Effective Goal-Setting: Focused on Impact

It's that time of year again, goal-setting time. You are probably being bombarded with training requests, reminders from your HR business partner, and goals cascaded from your leaders. You’re thinking: “I don't have time for this!” You simply want to write goals that will help you help you have a great year, resulting in better performance, improving your shot at promotion, and a pay increase. Don't worry, I got you. In this article, I'll identify how to simply write goals that work focusing on what drives impact and ignoring the hoopla that doesn't.

Tommy, which goal-setting model is best, you might ask. Between SMART, OKR, SIMple, or EXACT it's no wonder you might be confused about which model is best. Honestly, it doesn't matter which model you use; use your company's model that way you're speaking the same language. Regardless of the model, each goal must be specific, measurable, and relevant, or important. If you include those and set a deadline for your goal, you have the qualities that make the difference.

What do you mean by specific, measurable, and important? Great questions, let’s dig into that.?

Specific. When I say specific, I mean get very clear about the impact you are trying to have and how you expect to reach it. There is an inferential leap between the impact we want to have and the action we take. The larger that leap, the less chance your action will have the desired impact. Use data to help you decide what action to take and shrink that leap.

Measurement. Measuring your goals as you go will help you see progress. Ideally, you want something you can measure a couple of times in the pursuit of your goal. Repeated measurements will let you know if your actions are having the impact you want. You want your measurements to both indicate that you are making progress toward your goal and your desired impact.

Important/Relevant. Important to whom? Well to you and the company priorities for the year. You can identify 2 dozen things you could do in your role that would benefit the company. But which should be prioritized is a matter of strategy. When team members throughout the company have the same focus, the company makes better progress. Each of your goals should align with company priorities for the year. This helps encourage everyone to work together toward the same focused outcome.?

But wait, there’s more! The goal also needs to be important to you. You need to get clear about why the goal is important to you. Is this type of work energizing to you, do you like to solve these problems, are you excited about the impact, will this give you vital experience for your career, will this work help a colleague, etc.? You will get too busy at some point in the year. When you do, the temptation to “procrastinate” a goal will be strong. If that goal is of little importance to you, you are even more likely to put it on the back burner.

Goal: Improve customer satisfaction with customer support calls by reducing customer wait times. To do this I will design and implement a process to reduce customer call wait times by 15% by November 31st. I will track results using weekly call center reports (average wait time) and customer satisfaction surveys.

Importance: The company - supports customer retention; To me - Better customer satisfaction means a better experience for my call center team.

The goal is laid out, now what?

Do it 2-4 more times for a total of 3 to 5 goals. Research continues to point out that a few challenging goals are better than many easy ones. Which, makes sense. If you have 10 goals, you are likely to forget some for a while to focus on others. Challenging goals will allow you to have a bigger impact, and help you grow professionally, while easy goals don’t require you to work very hard.

Finally, meet regularly with your manager! Regular touch points, weekly even, help drive clarity of expectations, leverage proactive problem-solving, and ensure continual progress toward the goal. In business, the priority today may not be the priority in 6 months, meeting regularly with your manager to discuss goal progress and your work will help you adjust as needed. In those weekly 1 on 1s, I recommend the following question should be answered.

1. How are you doing (professionally and personally*)? *to the degree you are comfortable sharing.
2. How are your goals coming along?
3. What are you working on this week, what are your priorities?
4. Is there anything impeding your work, or any blockers?
5. What do you need from your manager to be more successful?

So let’s recap. You want to set 3-5 challenging goals that are specific, measurable, and important to you and the company. Then you want to meet regularly with your manager to discuss the work, your progress, and what resources you need to have a greater impact. If you do this consistently with intention, you’ll see a real impact, as will any good manager.