Thoughts on Setting Goals

Communication is key to many of my experiences in leading successful organizations. This success has led me to believe that setting and communicating goals is one of the most important aspects of leading and leadership. Here are some thoughts on goals:  

Goals

As a leader, your thinking and communicating skills can be considered directional skills because they set the direction for your organization. They provide vision, purpose, and goal definition. These are your eyes and ears to the future, allowing you to recognize the need for change when to make it, how to implement it, and how to manage it. You find vision by reaching for any available reason to change, grow and improve. Just as you perform preventive maintenance on your car, you must perform preventive maintenance on your organization. Do not believe in the old adage — if it is not broke, don’t fix it. People who believe in this adage go broke. Treat every project as a change effort. Treat every job as a new learning experience.

Good organizations convey a strong vision of where they will be in the future. As a leader, you have to get your people to trust you and be sold on your vision. Using leadership tools and being honest and fair in all you do will provide you with the information that you need to gain their trust. You need to possess energy and display a positive attitude that is contagious to sell them on your vision. People want a strong vision of where they are going. No one wants to be stuck in a dead-end company going nowhere or in the wrong direction. They want to be involved with a winner! And your people are the ones who will get you to that goal. You cannot do it alone.

Goals should:

• Be realistic and attainable
• Improve the organization
• Involve everyone in the goal-setting process
• Develop a program to achieve each goal

 4 characteristics of goal setting:

• Goal difficulty => increasing the goal difficulty increases the challenges and enhances the amount of effort expended for achievement. The more difficult goals lead to increased performance if they seem feasible. If the goals seem too high people will give up when they fail to achieve them.
• Goal specificity => when given specific goals people tend to perform higher. Telling them to do their best or giving no guidance increases ambiguity about what is expected. They need a set goal or model in order to display the correct behavior.
• Feedback => providing feedback enhances the effect of goal setting. Performance feedback keeps behavior directed on the right target and encourages people to work harder to achieve the goal.
• Participation => people who participate in the goal setting process generally set higher goals than if the goals are set for them. It also affects their belief that the goals are obtainable and increases their motivation to achieve them.

6 Steps of Goal Setting – the process of getting your vision implemented:

• 1. Vision => the first step in setting goals and priorities is to develop what the organization should look like at some point in the future. A mental picture of what the organization should look like in the mid to long term, focusing on as much as 2, 5 or even 10 years into the future. Picture what it would look like if it was perfect. A vision needs to be framed in general, unmeasurable terms and communicated to the team. The team then develops the ends (objectives), ways (concepts) and means (resources) to achieve the vision.
• 2. Goals => the second step involves establishing goals with active participation of the team.
• 3. Objectives => definable objectives provide a way of measuring the movement toward vision achievement. This involves the strategy of turning the vision into reality. It is the crossover mechanism between your forecast of the future and the envisioned, desired future. Objectives are stated in precise, measurable terms. The aim is to get general ownership by the entire team.
• 4. Tasks => the fourth step is to determine tasks. They are the means to accomplish objectives. Tasks are concrete, measurable events that must occur.
• 5. Timelines => determine the steps based on a priority of the tasks. As in all project management, time is precious. Many tasks must be accomplished before another can begin. Establishing priorities help determine the order in which the tasks must be accomplished and by what date.
• 6. Follow up => the final step. Measure and check to see if the team is doing what is required. Key Performance Indexes (KPI) may be used to measure against a base line. Leader and stakeholder involvement validates that the stated priorities are worthy of action. Stakeholders demonstrate their commitment by their involvement in seeing the tasks through to successful conclusion.

These are just some thoughts but have helped me in leading many organizations. Check out my other articles on LinkedIn or here.