Goal setting has been around for some time and the concept may have passed its sell by date – or has it?
In any business, whether in a large corporate business, a small brick and mortar business or pursuing some lucrative business ideas at home, staying the course can be very difficult. You have a vision and inspired by the results that could be obtained should you be successful. This could be to ensure a pay rise, a bonus, increased profits or just something to be gained as a personal achievement.
There are many gurus and books that preach the concept of setting goals to help you stay focused. You may have heard all this before and have an opinion that it sounds great in theory, but in reality is something else. Because of this view, in the business world the concept of goal setting is starting to get a bad reputation. Goals may be set, but very few are actually followed up. Maybe there is a sense of fear – if set then thou should do! It becomes a chore forced upon by management. Goal setting is not something people want to do.
Let’s look at goal setting in a different way. Let’s look at the concept of setting up objectives and then to establish a strategy in order to meet each objective. An objective is something you really want to achieve. Each objective has one single action that is clear, realistic, measurable, challenging, but attainable. For example: ‘To increase sales by 10% within 6 months’. The objective does not articulate how you will get there but a case of what you aim to achieve.
All the time the objectives must be aligned with your personal brand – being loyal to your personal brand first.
The objectives must be result orientated and not activity based. Stating ‘I will make 10 calls a day’ is activity orientated where as the example above ‘to increase sales by 10% within 6 months’ is result orientated’. Can you see the difference? It’s about what you can achieve as oppose what you can do.
The list of objectives should not be too long and a good guide to this is that you should be able to memorise all of them.
To be able to accomplish each objective, you do need to understand the why? Why do I need to achieve this? The stronger the reason, the better chance you will have in developing a strategy in order to achieve it. Behind each objective is your personal motivation and drive!
Let’s now create a strategy by answering five questions:
- Identify your most important business objective
- Why do you work to achieve your objective?
- What resources will you need to achieve your objective?
- With your resources, what is you plan of action?
- How will you measure success for you objectives?
Let’s now look at strategies. This is where you would consider the resources needed to help you on your way to meet the objectives. Will this be knowledge, training, new software for the computer etc? The strategy will help to define the steps to be taken. These steps could be defined as milestones – activities to be completed on the way to reach your objective. Better still; why not celebrate when each milestone is accomplished.
Your strategies in some cases will need to be flexible and be able to evolve. You will learn on the way so redirecting your plan is part of the course. Remember, there will be successes as well as failures.
On your journey, it is important to occasionally sit back and take an overview. Get out of the trench and hover above where you are at. This is a good way to keep proactive as you will be looking at where you are and where you need to be. You can make adjustments accordingly. What generally happens if you do not take the time to reflect is that you will end up in crises mode – being reactive.
Remember though, ‘you can’t control what you can’t control’.
Throughout, stay true to the very reason why you are aiming to achieve each objective, but ultimately the strategies to help you reach your goal!
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