Goals that are personally meaningful focus attention on what is relevant and important. This is true both of individuals and companies. Company goals can be anything from increasing market to increasing shareholder value. Goals motivate us to act. The level of effort expended is proportionate to the difficulty of the goal.
Persistence represents the effort expended on a task over a period of time.
People who are persistent see obstacles as challenges to overcome rather than reasons to fail. A difficult goal is a constant reminder to people that they need to continue exerting effort in the appropriate direction. A goal provides people with a direction that they need to be going and they are forced to develop a plan for how to get there. There are three general steps to follow when implementing a goal setting program. In order to help employees, managers should train them in problem-solving techniques and encourage them to develop action plans.