Excel in Your Career With These 6 Proven Methods
By: Jared R Chaffee
Tags: Work, Leadership, Career Advice, Careers, Coaching

[3] Set and Crush Your Goals With My “PRIMORA WOPAK” Method

It’s hard to take your first step if you don’t know what direction you’re headed. That’s where goals come in- they provide focus and direction for your efforts. This is especially important if you’re new to a job, so you can map out what you want to achieve. If you’re a leader at work, you need to help set your team and employee’s individual goals in an effective way. This will help ensure they stay motivated by providing them with clear intent on what needs to happen to be successful.

In order to achieve this success in yourself or your team, you can’t just set any old goal. Goals have to be structured and formulated the right way so they make sense to you and so you can fall back to them for guidance. Your goals should give you or your team confidence as a workable plan of action for accomplishment.

There are many different theories out there on how to effectively set goals. I’ve read and studied a lot of these, and eventually, I came up with my own method, “PRIMORA WOPAK.” This is my own take on goal setting that has personally helped me crush my goals and find success. It’s a method that you can implement personally or with your team if you are a manager.

“Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.” — Jim Rohn

My PRIMORA WOPAK method (pronounced preh-more-a \ woe-pack)

[PRI = Principles] Let your Ruling Principles dictate your goals

The first step in any goal-setting process is to know who you are and what you want. You cannot proceed if you don’t have a clear concept of what you want in life. Determine your or your team’s ruling principles then align your goals with those principles. It’s vital to make sure your goals are aligned with the things you/ your team care about, and they are true to your identity. When goals and identity are aligned, it helps you stay motivated as you work towards those goals naturally. In other words, you don’t have to force it.

[MO = Motivate] Set goals that will really motivate you

Once you have a clear sense of your principles and identity, start thinking about goals that will motivate you. Choose goals that will not only be in line with your principles but will also provide autonomy and mastery. Autonomy comes from goals that allow a certain level of freedom to accomplish them. Mastery will result from goals that really stretch you and take you out of your comfort zone.

If you’re setting goals for a team, make sure they have the context. They should clearly understand why the goal is important and how accomplishing it will add value to the organization. Test your team’s understanding of the goal by asking them to explain to you why it’s important and worthwhile. Fill in any gaps that come to light.

[RA = Range] Use top-down thinking to cover all ranges of goals

Think about the big picture first when setting goals. Start with long-range, strategic goals then work backward from there, breaking them down into smaller, more manageable goals. The long-range goals provide the context and direction, while the short-range goals help to show immediate movement toward accomplishing your mission.

Also, when you’re thinking long-range, don’t overdo it. Start with what you want to achieve in 1 year and up to 3 years. Then break those down from there. Make sure the goal you’re setting is also realistically achievable in that timeframe, otherwise you could become overwhelmed and unnecessarily pressured. Use past benchmarks of success as a starting point.

If you’re a team leader, using shorter-term goals is especially helpful. You can’t expect a team to care about 8 or 10-year goals because they probably won’t be in the same role that far in the future.

[W = Write it down] Make an action plan and write it down

Now that you have an idea of what the specific goals should be, the next step is to write it all down. This is an important step that can help clarify all the specifics. At the end of this step, you should have a play-by-play action plan, with individual steps and ownership. This plan of attack should have timelines and dates- be specific!

If you’re leading a team, organize and create a workable plan so that it’s clear to each member who owns what. This will help provide the accountability we’ll talk about later.

[O = Optimize] Optimize your environment

If you don’t already, start incorporating habits and behaviors into your daily work routine that will help you be productive and accomplish small goals on a daily basis. Try using a bullet journal to map out small goals you can accomplish. Visually seeing what you’ve completed feels rewarding and will motivate you to keep going.

If you lead a team, use daily team huddles to stay checked in. Pre-schedule time for your team to work on certain goals. Schedule weekly and monthly check-ins and brainstorming sessions to help make progress. Establish daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly milestones.

Having the right tools will allow you to achieve each small step efficiently. Small wins add up over time and compound until you’ve accomplished the bigger strategic goal.

[P = Progress] Consistently assess your progress

Make sure you’re constantly checking in and benchmarking where you are in terms of progress towards accomplishing the team goals. Not only does this let everyone know where you stand but it also helps keep you flexible. Goals will change and evolve over time and the end result may look very different than you originally pictured. But this isn’t a bad thing.

Remember, goals are a guide. Assess your progress then update and revise those goals as necessary to ensure they all still make sense and are relevant. Maybe after assessing progress you realize that you haven’t made much traction towards one specific goal because it’s no longer relevant. If so, get rid of it or revise it!

[A = Accountable] Stay accountable

Staying accountable is essential to achieving goals. You can use formal performance check-ins with your supervisor, but it’s also a good idea to ask others as well. Seek out feedback from others to identify and work on weaknesses you have that could be preventing you from accomplishing your goals.

If you’re a manager, you need to ensure your team stays focused on their goals since it’s easy to get lost in day-to-day tasks and lose sight of the bigger picture. Use regular catch-ups and one-on-one meetings to cover progress. Document goals and who owns what then talk about it often. Use metrics and reporting fed to senior organizational leadership. Document an individual’s progress into their formal promotion processes.

Use whatever tools you have at your disposal as a forcing mechanism to hold your team and yourself accountable for goal accomplishment. In other words, you need to have skin in the game. You take a quote for Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “How much you truly “believe” in something can be manifested only through what you are willing to risk for it.”

[K = Keep Going] Keep going and start the process over once you’ve achieved your goal

Last, but certainly not least, never stop. After you accomplish your goals, start the process over. This will continually provide focus and direction for you and the team and ensure you’re always growing and progressing on the path upward.

Frame goals with the right perspective

Frame goals from a positive perspective (i.e. this is what I want) versus a negative one (i.e. this is what I don’t want). Framing in the negative means goals are guided by fear, whereas the positive are guided by growth. It’s much easier to overcome the challenge of a big, daunting goal when driven and guided by growth. If you’re having trouble flipping a negative goal into a positive one, ask yourself, “what needs to be done to accomplish this instead?”

Don’t let the fear of failure stop you

What truly matters is not achieving the goal, but the growth you make along the way. In the end, if you or your team doesn’t succeed with accomplishing the goal, look back at where you started and highlight the growth and development made. Highlight how far you’ve come and how much better you are now- that’s still progress, which is what really matters.

Ask for help

We don’t have all the answers and there’s much we can learn from those around us. Ask for their help! There’s no shame in that and it’s not a sign of weakness. Most people love to be useful and needed- by asking for their help, you’re giving them the opportunity to do just that!

Achieving a goal usually involves, at least in part, things outside of our control. Likely, there will be something that gets in the way of your/ your team’s goals or makes accomplishing it impossible. Don’t let this demoralize and ruin your motivation. Remember to maintain a growth mindset and view all of this as an opportunity for learning and growth.