CEO of Belay, Tricia Sciortino shares:
I’ve always been one to dedicate time – a lot of time – to thinking about my goals for the year. These are my big goals for the year: goals for my career as I settle into my new role as BELAY’s CEO, goals as a mentor and leader, goals as a lifelong learner, financial goals, and goals that relate to my family, like spending more time with my husband and kids.
I had my 2020 visions cast. I had my 2020 plans all laid out. I was ready for this new year, full of promise and hope.
Then a pandemic happened.
During unprecedented times like these, I’d venture that a lot of leaders have found themselves questioning, well, everything.
Because like nearly every other business in the world, we, too, are facing the uncertainty of every headline. Every market projection. Every everything.
Bottom line: These are some crazy times.
As leaders, we expect that the roads won’t all be smooth, easy and profitable. We know – if we’re any good at what we do – that there will be obstacles and challenges.
But ‘pandemic’ was not something any of us can admit to expecting.
Prepared To Pivot: Realigning With Reality
It’s times like these – times that don’t go according to plan – that define us and our legacy. Not just as leaders, but as people, too.
Will you be rigid and unyielding, unable or unwilling to identify new opportunities and reimagine your path?
Or will you instead humble yourself and recognize that life happens and in response, we must remain agile and nimble?
For me, I’ve made peace with changing course. I’ve accepted that it’s OK to reverse decisions if I realize my original plan may no longer work. It is good leadership – confident leadership – that instead chooses to evaluate and reevaluate decisions based on changing needs and circumstances.
So over the years, I’ve implemented three simple techniques in my goal-setting ritual that have kept me focused all year long: mid-year goal assessments, inspecting what I expect, and delegating.
Mid-Year Assessments
Each year when July rolls around, or when life throws a curveball – looking at you, COVID-19 – take time to review your goals for the year and ask yourself the following questions:
Did something(s) take priority and shift focus away from my objectives?
Was there a lack of determination, follow-through, organizational support or similar that prevented me from executing as I'd planned?
Can I identify my roadblocks, and are they still an issue?
Did I set the bar too low? Too high?
Was there something that made me more successful than I anticipated? If so, can I replicate that success to scale it and apply it to other goals?
Inspect What You Expect
Accomplishing any goal requires that we inspect what we expect. Whether it’s achieving a certain result, implementing a new process or creating new habits, you have to commit to paying attention.
When you continually follow up on the things that matter – making sure your goals are running through the processes that you want them to, examining the results, looking at the expectations set - for yourself or others - you will find that you consistently have better results.
Delegation
Finally, I enlist the help of others to achieve my goals as a leader. Aside from freeing my time up to do the things that only I can do for our business, delegation serves to develop employees and to identify future leaders. Further, it sends a powerful message to your employees that they are trusted, competent and valued.
Accomplishing goals and identifying future leaders? That’s a win-win.
“That which yields is not always weak.”
While life really seems to enjoy keeping us humble and on our toes, it’s how we react to those changes that determines how successful we’ll be.
When life starts to go off the rails, take a step back to make sure you're still heading where you want to go. Don't resign yourself to keep going down the same path if it's not serving you – no matter how much time and energy already put into it.
Take stock in the fact that it's OK – highly encouraged, even – to reassess your goals and change course as necessary.
You wouldn’t turn your car around and head home if you hit a detour on your journey – and meeting your goals shouldn’t be any different. Expect that the journey to reaching your goals will have detours and reroutes – and try to just enjoy the ride.
About the Author:
As CEO of BELAY, I strive to lead and inspire our team to provide extraordinary services while finding great talent along the way. It’s my distinct privilege to be able to cast vision for the future of BELAY and empower our team to live our mission: Glorifying God by providing solutions that equip our clients with the confidence to climb higher.
Born and raised in Long Island, I attended the University of Hartford and earned a degree in Business Administration and Management. For ten years, I served as District Manager for the retail chain Pacific Sunwear, however, when my first child was born, I – like many other parents – found myself struggling to balance my high-profile career with my new role as a mother.
Enter: BELAY
As BELAY’s first employee and virtual assistant – and then onto serve as Director, Vice President, President, COO, and now CEO – I’ve spent the last nearly 10 years ‘walking the walk’ of what we call the Third Option: the ability to cultivate a balanced life with a successful career while making family and personal relationships a priority.
I live in Charlotte, NC with my husband, two daughters and stepson and am grateful – seriously grateful – for the opportunity to live out my third option every day as a hands-on mom while supporting those I lead in living out theirs.
Tricia Sciortino
CEO, BELAY
Instagram: @triciamsciortino
Linkedin: /in/triciasciortino/