As the year-end approaches, how did the year turn out for you versus expectations?

Our reader poll today asks: As the year-end approaches, how did the year turn out for you versus expectations?

• Significantly better! I’m shocked at how well we did 14.54%
• Better than expected 39.83%
• As expected 20.93%
• Worse than expected 20.05%
• It was a disaster, and we never expected it to be this bad 4.65%

Better than expected. 55% of you reported you had a better than expected year this past year. 15% of you were surprised at how well you did. Why did this happen? Look at your expectations and how they were set. Were you too pessimistic? That might have led you to miss opportunities early in the year because you were timid. Did you miss a major market trend? How will that trend play out next year? Don’t simply be satisfied with having a fantastic year – consider the reasons it happened and what you can take advantage of in the coming year. For those who did worse than expected, evaluate your market assessment practices. Did you fall prey to the tyranny of the numbers (e.g., “goal is last year +10%”)? How might you do a better job of identifying market drivers and forecasting more accurately in the coming year? Learn from your experience this year to have a better year next year.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.