Many people don’t connect goals and plans.
They either set goals and fail to make the plans on how to reach the goals, or they make plans without having goals that are clearly defined.
Definitions of goal (excluding sports) include “the object of a person’s ambition or effort”, “the destination of a journey” and “the result or achievement toward which effort is directed”.
A Goal is more than just a dream. More than something we have a desire for and put out into the universe in the hope that it may come true.
Goals need to be front of mind and worked upon with effort.
In order to reach goals the acronym S.M.A.R.T. was invented. The first use of which is attributed to George T. Doran in the November 1981 issue of Management Review. The letters usually refer to the words:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-sensitive
although many variations exist.
I personal prefer action-based and realistic instead of attainable and relevant.
Getting people “into action” is an integral part of coaching, while attainable feels too soft, doesn’t imply any level of effort to achieve it, so is better replaced with realistic.
There are other considerations when setting and working towards goals.
- Always include others in setting goals if it is going to need a team effort. This is to ensure the team “own” the goal and are committed to achieving it.
- Writing goals down takes them from being just an idea to being something we are likely to look at again, hence remember, and be more front of mind.
- Working on too many goals at once will make it harder to achieve them since focus may be lost, so goals need to be prioritized.
- Some people argue that goals should be kept simple but B.H.A.G.s (Big Hairy Audacious Goals from ‘Built to Last’ by James Collins and Jerry Porras) are long term, complex but far more inspiring.
- B.H.A.G.s need to be broken down into sub goals that are more manageable.
Taking a goal to the next level and working to achieve it requires a plan. This is a “roadmap” or “blueprint” of the steps to be taken and will be dealt with in my next blog.
Don’t miss it next Saturday!
