The 50(ish) Levers of Resilient Revenue: Annual Organizational Goals

Welcome to the first post in The 50(ish) Levers of Resilient Revenue, a blog series designed to give CEOs and revenue leaders practical, strategic tools to build more predictable, durable growth. I’m starting where every great execution strategy should begin: with goals, but not just any goals. I'm talking about clear, aligned, and inspiring Annual Organizational Goals.

Learning to Love the Goalbook

For years, I resisted the idea of formalized, published goal documents. When I worked with Gordon Rapkin, he introduced something that, frankly, I thought was over the top: a printed book of the company’s goals, delivered to every employee at the start of each year. A literal book. I rolled my eyes the first time I saw it.

But now? I see the genius.

That book was more than a corporate artifact. It was a rallying cry. It aligned hundreds of people (our employees, investors, customers, prospects)  toward a shared vision. It set expectations, defined priorities, and gave each individual a clear reason to care.

Recently, Gordon published a piece called "Optimism Scales and Inspires. Pessimism Does Not.", where he wrote about the importance of right-sizing goals—ambitious enough to inspire, grounded enough to execute. That’s the sweet spot. As revenue leaders, we often find ourselves caught between vision and execution. Gordon’s method of codifying goals in a tangible, durable way is one of the most effective bridges between the two that I’ve seen.

Goals Are a Leadership Lever

Annual Organizational Goals are not just a planning exercise but a communication tool. They give shape to strategic direction and define what success looks like. And for revenue leaders, they provide a powerful lens for deciding where to invest time, talent, and capital.

The first and most important decision? Where do we want to be on the growth vs. profitability spectrum this year?

That’s not a binary choice. It’s a continuum. And the correct answer changes depending on market conditions, funding environment, and maturity stage. But your company must pick a place on that spectrum and anchor your strategy around it. Waffling between both will confuse your teams, dilute your investments, and derail your plans.

Once that north star is set, the rest of your annual goals should follow across key categories:

Suggested Goal Categories

• Growth / Profitability Define your top-line and bottom-line expectations. Are you driving ARR at all costs? Optimizing EBITDA? Sustaining growth with improved retention? Be explicit.

• Product What’s launching, evolving, or being sunsetted this year? Tie your product roadmap directly to customer needs and market expansion goals.

• Customer Outline the customer experience you’re building. Whether it’s NPS, churn reduction, or expansion revenue, your customer goals should reflect your revenue resilience strategy.

• People This includes team health, hiring plans, internal mobility, and leadership development. People goals should also reflect your cultural priorities.

• Company / Market Position These goals capture the “why now” for your business. What’s your desired position in the market this year? What milestones will move you closer?

  
  

Everyone Has a Line of Sight

Here’s the non-negotiable part: everyone in the company should be able to connect their work to at least one of the goals.

That’s where the printed goalbook idea earns its keep. Whether you print it, post it, or present it, the format doesn’t matter as much as the follow-through. Use your goals as a lens in team meetings, performance reviews, onboarding, and standups. A goal that lives in a Google Drive folder but not in the day-to-day decisions of your team is just a suggestion.  

Why was printing the book so smart? It was likely the thing that irked me at first:  What if the goals change?  “We work in crazy times, we need the flexibility to change our goals!”  Gordon taught me that the goals are the goals.  We may need to reforecast the results, but you want to be the kind of leader who stands by what you set out to do. 

Great goals unify. They focus. And when you write them with intention—and revisit them often—they become one of your most powerful levers for creating resilient revenue.