In our last post, I outlined a few exercises that I use with my clients in goal setting sessions (read Part 1 HERE). Hopefully they inspired you to do a little pre-New Year’s Eve planning work of your own.

If you’ve evaluated last year’s goals and bid farewell to that old to-do list, you’re ready to tackle the next steps in this process.

Exercise 4: Set New Goals for the New Year
Create a new list that includes your big goals for 2026. Do you want to improve practice production / collection numbers? How about treatment acceptance? Do you want to increase hygiene re-appointments? How many new patients will you bring in this year? Remember, there are only three ways to grow your business: increase the number of customers, the unit of sale, or the frequency of purchases (read more about that HERE), but there are many other areas of the practice where you can set goals.

Do you have a vision for systems improvements (front desk phone skills, paperless office, etc.)? Do you want to add a new technology to the office to improve patient care? With all your goals be very specific and remember to establish ways to track your progress (What will we measure? How will we know we are taking ground?), so that you can really examine the finer tunings within your practice.

Most practices don’t do a lot of measuring... but that’s where you’ll find the real wins.

Next, look at each of your goals and ask yourself how long you think they’re going to take to achieve. Thirty days, sixty days, six months? Be reasonable, but push yourself. Once you have a sense of the timing, you’ll be able to create a plan of attack around each one.

Exercise 5: Create Your Accountability Action Board
One of the most common mistakes people make with goal setting is that they take a kind of “one and done” approach to the process. They might write their goals down (although most people don’t) but they fail to attach completion dates to them. Without completion dates there is no way to assess progress.

Also, these goals should be in your face all year long. Create an Accountability Action Board and bring it with you to every meeting. Your Action Board should include a description of the specific tasks or projects associated with each goal along with the completion dates you just set.

Assign, or better yet, have a team member volunteer as the Champion/Leader for each goal / project on your Action Board. Generally, your Champion/Leader will coordinate the efforts of the team charged with hitting this goal. They may not be doing all the work, but they are responsible and accountable for the ultimate outcome of the project.

Spot-check how you’re doing. Bringing the Accountability Action Board in to every team meeting will allow team members to give updates, make requests for additional support, voice concerns and keep the process flowing and the projects moving forward.

Remember, none of this is really any different from personal goal setting. The key is to write all of your goals down and create a system that stresses progress and accountability. If you haven’t already started this process, get going now.

Make 2026 your best year ever.

What are some goals you’d like to tackle in the New Year? Share in the comments below.