Career Development Three Exercises To Help You Set Goals For 2017

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Career Development: Three Exercises to Help You Set Goals for 2017 Suppose for the moment that we will be working together in 2017. Suppose  we will have a one hour coaching session every other month. The first thing we would work on would be your 2017 Business Plan. To help you get started, here’s an exercise. Exercise 1: Title: Establish Your Goals Duration: 30 Minutes Instructions: Begin by brainstorming potential goals. Think about what you want to achieve, clients you want to serve, the type of work you want to do more of, what you want to experience, what you want to learn. After you have completed your list, think about and write down why each draft goal is important to you and when you answer, think about and write down why your answer is important to you. In other words seek to determine what is motivating you to achieve the draft goal. From your list, determine which goal is your major definite purpose/most important goal. Based on understanding why achieving other draft goals is important, decide on which of the others should be part of your plan. Exercise 2: Title: Develop Your Action Steps Duration: 15 minutes Instructions: For each goal determine the actions you will need and want to take to achieve the goal. Additionally for each goal, determine what action step you will take in the next week. Exercise 3: Title: Begin Work on Your Plan Duration: 15 minutes Instructions: Determine how much time you plan to commit to non-billable activities over the next year. Then determine how much of that time you will spend on your professional development, firm activities, pro bono services and client development. For each category, prepare a draft list of action items you could do in the allocated time. Here is a 2017 Business Plan Template you can use for your plan.     I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.