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POWER POINTS

THE BENEFITS OF GOAL-SETTING

Studies show a tie between goal-setting and superior performance. But how exactly does goal-setting increase performance? It works by:

Providing a target for your endeavors

Helping focus your use of time and resources

Encouraging persistence

Dictating priorities in your day-to-day activities

Offering a roadmap for planning your efforts

By giving you a road map. When you are committed to goals, you will use all your resources to accomplish them. For large, seemingly impossible goals, you need to craft a strategy to reach them by establishing milestones, or intermediate goals, that are easier to achieve. Then you can get to work on each piece. Your intermediate goals help you measure your progress and can warn you if you are getting off course. Then you can make adjustments to your plans and overall strategy as you encounter and overcome obstacles and setbacks, and learn from your mistakes.

RESISTANCE TO GOAL-SETTING

A study estimated that only 10 percent of people bother to think about their goals regularly, and that only 1 to 3 percent of people have clear written goals. If goal-setting is such a powerful tool, why don’t more people use it? There are many reasons and, as you prepare to set goals with your staff, it’s important to understand them. Some people don’t have a vision of the future; without that, it’s difficult to set goals. Setting goals can help you get what you want, but you have to be clear about what that is before the goal-setting process can work.

What many people don’t understand is that goal-setting can improve their relationships with their managers. Employees who already enjoy good communications with their managers think that’s enough. They often don’t understand that formal, written goals can make a good working relationship even better.

Red Flags

RESISTING GOALS

Before setting goals with your group, it’s critical to identify employees who might resist the process. You’ll need to educate them about the process and help them want to participate. Look for employees who:

Lack vision or don’t know what they want

Fear the unknown

Don’t appreciate the benefits of goal-setting

Are disorganized or stressed out

Have failed at informally setting goals on their own

Other people don’t set goals because they don’t comprehend how powerful goals can transform them from good workers to great ones—motivated, successful, and high achieving.

Some workers don’t understand the nature of goal-setting. They think they have goals but really just have wishes. Others, who have never used the process properly, simply conclude that goal-setting doesn’t work. They don’t see goal-setting as a tool that helps them achieve what they want, step by step.

Some people are frightened of goal-setting. The goal-setting process often requires people to overcome their deepest fears—the fear of the unknown and of failure. They are afraid because challenges and risk may take them into unfamiliar, unsafe realms. While adventurous individuals think “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” the risk-averse believe “nothing ventured, nothing lost.”

“One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do”

—Henry Ford

founder of the Ford Motor Company

(1864–1947)

Some people are too busy and disorganized to spend the time to set goals. They reject the prospect at a subconscious level and come up with excuse after excuse for not setting goals. Already stressed and overwhelmed by the current demands on their time and energy, they are not ready to take on new challenges. They don’t understand that having goals will make their lives easier, not more difficult, and will save them time in the long run.

Still other people, feeling inspired, grab a piece of paper, start to list a few goals, then can’t decide what to include. They may try to juggle everything they want in all the different areas of their life before committing to any one thing, or they may come up with too many goals and quickly