individual Resolution & Goals

My professional resolution is:

The main reason I chose this is:

In 2022, the three things I was most proud of professionally were:

I also faced three big challenges in the form of:

Achieving this resolution in 2023 would mean:

One behavior I can eliminate to help me achieve this is:

One behavior that I can build to help me achieve this is:

My ‘bucket list wish’ for 2023 is: (dream big here!)

Now that you have reflected and put intention into your individual goals, start to create a strategy for how to make it happen.

Try not to get overwhelmed. Break it into baby steps and make small changes every day. This is how we make progress! One step at a time, every day.

Take some time to reflect on what this means to you, your teams, and to the greater organization.

Team/Organizational Resolution & Goals:

My team/organization’s resolution for the business is:

The biggest reason we chose this is:

In 2022, the three things we are most proud of are:

As a team, we also faced three big challenges in the form of:

What would achieving this resolution in 2023 mean for us?

One behavior we must eliminate in our culture to achieve this is:

One behavior that we must build in our culture to help us achieve this is:

Our ‘bucket list’ wish for 2023 is: (dream big here!)

We encourage you to invite your teams to participate in one or both parts of this process, too. Depending on the size of your team, you can do a group share or put them into break-out groups to share and reflect.

In the group share, ask yourselves: How can I help them achieve our goals? Have I experienced similar challenges and can I share a success story?

Calendar a bi-monthly or quarterly meeting to check in on progress and support each other in your shared resolutions. All you need is an hour, a whiteboard, and an open mind in order to set a framework for shared success in 2023. Enjoy and please let us know how it goes!

Mary Olson-Menzel is the founder and CEO of MVP Executive Development and co-founder of Spark Insight Coaching.