Last year, 2014, is now consigned to history. In many casual conversations, people will talk about what happened as if the 'things that happened' are the important takeaways. I am suggesting here that the focus is wrong. The focus should be on what was accomplished; not the activity.

How many recognise the statements, 'I will try my hardest' or 'we will do are best', as if 'trying' is good enough or somehow the goal. When I used to manage IT teams around the world, I was interested in what was accomplished, what was finished and when it was finished rather than how hard people were working. Think about Facebook. Is the stock market value of the company based on how hard the employees work or the value offered?

"Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required." - Winston S. Churchill

Indicators
Back when I was working in California, I took a year-long sales training course. One of the key take-aways was the idea of indicators and how to align the intermediate outcomes so the annual goal was accomplished.