Start with who you need to become, not what you want to achieve. Get the leader right and the goals have something solid to stand on.

It’s coming up to the end of the financial year, and most of us want to sit down and set our goals for the year ahead. I love that — but if you start there, you’re starting one step too early.

Let me say this upfront: I’m a big goal setter. I have a hundred of them written up around my office every year, and I make my clients do the same. So what I’m about to say is going to sound strange coming from me.

Before you go setting all your new financial year goals, I want you to stop and think about the leader you want to become.

I want you to look back over the year that’s just been — not at what you ticked off, but at how you led. What decisions did you avoid making?

What standards did you let slip? What behaviours do you need to change to become the leader your business actually needs?

Because here’s the thing. The business you want needs a different version of you to run it. So don’t start with the goals.

Start with the leader you need to become first, and the right goals tend to follow from there. If you set them as the old version of you, you’ll just keep building the old version of your business.

Check out my short video on the topic below.