Are You One of the Managers Making This Common Mistake?

Many managers start the year with big ambitions for their team. They set goals, define expectations, and maybe even have detailed performance plans. But then…they make one major mistake, they don’t review these goals often enough.

Instead of keeping progress front and centre, they check in only once or twice a year, usually during mid-year or annual reviews. But by that point, team members barely remember what they were working on, and the goals feel like distant ideas rather than active priorities.

Ask yourself: Can you clearly remember what you were working on six months ago? What about twelve months ago?

If you can’t, why would you expect your team to?

This is why long gaps between goal reviews don’t work. If you want your team to stay motivated and accountable, goal-setting needs to be an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Let’s break down why annual check-ins fail and what you should be doing instead to keep your team engaged, focused, and driving results.

Video Transcription:

Are you one of the managers making this common mistake with your team? At the start of the year, you set goals for the team you set goals for each individual in the team. But the mistake you then make is to not review those goals with the team member until 12 months or even six months later.

Here’s why that simply doesn’t work if you only review those goals with someone six months or 12 months later, when are they actually going to look at those goals again? Likely to be 5 minutes before the meeting or a couple of days before that meeting can you remember what you were working on six months ago i sure as hell can’t 12 months ago absolutely forget about it.

And so goals just become these kind of distant things that sometimes get looked at probably don’t really get done. We sort of forget why that specific goal was so important at the time. Here’s the interval you should be doing instead.

Every three months you should be reviewing the last quarters goals and setting new ones for the next three months. Why that works is because three months is long enough to start a new thing it’s long enough to start a new initiative it’s long enough to research something or learn something or get something going.

But it’s also, it also comes around really bloody quickly, which is why most managers don’t do appraisals that often. It does come around really quickly, which means there is an urgency, which means that it’s top of mind, which means I can start thinking about what actions do I need to actually get done to achieve those goals.

But even then, just leaving it three months, just doing nothing about it in the intervening time is also a massive mistake that I see. You need to be checking in on those goals on a monthly basis, if not even on a weekly basis in your in your one to ones or in your team meetings.

So This is why management takes time. Having those one to ones and having those appraisals and having those goals takes time. Keeping people accountable takes time. What do you think how often are you doing appraisals, and should you be doing them any more frequently?

Key Takeaways: How to Make Goal-Setting Actually Work for Your Team

1. Annual Goal Reviews Are Too Infrequent

If you only check in on goals once or twice a year, they become an afterthought. Most employees will only look at them five minutes before the meeting, scrambling to remember what they committed to months ago.

The reality is, people’s focus shifts. Priorities change. If goals aren’t being revisited regularly, they lose their relevance and impact. When team members don’t have ongoing conversations about progress, goals can quickly become:

• Forgotten in the day-to-day workload
• Disconnected from changing business needs
• Something people think about only when forced to

What to Do Instead:

• Stop treating goal-setting as a one-off annual event
• Make goal reviews an ongoing and structured part of your management process

2. A Three-Month Cycle Works Best

Rather than setting yearly goals and hoping they’ll stay relevant, break them down into quarterly (three-month) cycles.

Why three months?

• It’s long enough to start and make real progress on a new initiative
• It’s short enough to maintain urgency
• It prevents goals from becoming outdated before they’re reviewed

Most managers avoid appraisals because they feel like a big, time-consuming task. But when you review goals more frequently, the process becomes easier—you always have a fresh sense of progress and roadblocks, rather than trying to recall what happened six months ago.

What to Do Instead:

• Set and review goals every quarter
• Make adjustments based on current priorities and performance
• Keep goals realistic and actionable so that they don’t get abandoned

3. Frequent Check-Ins Drive Accountability

Even three-month reviews aren’t enough if you don’t talk about goals in between. If there’s no follow-up for weeks or months, employees lose momentum. They stop seeing goals as important daily priorities and instead treat them as something to deal with later.

The most effective managers keep goal progress top of mind by checking in on a monthly or even weekly basis.

What to Do Instead:

• Monthly Check-Ins – Discuss progress at least once a month, asking:
  • What have you done so far?
  • What obstacles are you facing?
  • What do you need to move forward?
• Weekly Conversations – Keep goals present in one-to-one meetings and team discussions.
• Encourage Self-Reflection – Ask employees to review their own progress regularly.

When goals are revisited often, they remain actionable and achievable, rather than being something people “get around to” when the next big review rolls around.

4. Management Takes Time But It Pays Off

The reason so many managers fall into the trap of infrequent goal reviews is simple: Management takes time.

But avoiding check-ins doesn’t save time—it just delays problems until they become much bigger issues. Employees drift off-track, projects stall, and by the time you finally sit down to review progress, it’s already too late.

Keeping your team accountable requires consistent effort, but the investment pays off in:

• Higher engagement
• Better performance
• A stronger culture of accountability

What to Do Instead:

• Prioritise one-to-ones with structured conversations about goals
• Be proactive rather than reactive—address issues early rather than waiting for a big review
• Recognise effort and progress along the way to keep motivation high

5. Ask Yourself: Are You Reviewing Goals Often Enough?

If your team isn’t hitting its targets, it may not be because of a lack of skill or effort. It might simply be because they’re not getting enough ongoing support and direction.
Take a step back and evaluate:

• How often are you checking in on your team’s goals?
• Do employees feel comfortable discussing progress and obstacles?
• Is goal-setting a real, structured process, or just a box to tick once a year?

Many managers assume that setting a goal is enough—but without frequent follow-ups, even the best goals will get lost in the noise of everyday work.

The Wrap-Up

If you want your team to achieve real results, goal-setting can’t be a once-a-year process.

Regular check-ins, structured reviews, and short-term accountability cycles are essential to keeping people on track. The best teams don’t just set goals, they live by them.

If you’re struggling with team accountability or need a more effective performance review system, let’s chat. Book a free 45-minute coaching session with me, and we’ll put a plan in place to make your goal-setting strategy actually work.