BILL COPELAND
-POET, WRITER AND HISTORIAN-
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.”
So many goals fail because they aren’t thought out, planned and communicated. In the next few lessons we will break down each step of great goal setting. Before we do that, we need to start at the beginning, which is clarity. The clarity the leaders need when goal setting. You need to start thinking about the what and the how of the goals. How will your team know what's expected of them, if the goals aren't clear. You as the leader to be critically clear about:
- What is it that needs to be done?
- Why does it need to be done?
- What does done look like?
- What does great look like?
- When does it need to be done by?
If you can't answer these questions, you can’t be clear in your communication and you are setting everybody up to fail. Your job is to set the direction with the big WHY clearly communicated, so your people can link the purpose with the ongoing priorities and tasks.
You can now begin to have conversations around how you are going to achieve them and ultimately delegate, empower and motivate your people. That's all anybody really wants - to come to work and to feel empowered, motivated, stretch and to grow.
You know you can’t do it all on your own, that’s why you have a team. When you set the direction, and you're crystal clear about what good looks like, hand it over to your team members to willingly deliver. Empower them to decide on how they're going to do it.
If you can’t provide total clarity on the goal, what good looks like and why it is important, then don’t expect your people to care. If we know we need goals, why do so many organisations fail to achieve them. Here are the 3 top reasons.
01
Unrealistic goals
It's really common for the executive teams to go off site and plan the next 1-5 year goals and vision. This is good business practice. What they often fail to do is Test Assumptions. They fail to ask the people who actually work in the business whether the goals are achievable or realistic. Now I am all for creating stretching, big thinking visions, that translates to a more immediate mission or objective, but within the parameters of reality. When top down objectives get passed down the organisations without testing assumptions and doing the reality test, the people take them on through either fear or apathy. Either way, they aren't emotionally motivated or invested in achieving them because they don't believe in them. So you are on a losing battle before you even start. Setting unrealistically high goals creates a business culture where failure becomes acceptable and expected and apathy resides.
02
Too many goals
This is a major mistake. If you are an operational team, then you have the day-to-day tasks that need to be completed. These take up the majority of the time. Then along comes the Manager and passes on 3, 5 or 10 big goals on top. Soon you get into conflict around priorities. When time is limited, how do you decide on whether to focus on the big strategic, value adding tasks and projects, or the day-to-day activities that keep the wheels turning. As Patrick Lencioni says, "when everything is a priority, nothing is". Many leaders are shifting towards matrix or project style structures now, where key projects are set up to align to the organisational goals, and key personnel are assigned. That is their core focus and priority, and only do they move on to the next goals, when the first is completed - step by step goal achievement. Getting clear on what needs to be done, by when and by who is critical.
03
No follow through
All being well, you have a list of goals for the year ahead and assign them to the right people. They buy-in and are motivated to achieve. You are all over it in the early days, and then something else comes up. You switch attention to the next big thing and stop focusing on the original priotities. Then wonder why your people haven't delivered. What you focus on gets attention. Leaders must set up systems to monitor progress, celebrate milestones, give feedback and "manage". When there is no reward for achieving or consequence for not, your people will naturally drift towards daily routine and urgent tasks.
How will your team know what is expected of them if you aren’t clear? Goals are a really great way to delegate, empower and motivate your people. Although you set the direction, the what, allowing your team to own the how is vital. Top down, autocratic, tell-yell-sell, approaches to leadership just don’t cut it in today’s modern workplace. As we move up the hierarchy of needs, basic survival and security are generally met. Your people now want a sense of involvement, development and belonging. Goal setting is a perfect way to achieve this level of motivation.
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