The 5 Levels of Goal Setting

At my company, it’s that time of year when you set your goals. Looking at the year ahead can be daunting for many people and can trigger elements of imposter syndrome and doubt. But goals shouldn’t be a difficult activity. In fact, they should be something that motivates you for the path ahead and to give you focus and acknowledgement of the achievements from the previous year and how they roll over into where you take the knowledge you acquired and take it to the next level.

This year, I am taking a different strategy with goals. I am looking at them as a series of benefactors of varying levels or ranges. When I do this, I am able to focus more on what matters most, and how to frame them.

It starts with me.

My personal goals are based on where I want my career to go. Even if you don’t know ultimately what that is, you probably have some indication of what you want that next step to be—even if it is something that you want to experiment and learn more about to see if it is right for you. Don’t forget: Trying something and not going forward with it isn’t a “loss”—it is valuable insight into yourself and what motivates you to help you determine where you go next. Your personal goals can be as simple as wanting to learn more about a valuable skill that you have identified as a key gap that you need to resolve, or to find an opportunity to leverage your existing skills in different ways. Ultimately, your personal goals are about knowing which direction to take that next step.

Next, we can grow outward a little bit, and look at your team goal.

Whether you are a leader of others, or work with others as a peer, there are steps that the team needs to take to evolve and grow through the unique combination of skills present and find opportunities to cultivate within the team. What role do you play in those goals? How can you leverage your skills in unique ways to take your team forward? What skills do you need to develop to help evolve as a group? Are there things your team needs from you to collectively move forward with greater ease and success? Try and find that unique way you can fit in and amplify what your team needs to do as a whole.

And then take it a step further.

Many organizations determine company vision, mission, pillars, themes—the terms might be different between companies, but there is generally some company direction that they are trying to go down to meet challenges and create opportunities for the organization and for their customers. Similarly, to when you think of your personal contributions to your team—how do you define your contributions as it relates to the larger company goal? How are you helping the company achieve their goals in your own unique way? This could be to complete a specific task, bring a unique perspective to how the company works, or provide leadership to important company initiatives.

The outermost ring goes even broader.

No matter what industry you are in, discipline you exhibit, or skill you possess—there are opportunities to be an advocate for the growth and development of it in the broader community. It doesn’t matter if you are speaking with thousands of people at an event, mentoring people one-on-one, or writing articles or posts for others to experience and learn from. This goal is a mixture of giving back, finding your place in the global community, and give yourself a place to breathe and belong.

Then it needs to have a connection to a passion inside of you.

The final goal isn’t on the outside of community, but it actually the deeper and innermost area. Finding a goal that fuels your passion is fuel that allows all the others to have the energy to succeed. For me, it is around technology, and finding a place for that to work within learning opportunities, small projects to prototype and test out new idea, and to find ways to innovate. Finding a place to connect with your passion—even if in just a small way, can provide you energy to go forward and achieve great things with your other goals that you set for yourself.

So, when you set up your goals, think of these five levels of where you are directing the impact of the goal’s success. How can you apply these levels to your own goal setting?