A Guide to Goal Setting | 3 Tips to Help Your Team Achieve Goals

In our last Contagious Leadership Podcast Ep. 75, we had TEDx Speaker, and Leadership and Development Coach, Patrick Veroneau, MS join us in a conversation about how to set goals with your team and actually achieve them.

Often times in leadership, you set goals with your team, sparingly revisit them, and when end-of-year reviews come along, your team falls short on achieving their goals.

Could this be due to the goal setting methods (such as SMART Goals) being used, or the manager's leadership tactics?

Instead of asking your team why they didn’t reach their goal, it may be time to reflect on your leadership approach and assess how you lead them towards their goals throughout the year.

With that being said, here are 3 goal setting tactics you can implement within your team to actually hit your goals:

How to SET Goals

Setting goals is much more than just writing them down on a sticky note and looking at it on your desk everyday. Here is how you’re going to effectively SET goals with your team.

Patrick developed S.E.T. Goals to help his clients affectively accomplish team goals.

Step 1: Specific

You’re going to want to get specific about your goal. Identify exactly what you want and the elements of it.

Instead of saying you want to lose weight, say that you want to lose 10 LBS.

Step 2: Emotions

If you set a goal that you have no emotional attachment to, you’re not going to want to work towards it.

You can identify the emotional factors of your goal by asking yourself the 5 Why’s. This will help you identify exactly why you want this goal.

For instance, you can say “I want to lose 10 LBS”

1. Ask yourself, why?

“Because I want more energy”

2. So, why do you want to have more energy?

“I want to be able to coach my son how to play football”

3. Why do you want to coach your son how to play football?

“Because as he gets older, I’ll see him less and less so I want to spend as much time as I can with him now.”

4. Why do you want to spend that time with him now?

“Because research says that by the time your kids turn 18 years old, you’ve spent 90% of the time you’ll spend with them throughout their life, in that 18 years.”

5. Why is spending that time with him important to you?

“Because I want to build a legacy and relationship with him now, so that when he's older, we’ll have a strong relationship”

Now that you’ve asked yourself the 5 Why’s, you notice that this goal is much more than losing 10 lbs, it’s about creating a solid relationship with your kid.

At this point, you’ve identified an emotional connection to your goal that is much more than just losing the 10 lbs. That emotional tie will push you harder to work towards it.

Step 3: Time Bomb

Every goal needs an expiration date or commitment to be set.?

A time bomb can be set out months from now or it can identify how often you’re going to do something, without a definitive end date.

For the weight loss example, you can say you want to loose 10 lbs in 2 months or you can tell yourself that you’re going to workout 3 times a week without a set time.?

Both qualify as time bombs, but regardless of the goal, the time bomb needs to be set.

The Best Way to Set Team Goals for Success

Every component of S.E.T. Goals is equally important, but the time bomb is what’s going to set this goal apart from past goals you’ve made.

Patrick says that a great way to set your time bomb is by splitting them up into quarters. Aligning them with Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4, can keep the goal clear and push you towards the goal.?

Let's say that Q1 is coming to an end and you’re making goals for Q2. Once you’ve set the goal for Q2, you can further break it down into months. Figure out what needs to be accomplished by each month to get you to the main goal. Then you can further break it down into weeks so you have a better understanding of the scope of work you should expect on a weekly basis when it comes to reaching this goal.?

As a leader, don't forget to establish a check in with your team regarding their goals.?

It could be a quick 5 minute conversations each week to see where they’re at, what they’ve done, and if they’re still on track.?

If something comes up that affects when you’re going to reach your goal, then readjust. Projects can pop up and alter your workload, keeping you from reaching your goal within the expected timeframe. Remember, it’s okay to readjust goals and the time bomb if needed.

How To Stay On Top Of Your Goals

It’s easy to set a goal but we can easily lose sight of it and stop making progress towards it.

These 3 P’s will help you stay on track to hit your goal(s):

Planning

Here is where you'll have your team set the foundation to their goals. Have them figure out the emotional elements to the goal, set a time bomb and make a plan to achieve it. The more specific they get with planning the goals, the better.?

Practice

Now that your team has created a plan for their goal, they're going to put it into actions. Encourage your team to track their progress towards their goal, this way you can see what they've been accomplishing along the way. At this point, as a leader, you're going to want to set ongoing check in's with your team. You can set the frequency of the check in that best fits the team member's goal.

Persistence?

As a leader of a team, this is where you’re really going to want to show up. You should make sure your team is on track to hit their goal and to cheer them on along the way. Showing this type of support is great for improving your leadership skills and motivating your team to reach their goal.

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How to Prepare Yourself and Your Team To Set Goals

Another nifty acronym you can use to help you prepare for your goals is to look at the GROW model.

Step 1: Goals

This is the easy part; identify what your goal is. Ask yourself what you’re looking to accomplish by the timeframe you’re setting for yourself and get a clear image of it.

Step 2: Reality

You should look at your current reality and see if your goal can be obtained within the timeframe you’ve set. Is your goal too easy or is it audacious? As a manager, you should advise your team to look at their goals from a realistic standpoint while still encouraging them to set goals that may be further out.

Step 3: Obstacles

What obstacles may you face along the way? Identify them and create a plan just incase you run into them. That way you’re prepared and don’t have surprises along the way.

Step 4: A Way Forward

Now that you’ve identified your goals, reality, and potential obstacles, you can look at the plan going forward. This is where you will set your plan to work towards your goal.

As a manager or someone in a leadership position, you should try using the S.E.T. Goals Method, 3 P’s, and GROW Model to help your team set goals. Remember, you’re going to want to check in on them and make sure they’re on track. A lot of goals can be easily forgotten about due to the lack of follow up on one’s progress.

Hopefully this article helps you grow your leadership skills and goal setting tactics!

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Watch the full episode and discussion here:

A Guide to Goal Setting | 3 Tips to Help Your Team Achieve Goals

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