Life-advice junkies are familiar with this common tip: when you’re trying to accomplish something, break your big goal into smaller goals. With shorter-term objectives, you get a quicker sense of accomplishment and momentum and can adjust your plan when things inevitably go awry. CEOs and leaders take note: the same applies to corporate goal-setting. Most companies, however, still set huge annual objectives with little regard for the milestones that will get them there. By the end of the year, the business may not be where everyone hoped. Circumstances changed. Behavior wasn’t as you predicted. You didn’t get the outcomes you expected. It’s demoralizing, and it lends a sense of futility to setting next year’s business goals.

A Better Way: One Quarter at a Time

To end the cycle, take a note from personal goal-setters and use a quarterly rhythm instead. Fast Company recently posted a piece on why 90-day goals improved the companies and lives of a group of small-business owners. There’s a lot of insight in the piece, and nearly all of it applies not just to start-ups and small business but to companies of any size. The author, Laura Vanderkam, writes:

Goals set annually may not feel relevant in 12 months. Or 12 months seems so far away that you figure you can always start tomorrow. Ninety days, on the other hand, is about “holding me accountable to my long range goals, but in smaller chunks, so I actually see an end in sight,” says Marni Beninger, who owns Mountain Waters Spa and Wellness in British Columbia.

Beninger’s reference to “long range goals” surfaces an IMPORTANT POINT: setting quarterly goals does not mean you don’t also need a plan for the year. Good CEOs know where they want the company to be in a year, in three years, in five years. The best CEOs break down that vision into quarter-sized chunks, revealing exactly what it will take from each group in the company to get there. (For maximum impact, these quarterly goals should also be SMART.) With that system in place, people are motivated to reach for something more attainable, and leaders have a chance to adapt when some factor makes a longer-term goal unattainable. If you don’t have a mechanism for responding to changes like that, you could have people working for the better part of a year on a goal they know they’ll never meet. That’s not exactly a recipe for engagement or confidence in leadership. Goal-setting in our Khorus platform works by default on a quarterly basis, precisely because we strongly believe in the advantages of shorter-term goals, from the corner office to the front line. We’re now a couple of weeks into the new year, but if you haven’t already, it’s not too late to take stock of your annual business goals and determine where exactly you want to be by the end of March.

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Khorus is tailor-made for setting aligned quarterly goals for everyone in the company. Learn more with a demo of the software!