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by Kelly Riggs
Goal-setting gets a whole lot of attention this time of year.
Personally and professionally: Companies create new revenue objectives; individuals resolve to lose weight.
If nothing else, the New Year is a time to initiate change, raise the bar, create new challenges, make things happen. You get the idea. Companies decide they need to increase sales. Create new marketing strategies. Launch new product lines. Establish new locations. Individuals may wish to lose weight, get in shape, begin a new hobby, start playing new games that pay real money to earn extra money, or work on home improvements.
However, unfortunately, it is seen that as many as 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions end in dismal failure — before January is even two weeks old. And, although accurate data on the success of corporate goal-setting is elusive, I suspect the results may not be considerably better.
The problem is that most goals are nothing of the sort. In most cases, they are good intentions at best. Pipe dreams at worst. It reminds me of something Willie Nelson once said. He owns a ranch outside of Austin he calls “Luck.” According to Nelson, “You’re either in Luck, or you’re out of Luck.”
Sounds like most goal-setting. When people fall short, they blame circumstances. When others reach a goal? Well, it helps to get the lucky breaks.
Which of the following two statements are most likely to result in progress?
1. I need to start running (or its distant cousin: I need to lose weight.)
2. I will run two miles immediately after work, three times per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday) in 11 minutes or less, for eight weeks. I will record my times and assess my progress weekly.
One is a dream. Optimistically, it qualifies as a good idea. The second statement, however, is a defined and measurable plan. And that, in a nutshell, is the difference between success and failure in goal-setting. To reach an objective of any complexity requires a clear and specific understanding of how that objective will be reached.
Successful goal-setters don’t simply visualize an objective, they create a detailed, step-by-step, measurable process for reaching that objective.
The same problem occurs in the corporate world. Instead of a specific objective and detailed plans, the company gets a number to shoot for. Someone at the top decides on a lofty objective – a 20% increase in sales, for example – and everyone is encouraged to do their part to make it happen. In some cases, there may even be a “strategic planning” session where key personnel debate several tactics that may (or may not) help the company reach the objective. It can also happen with professional goals. For instance, career growth goals to boost salary during a job switch may require completing technical certification like aws cloud practitioner practice exam free course. Here, the plan revolves around boosting career value for better salary and benefits.
The problem is that a number is not a strategy. In fact, a number is not even a goal until you put a plan behind it. Until then, it’s a hope and a prayer.
This whole idea has tremendous importance for you, certainly, but it is critically important to your employees. Clear goals and measurable progress, as it turns out, are crucial components of employee engagement. Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer discussed this idea in a HBR article:
“To get yourself and your team off to a good start for the new year, focus on progress. Our research discovered that fostering progress in meaningful work is the most important way to keep people highly engaged at work – even if that progress is a “small win”. We call this phenomenon the progress principle; it works because people want to feel that they are contributing to something that matters.”
This time of year is the perfect opportunity to review career and workplace goals with each of your employees. However, to make the process effective, resist the urge to simply discuss the employee’s past performance, or to just throw out a couple of important-sounding objectives to consider for the New Year.
Instead, identify one or more specific career and/or workplace objectives and create a clear game plan for attaining those objectives. Create milestones – the “small wins” – that define progress. You can make workplace changes, make it accessible to everyone, remove broken or useless furniture by calling a service that does Office Clearance London. When it comes to individuals, create clear metrics so performance or improvement can be assessed at regular intervals. Introduce a new project for the growth of the company, and let the employees know how it can benefit them as well. For instance, if you have an e-commerce business, you can launch an application (if you don’t have one already) to sell your products directly to your clients. You can take the assistance of an app developer or Ios App Development Services to generate a customized design for your software considering your requirements.
Employees – the good ones, at least – want to improve. They want to contribute and make a difference. But a retrospective number on an annual review form is not a strategy any more than a prospective revenue objective is a strategy.
This New Year, when you create a goal or an objective, make sure you create a detailed plan to achieve the goal.
Otherwise, you get to be a part of the 80%.
Kelly Riggs is a business performance coach and founder of the Business LockerRoom. A former national Salesperson of the Year and serial entrepreneur, Kelly is a recognized thought leader in the areas of sales, management leadership, and strategic planning. He serves clients ranging from small, privately held companies to Fortune 500 firms. Kelly has written two books: “1-on-1 Management™: What Every Great Manager Knows That You Don’t” and “Quit Whining and Start SELLING! A Step-by-Step Guide to a Hall of Fame Career in Sales.”
