Anyone who travels much knows there is a check-in time for your flight or at the hotel where you have your reservation. In fact, for your hotel, it is right there on the confirmation statement which is on your mobile device or printed copy. You might ask yourself, “why is this necessary, I am here now, can’t I just check-in?” The reason is turnover or turnaround time.
When guests are departing they need to be allowed enough time to conduct their personal business of showering, eating their breakfast and packing up their belongings. Then the hotel cleaning crew and the mini-bar accountants have to conduct their business. If there are any items in need of maintenance or repair these need to be taken care of as well.
It may seem odd, however, there are a good number of people who do not understand or recognize any of this as legitimate. Is it any wonder then that there are a majority of people who do not check-in with their business vision, mission and goals or their personal vision, mission and goals either?
At a minimum, a check-in should be conducted every three months, a quarterly process. A more progressive business would check in at least monthly. For the business, the leadership team should meet for half a day or an entire day, and review the current vision, mission and goals statement and check-in to see if these are still a reality or not. Where is there a disconnect? Do changes need to be considered? Where are things running right in line with these statements? What are the reasons in each case for either the disconnect or the right in line activities or behavior?
Action steps with dates and names must be agreed to prior to the end of the meeting. A personal check-in optimally is a weekly activity. For example, every Sunday evening might be a great time to review and assess what you have planned in your own vision, mission and goals statements and then compare this to the reality. What is going right and why? What is going wrong and why? Are these statements of your personal vision, mission and goals the right ones for you personally? Plan out action steps with time frames in order to make adjustments as necessary.
The goal of creating vision statements, mission statements and written goals is not to just have them. The goal is to live them. One of the ways to accomplish this is to check-in as often as necessary and analyze the reality.
Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.
I like that “the goal is to live them.” Well said, Mitch!
Good points – I like this: “One of the ways to accomplish this is to check-in as often as necessary and analyze the reality.”
Love the idea of regularly checking in, Mitch. As you pointed out, this is critical to actually achieving your goals, not just having goals.
Another great one, Mitch! This would be a good time for me to do a check in… off I go.
Excellent post Mitch! I just checked off one of my major physical goals of the year: I ran a 10K under an hour. It feels so good to check off those goals.
Thanks Mitch, every three months is a good idea for check-ins.
Good post. Without check-ins it’s not possible to see how far you’ve come, where you’ve been, and chart a course moving forward. I’ve learned to do check-ins more often as they allow for greater “course correction.”
Mitch, I love this –> The goal of creating vision statements, mission statements and written goals is not to just have them. The goal is to live them.
Just saying it isn’t enough, you need to embody it in your actions each and every day!