By Howard Shore
You see it in your daily lives
and particularly at year-end with all
of the New Year resolutions and
business plans. Next year you are
going to do all of those things you
have never done and more. Or
maybe you just want to get back to
where you used to be.
You set goals for some
really important reasons:
- Keep you on target
- Make better
decisions
- Keep you focused
- Increase self-
motivation
- Develop self-
confidence
How many goals do you have
going right now?
How have the anticipated
rewards influenced your progress
(or lack of)?
Are all of your goals planned
out fully? What difference might it
make?
How do you know if you really
are going to achieve those goals?
Here is a quick quiz to see
if you are on track:
- Do I state my goals in a way
that tells exactly what will be
achieved and by when?
- Are my goals measurable in a
way so that I know whether they are
achieved or not?
- Do I set goals that are
attainable and are not designed to
stretch to some level below that
goal?
- Are my goals set realistically
high so that they require some sort
of behavior change?
- Do all my goals have a definite
target date for completion?
- Do I evaluate my goals to make
sure that I do not have too many
goals?
- Have I taken the time to
prioritize my goals?
- Have I written down all of my
goals?
- Do all the people who contribute
to my goals know exactly what the
goals are and how they contribute
to them?
- Have I thought through in
advance and considered all the
detailed steps that it will take to
complete my goal?
The answer to every question
above should always be yes
whether it is a personal or
professional goal. For every
question you answered “no”
you can probably drop your
goal success rate down by at least
20%. Do not try to put more
importance on any one of these
items as that would be like building
the engine of your car or baking a
cake and saying one part or
ingredient is more important than
the other. The reality is if one part
or ingredient is missing, your car
will probably not start or your cake
will not bake.
The purpose of this article is to
provide an overview of some of the
critical factors that can help you
increase your goal success rate to
over 90%. There are too many
factors to cover in this article so my
aim is to clarify some of the top
(key) points.
There are a lot of things you do
(consciously or subconsciously) to
achieve or not to achieve your
goals. While I would agree that
outside circumstances can play a
role in goal achievement, you must
be honest with yourself. When you
fail to achieve a goal, whether it’s
more sales, customer retention,
employee retention or something
personal like weight loss, success
or failure is more dependent on
those responsible for the goal than
outside influences.
COMMITMENT
I always get a funny look when
I discuss this issue with clients and
friends. Many people think that
because they made a decision, they
made a commitment. This could be
the farthest from the truth. Actually
the hardest decisions oftentimes
have the weakest commitments
particularly the larger the group size.
Does this scenario sound
familiar to you? More than a year is
spent thinking about something,
maybe even a committee is created
to evaluate it, consultants are hired,
friends and colleagues conferred
with, money is spent for market
research, and finally an affirmative
decision is made. The project,
system, process, or other decision
is placed into action and all of a
sudden the inevitable happens --
problems arise, big problems, little
problems, and problems disguised
as attitudes.
What happens to most people’s
level of commitment when faced
with these problems? Rather than
solving the problem, ignoring all of
the thought that went into decision,
they allow emotion to take over and
rethink the decision. Commitment
crumbles and with it the chance of
following through on the decision.
IF YOU MAKE A
DECISION...MAKE A
COMMITMENT!
SMART GOALS
The first step in setting goals is
to establish a SMART goal that is
stated positively. As alluded to in
the Quiz, SMART stands for
Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Realistically-high, and Time-based.
However, one often overlooked item
is the goal must be Yours. While
this criterion seems simple it is
actually not easy in execution. If it
were, everyone would be achieving
a lot more goals. Very briefly let us
discuss what each of these criteria
really mean:
- Specific – You say
exactly what it is you are going to
do. Hazy goals are doomed to
failure. For example, we are going
to establish a new training program
for our supervisors by a certain
date. You are not defining what you
want to train them to do.
- Measurable – The goal
must be stated in a way so that you
can definitely know whether it has
been achieved. In addition, you
should be able to see when the
trend is negative so that you can
modify your detailed action steps
accordingly. For example, we are
going to increase the frequency of
meetings with our hourly staff. How
often would you consider
acceptable?
- Attainable and Realistically-
High – Goals should have
sufficient rewards and/or
consequences to be motivated and
they must be attainable. If it
appears that your goal will not
require any kind of behavior
change, challenge yourself to make
sure that it does. Either the goal is
too low or you are not being
realistic on what it will take to get
there. The reality is you have set it
as a goal because you are not
already doing it and the definition of
insanity is “doing the same
thing over and over again and
expecting a different outcome.”
- Time Based – When do
you want this goal completed by?
Be honest, are there goals you
have talked about for years that are
still on your goal list? It is probably
because you have not committed to
a deadline.
The following is an
example of a SMART goal:
Get 10 appointments with
decision makers in the
manufacturing sector within 50
miles of Toledo that employ more
than 250 people by the end of the
quarter.
WRITE YOUR GOALS
DOWN AND BROADCAST
THEM
It is not unusual to meet people
that have goals and nobody knows
about them. Even worse, they may
not be written down anywhere. In
personal or organizational
circumstances it is always best to
write your goals down for the
following reasons:
- It strengthens commitment
- Unwritten goals change
unconsciously
- Rounds out your thought
process and gives you an
opportunity to think things
through
- Provides a means to
communicate to everyone who is
responsible for execution
If you have goals and they are
not communicated succinctly to
everyone who is responsible for
doing what it takes to get to where
you want to go, what is the
likelihood they are going to do it?
People like to have purpose and
know where they are going. We use
goals to focus individuals and
organizations in the same direction.
When we achieve goals it
increases energy and that has a
positive impact on results, thus
further increasing focus on goals,
increasing results, increasing
energy, and so on. It is that simple!
