Friends of Dave #141: Squad Goals
Okay, time to put the flip flops aside and set a few goals. But first, some thanks....
Just wanted to start this edition with a quick thank you for all of the great feedback I received from last week's intro. I appreciate it -- not always easy to take a risk and put out some off center stuff in this space. But it had some personal meaning to me, so I'm glad many of you liked it.
We are now officially entering my favorite part of the calendar. As I have stated here before, September is, by far, the part of the year I like the most. A new school year starts, football resumes, leaves begin to change color (but not yet fall to the ground), crisp air gets you digging out sweatshirts to wear with shorts, and there is a sense of relative calm before the holiday rush begins. And most of us inevitably have an annual push for closing out the business year strong.
While many people generally tend to do their year end review and goal setting in December or early January, I actually like to use post-Labor Day to create a new set of goals for myself now. Maybe it is a way to break me out of the lull of summer or help reignite a spark, but I have found that this is an ideal time to reach for a stretch goal, launch a new strategic initiative, hit a new sales quota or close a number of deals, or just accomplish something for yourself that gets you feeling good and ending the year on a high note.
The best part of setting some goals now is that you have a number of natural break points in the coming weeks and months to help you create urgency. Halloween is a perfect time to check in with yourself, do a temperature read, and evaluate your progress. To use an American football term, you can view Thanksgiving like your "two minute warning" -- you have had plenty of time achieve some momentum with whatever it is you want to do before year end, but once you hit end of November, you better be wrapping things up before the December holidays. You know that once you hit December 25 you are essentially done -- with one last week left to tie up the loosest of loose ends.
So what is it that you/your teams are going to challenge yourself/themselves to get done in the 16 weeks(!) before 2019 ends? Think about it. You really have little to lose to put it out there, rally and go for it. And no matter what the goal is, Friends, big or small I am positive you can crush it.
One goal I have is to get you all to click on more links now that summer is over. I threw some pretty good stuff out there this summer, but it seemed like most of you went on hiatus with regards to checking out the curated stories. I got some good stuff below this week -- so click away!
Finally, as I mentioned this week in a quirky but well received LinkedIn post, a reminder that Sept 9-12 is FinTech Week in Boston. Please take a look at the agenda and try to make an excuse to attend some sessions if you can -- trust me, you will find some really insightful discussions coordinated by our Friends at FinTech Sandbox that encapsulate much broader topics than just FinTech. And if you do plan on attending some events, give me a shout -- I'll be around and I'd love to meet up for coffee, drinks, to say hi or to make some introductions amongst Friends of Dave. Cuz it is Fall and that is just how I roll....
XOXO
Dave
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And The Last Word....
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