Goal Setting: How to Create Impact

We all have professional goals, whether big or small. Some of us will have a very clear idea of what we’re looking to achieve, but it’s incredibly important to consider how we can create the biggest impact with the goals that we set for ourselves.

The truth is that impact is created with the small, consistent steps we take towards our goals. It may not sound as inspiring as stories with exciting strokes of luck or near misses, but it is the sometimes more boring part of creating everyday, small practices that gives us the best shot at success.?

Here are three things to focus on when looking to set goals for impact.

Visualise what you want to achieve?

Whatever your goal might be, the first step is to have a clear idea of what success looks like to you.?

Mental contrasting , which is a visualisation technique, has shown to be very effective at helping people hit objectives and achieve goals. There are three steps to this: envisioning what the future will look like when you reach your goal, thinking about the reality of where you are right now, and reflecting on the contrast between the two and the steps needed to get from one to the other. This encourages you to consider potential obstacles ahead of time and plan how you might approach them - helping you prepare for challenges. Meanwhile, keeping the final vision of what life will look like when you achieve your goal at the front of your mind makes it easier to stay motivated when things are difficult. This also helps you to build resilience before challenges occur - something you can learn more about in the 10 Days of Resilience free coaching programme.

Keep in mind that the best way to create impact in a business is to add value where it actually matters. Sometimes, outputs that you really care about don’t necessarily align with what the business cares about. You want to achieve ambitious targets that are important both to you personally and to the company - so make sure your own goals are aligned with business strategy and vision, as well as with what your functional objectives are and what your manager is looking for from you.?

TIP: To really benefit from mental contrasting, set some time aside every day to visualise what you want and how it will feel when you get it. However, make sure your goals are realistic. Although it’s good to have high expectations of success, it’s also necessary to think about the practical steps you’ll need to take to get there.?

Turn aspirational goals into concrete steps

The gold standard approach to setting goals is to break them down into three stages of a success process, in order to make your final objective achievable - outcome goals, performance goals, and process goals.?

→ First, identify the outcome. What is the end goal you’re striving to achieve? This is the bigger, important goal that you’re working on. It could be something like kickstarting a new career or creating a greater impact at work.?

→ Second, define your performance goals. These are specific areas you want to improve, and have the power to work on, related to your broader outcome goal. Maybe you’d like to learn a new skill or improve your confidence in public speaking. Think about what you need to do in the next year, six months, or month to help you reach your bigger goal.

→ Finally, think of process goals. These are daily or weekly actions and commitments that over time will help enhance your performance. If you’re trying to improve your public speaking, for example, one of your process goals could be taking a course or putting yourself forward to speak at a weekly meeting. It could be reading for 20 minutes every day about a topic that will enhance your professional knowledge. These should be shorter-term goals you can set yourself right now. Sometimes, the process can feel small and far removed from the end goal, but it is essential.?

Once you’ve broken down your goals into these three categories, set specific actions, measurements and due dates for each. Consider whether your action plan is the absolute best way to use your time, energy and budget in order to see results and create impact. The Pareto Principle says that 20% of the activities you take part in create 80% of the results - so get clear on what those 20% activities are for you, and keep in mind that they won’t always be the ones that you enjoy the most.?

This systematic approach is the most effective way to turn aspirational, long-term goals into concrete steps for reaching them.?

TIP: The more simple and straightforward your day-to-day actions, the more likely you are to commit to them. Research also tells us that effective habits are formed when we make them easy to carry out, when we make completing them rewarding, and when we make them as attractive as possible to us.

Check out one of my latest LinkedIn Learning courses Goal Setting for Business Impact to find out more about setting outcome, performance and process goals.

Review your approach regularly

If there’s one skill we’ve all learned the importance of over the past year and a half, it’s adaptability. So how can we become more agile in our goal-setting? The key is to be rigid in the goals we want to achieve, but flexible in how we go about achieving them. In order to create results that have an impact, we need to be able to react to what is going on around us, and adjust our plan for reaching goals if necessary.

Once you’ve set your overarching outcome goals, actions and timelines, make sure to regularly sit down and review your action steps to see if you need to make any tweaks to your approach. This could be monthly, weekly, or whenever something changes that might affect what you’re trying to achieve. If needed, adjust your action steps accordingly in order to make sure you’re still on track to reach your big goal.?

A crucial step is to gather feedback from others who are working with you, and to use this information to inform your next steps. What do people think you’re doing well, and what could you do better? I recommend checking in about what’s working and what isn’t every 90 days. This will give you time to see whether a strategy is seeing results, but it will also mean you aren’t spending too long on a strategy that is ineffective.?

TIP: Often, small adjustments to your action steps are all it takes. My advice is not to make big changes unless it’s really obvious that you need to. What minor changes can you make to achieve more over time??

Your goals setting tips

Do you have any of your own suggestions for goal setting to create impact? Share them in the comments.

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This article is part of the?Mindset Matters newsletter series , which has over 350k subscribers. If you like this article, feel free to?subscribe ?and check out my?coaching videos ?on the topics I talk about in this newsletter.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Follow me on Instagram:?@gemma.leigh.roberts ?where I regularly run Q&A sessions, answering questions about what it takes to thrive at work (you can also explore previous Q&A sessions on topics such as dealing with challenges at work, goal setting and tips to build resilience).

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