Setting goals is a powerful action that will ensure you experience success and
achieve desired outcomes. When you set goals, you lay out a set direction in which you should approach your organisations activities.
When people set goals, they can often find that it is difficult to stick to them as time progresses.
By considering and implementing the following points, you will see the benefits and power of goal setting.
Goal Setting Steps
Own the Goal
It is important that your feel as if you own the goals that you or others set. It is no use striving for a goal that you believe you “ought” to work towards because someone else has advised or set it, these are the goals that your commitment and focus will wane on.
When setting goals, identify what’s in it for you and what excites you about it. It is this excitement that will drive you to achieve them. Often in the workplace, if you believe that the end result of a goal is worth the work you will put in, the effort to overcome challenges and obstacles because will be beneficial to both the organisation and your success there.
So find a way to ‘own’ your goals!
Believe in yourself
It’s almost too easy to take on a negative view when it comes to setting and achieving goals. People often find that they have a little voice in the back of their heads that tells them they “can’t” when trying to achieve their goals.
However, you can combat these negative thoughts by believing in yourself. By believing in yourself you have the ability to change the tone of that ‘little voice’ inside your head. Overcoming this critical ‘little voice’ will give you the ability to problem solve, accomplish goals and evaluate your actions, which in turn is a positive outcome.
If you are a manager, make sure that you show your team that you believe in their goal achieving ability. Emotions are contagious, so maintaining a positive outlook will catch on with other team members, all the while increasing their confidence and self-belief.
Have a clear vision
It is important that you have a clear vision of what your goals should achieve. It is often assumed that goals have to be measureable; however this is not the case. Often the goals that are most important in the long term are the ones that are hard to measure.
For these goals (and others), it is important that you create a clear vision for yourself and your employees of the desired outcomes for these goals. This will enable everyone to have a deep understanding of what is being asked of them, and enable to complete tasks to the best of their abilities.
Reflect your values
The goals that you set should reflect your (or the organisation’s) values. Every goal that you set should have the foundation of a governing value.
If the goals that are set reflect your organisational values, they are more likely to be achieved and thereby perceived as successful.
Check goal setting and achievement progress regularly
A continuous mistake made by those who fail to achieve goals is their failure to check on their goal setting and achievement progress regularly.
It is important that this ‘checking’ progress is implemented throughout the planning process as it enables you to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t.
It is proven that organisations that check and review their goal process daily achieve their goals, so it is important that you make time to check and evaluate your goals in your everyday routine.
Identify and eliminate obstacles
If you want to achieve your goals, you have to take action. If you are unhappy with the progress of achieving one or more of your goals, take the time to identify and evaluate what is keeping you from achieving them.
If you find that there are specific things that are restraining you from achieving goals, take actions to eliminate or resolve them.
If you are having trouble achieving a specific goal, complete a root cause analysis to identify what exactly is preventing you from achieving success. From here you can take action on eliminating this blockage.
Celebrate accomplishments
It was mentioned earlier that one of the top difficulties in achieving goals is the ability to keep motivated.
When you accomplish something working towards achieving a goal, or when you achieve the goal , it is important that you recognise and celebrate this achievement.
This recognition has proven to be a great technique in keeping staff motivated, so make sure you celebrate even minor achievements.
Accept change
As a goal setter or achiever, it is important that you accept that things do change – including your goals.
Circumstances change, so allow yourself to adapt your goals so that they may act as a resolution to those changes.
You may also find that the goal originally set is too big or too small. Undertake an honest assessment of your set goals and your current situation; do you need to adapt those goals accordingly? If you find you do, don’t beat yourself up about it just make the change and move on.
Achieving goals is critical to an organisation’s success at it enables it to grow. By taking note of the above and implementing them, you will find a higher success rate when you seek to achieve goals.
