Annual Review — The Deep Dive. My framework to review, take stock and…
By: Ashley Redhead
Tags: Self Improvement, Coaching, New Years Resolutions, Leadership, Personal Development

Part 1 — The Past

Like any review, this is the opportunity to look at what the past year has been like and it’s something I want to use every single piece of information and insights to provide me with the widest picture of what went well, what didn’t, what I learned and what I never got around to doing.

Now, we all are most likely to review our progress and plans on a regular basis, but the framework provides us the opportunity to look more holistically across the broad spectrum of the year.

We can focus on many aspects but I like to follow the following prompts:

What have been the biggest successes of this year and why?

What has not been a success this year and why?

What have been peaks personally and why?

What have been valleys and why?

What trends can I identify in my world and why?

What was I most anxious about and why?

What were my biggest fears this year and why?

What made me excited this year and why?

Why did my plan change or fail?

What have I learned this year and why is this important?

What am I most proud of this year?

What do I really want to keep on doing and why?

These are just some of the questions that I use as prompts but I will always shape my review sessions to the specifics I am looking for. During the group intensives we will also use the contact sessions to explore the questions deeper and to really get under the skin of what is going on, so I would encourage you to try this at some point but a personal reflection is a great process to start with.

I write all of my content down to refer to over the sessions or over the coming year — you may want to do this too, so it’s all to hand and can be recalled at any point for reference or review.

To keep me focussed in this part, I try to structure my thinking into 5 subcategories, which are set out as follows:

Money

I like to review my finances in close detail throughout the year and I use this section to shape a review around what my spending habits were and what I actually spent my money on. I link into the above questions to understand what I may be proud of the investment I made or what regrets I may have had with regards to spending. I use spending categories to understand any spend trends that I may have, such as travel, holidays, health and happiness.

2. Calendar

In the past few years my time has become extremely precious and I have spent a lot of time trying to work less to make time for myself and for my family. Everyone’s time is precious in my eyes but I will leave you to decide how precious it may be to you. I look back at my calendar to see what I have spent my time on, what I have spent time wise on myself and my family, and what I have been spending my time on to feed my personal values. For those who may have not seen these values, they are quite simple and in order are (1) Happiness, (2) Health), and (3) Wealth. I align everything I do to one or more of these values.

3. Business

This part is where I focus on my business interests and my career. I link this closely to my money (or wealth) review but I keep it very much focussed on the time that is separate from my personal life including my own time. I will focus on the specifics around matters such as my reviews with my employers, customers or colleagues, and will use the opportunity to review any specific plans or performance data I may have (i.e. client attraction rates, annual strategies, etc).

4. Leadership

What mentors or guides have helped me this year? What has helped me to really get traction and fly this year, and what may not have helped me so much (I refer to these as anchors). I also use these review sessions to reflect on what were the best leaders that I have had in the past and what I take from these experiences with them. Equally, what was the worst and what did I also take from these experiences? What have been the biggest lessons?

5. Personal

This part is very important and again deserves its own dedicated space. I have been an advocate for personal development for some time now and have been heavily investing time in this area in recent years. I reflect on my accountability to myself, what investment have I made for my own personal development and what lessons this has given me. What have I invested in money (see money above) to develop myself (i.e. coaching, mentoring, masterminds, reading, etc.).