How To Set Goals That Matter!
Andreas von der Heydt
Member of the Executive Board - International Business and Online
There′s nothing worse than wasting your or other people′s time and resources by chasing wrong goals.
If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. (Zig Ziglar)
Let′s be honest. It has happened to all of us.
Why?
Well, different reasons… at least in my case over the past years:
- Confusing Relevance with Speed: No doubt, speed matters in business. Still, there should always be enough time to ensure targets are relevant, clear, and known to all stakeholders. It creates alignment and a healthy team spirit.
- Underestimating Complexity: Often it′s worthwhile doing at least a certain degree of a deep dive to think through a topic and task before getting started to avoid inconvenient and etime-consuming surprises at a later point of time.
- Not differentiating between reversible and non-reversible decisions: There are decisions which are hard to correct and/or change once implemented. Those deserve specific scrutiny efforts.
Therefore, how to set goals that matter:
- Describe exactly What and which goal(s) you′d like to realize: 3-4 sentences are sufficient. The more specific you can be, the better.
- Define success measurement criteria: Set up metrics and timelines (ETAs) to measure and assess progress. Those should be mainly quantifiable criteria based on data.
- Specify Who the required stakeholders are to support to make the goal(s) become reality. Ensure you′ll get buy-in from all relevant parties. Try to build a core team of owners and supporters.
- Lay out How best you′ll achieve the goal, i.e. what action steps should be implemented.
- Finally, and very importantly, explain Why the goal(s) matter. Communicate, and re-communicate (the more frequent, the better), with clarity, conviction, and passion the spirit of the goal and how it fits in the overall mission and broader (organizational) targets.
How do you set goals that matter?
Kind regards,
Andreas von der Heydt
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Andreas von der Heydt is Director of Talent Acquisition & Recruiting at Amazon. Before he held various senior management positions at Amazon and L'Oréal. He's a leadership expert as well as a management and personal growth coach. Andreas worked and lived in Europe, Australia, the U.S. and Asia. Currently he lives with his wife and daughters in Seattle, USA. He′s also the founder of Coaching for Community, and non-profit organization which matches expert pro-bono coaches with people in need (website launch end of July 2020). Andreas enjoys blogging as a private person here on LinkedIn about various exciting topics. His latest book is about what makes a future leader. All statements made, opinions expressed, etc. in his articles only reflect his personal opinion.
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Other recent and popular articles by Andreas:
Coaching For Community - We are stepping up to help!
Leadership in Times of Crisis – When Everyone Needs To Step Up!
photo credit: Andreas von der Heydt
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1 年I love this! Thanks for sharing, Andreas von der Heydt! "How to Set Goals That Matter" offers a great framework for setting effective goals. I appreciate the emphasis on focusing on achievable goals that align with our values. How often should individuals evaluate their progress towards goals, and how can they stay motivated to achieve their goals over the long-term?
Ending trauma on a global scale one family at a time and it starts with healing ourselves! ??
2 年There are nuggets in this article, thanks for sharing I’d be honored to have you in my network Andreas
Jag skapar ov?ntade resultat f?r individer och grupper genom kommunikation. Kommunikation ?r enkelt - men inte alltid l?tt.
3 年Thank you for your useful toolboxes and wisdom. I am taking a stand f?r this model of leadership in Sweden, and I really get that my identity needs to get out of the way - and create who I really am. I aiming for a sustainable organization that will grow and develops over time without me. Thank you, Andreas!
REALTOR? | Sotheby’s International Realty
3 年Great article! Set goals that matter?to you that will have a positive effect in your life.
Partner @ 8works | Oliver Wyman | People-led Strategy Consulting
4 年Thanks for sharing Andreas, agreed esp. on the WHY point. And I love the rotating door principle / taking different approaches for reversible vs. non-reversible goals; What I sometime struggle with is making sure quantifiable objectives are linked to the purpose, not the tool. E.g. upskilling on a certain topic could be measured by it's purpose / output (x% of staff able to do xyz) or as input/measure (x% of people received training). Obviously output is much better, but often harder to measure