As the year comes to a close, many CEOs ask a straightforward question: Did we hit our numbers?
It’s an understandable place to start. But it’s rarely the most useful place to end.
The end of the year is one of the few times CEOs have the space to step back and look at how the business actually ran. Not just the results, but the system behind them. Where leadership attention went. What the organization learned. And whether the strategy itself was aimed at the right things.
One productive way to do that is to evaluate the year through the lens of your strategic goals.
At Katahdin Group, we are a small organization of around 20 people. Like the CEOs we work with, we use our Strategic Ascent system each year to define a small number of strategic goals, along with measures tied to them and the action plans to accomplish them.
This week, we wrapped up one of those goals and reviewed the past twelve months the same way we encourage CEOs to do with their own teams.
When we looked at the action plan, we saw that, for the most part, we did what we said we were going to do.
As we looked at the measures tied to the goal, we saw we made good progress on many. And yet, the topline growth we had targeted did not materialize.
That tension is worth sitting with. It’s possible to execute the action plan and make progress on the measures, and still not get the outcome you were targeting.
There are two ways to interpret this.
The first is black and white. We didn’t hit the target, therefore the goal failed.
The second requires more nuance. We put concentrated effort into the right area. We tested new approaches. Some worked. Some didn’t. We now know far more than we did a year ago. And we laid groundwork that would have been impossible without that focus.
What was clear to us is this: it was the right goal to get us to where we want to go. We needed to invest real energy there to see whether traction was possible. That distinction matters and our learnings will guide us as we set goals for 2026.
As you prepare for 2026, here is a simple framework to help you evaluate your strategic goals with more clarity and less self-judgment.
1. Did you have the right goals?
Before you assess execution, step back and ask whether your goals were aimed at the right opportunities for the business. Did they focus on the issues most likely to unlock growth, scale, or resilience? Or were they incremental and comfortable?
Missing a target does not automatically mean the goal was wrong. But avoiding the real issues almost always does.
2. Did you execute the action plan?
Separate intent from follow-through. Were the actions that were meant to advance the goal actually completed? Did the executive team stay focused on the work, or did priorities drift as the year unfolded?
If the action plan wasn’t executed, that is a leadership and capacity issue, not a strategy one.
3. What did the measures really tell you?
Measures are signals, not guarantees. Hitting them does not ensure results, and missing them does not mean nothing was accomplished.
Ask what the measures revealed about your assumptions. Which indicators mattered more than you expected? Which ones turned out to be weak proxies for the outcome you cared about?
4. What did the organization learn?
A strong strategic goal produces insight. Even when results fall short, the question is whether the year generated real learning about customers, markets, capabilities, or operating systems.
If you know more now than you did a year ago, that is not failure. That is progress.
5. Is the organization more capable than it was?
Some of the most important gains from a strategic goal are structural. New processes. Clearer roles. Better cross-functional coordination. Stronger decision discipline.
Ask whether the business is better equipped to execute going forward, regardless of the immediate outcome.
6. Does this goal still have momentum?
Some goals run out of energy. Others are just getting started.
Ask whether there is momentum worth building on. Are there clearer paths forward now? Or has the learning curve flattened to the point where it can be operationalized and your executive attention should shift elsewhere?
7. What would need to change if the goal continues?
If a goal remains strategically important, carrying it forward unchanged is rarely the right move. The question becomes what must evolve. Different initiatives. Sharper measures. Clearer ownership. A different pace.
The end of the year is not just a report card. It’s a diagnostic.
CEOs who get the most out of this moment resist the urge to label outcomes as simple wins or failures. Instead, they look honestly at what the strategy revealed, how the organization responded, and what that means for the year ahead.
Clarity going into 2026 will not come from perfect results. It will come from thoughtful reflection on where you aimed, what you learned, and how ready your organization is for what comes next.
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