4 Ways To Increase Your Success Rate When Setting Goals
By: David Marsh
Tags: Goals, Leadership, Leadership Development, Management

As we approach the new year I am beginning to review the results of my annual goals for 2020 and plan out my goals for 2021.

Goals are such a key area in leadership. They help us determine our priorities and where we should direct our energy to improve ourselves and our team. Goals also keep us on track and give us focus, rather than going through life aimlessly not really knowing what we want.

How do you know if you are heading in the right direction if you don’t have specific milestones to track your progress? If an employee doesn’t have specific targets which are reviewed on a regular basis, how do they know if they are performing at the required level? If you have no way of tracking performance how do you know what good looks like? You have no benchmark. As you can see, goals allow us to monitor progress and evaluate what is working and what isn’t.

If you want to fill a sense of direction, progression and fulfilment then you need to set yourself and your team meaningful goals. Goals will help you achieve a lot more in a shorter period of time because they help you get crystal clear on what you want to achieve.

Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash

Here are 4 things that will help you achieve a higher level of success when setting goals.

1) Focus — if you don’t have goals, you don’t have a target which you are shooting for. Goals give you a sense of direction which you can align your focus on. Is the work you are doing right now important, and a step towards your goal? or is it just busy work which gives you a feeling of being productive? When setting your goals, be super clear so you can narrow your focus. “I want to be a better leader” is not a goal, goals should be SMART. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound.

2) Plan — goals are great as they give you a target to focus your attention on. But goals alone aren’t enough. You need a plan, what are the 10 steps that you need to take to hit your goal this year? They can be rough for now, but write them down and get started.

Photo by Tamarcus Brown on Unsplash

3) Limit — identify the critical few goals you want and remove the rest. Be realistic with the number but ambiguous with those few you choose as annual goals. There is a lot of evidence around goal setting that if you have too many you end up getting distracted and not achieving anything. It’s better to focus your time and energy in taking 10 steps in one direction, rather than one step in 10 directions.

Robert Brault quoted:

“We are kept from our goal not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”

Lesser important goals become a distraction, delete them off your list and focus on the things you are most hungry for.

4) Why — you need to have a why and purpose behind why this goal is important. If you want to run a sub 20min 5k, why? Get to the root cause of your reason. Ask yourself why until you get to it. If it’s just because you want to, then you’re probably not going to put the required level of effort over a sustained period. But if your why is by running more often and quicker you are maintaining the health of your body and mind for years to come, which will help you lead a more fulfilling lifestyle and see your children grow up, then this type of why will help you to come back for more. A why keeps you going through adversity and set back. Know why you do what you do.

As you take stock of your performance both professionally and personally for 2020, what ambitious goals can you set and begin working on as we enter 2021?

All the best

David

Resources Of The Week

Blog — MindTools Personal Goal Setting. Here is another great article from the team at MindTools on Goal Setting including plenty of best practices in being successful when setting goals.

— MindTools Personal Goal Setting. Here is another great article from the team at MindTools on Goal Setting including plenty of best practices in being successful when setting goals. Blog Post — 6 Habits Of Highly Productive People. An article I wrote on Medium sharing 6 secrets on how high performers manage their time.

— 6 Habits Of Highly Productive People. An article I wrote on Medium sharing 6 secrets on how high performers manage their time. YouTube — Simon Sinek on Why you Win with Consistency. Simon talks through why all the small things and the daily occurrences help you achieve your goals. Not one-off events.

Quote of the Week

“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” — Dwayne Johnson

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