Why is there so much pressure toward expanding, rather than narrowing, the goals?
People who try to push many goals at once usually wind up doing a mediocre job on all of them. You can ignore the principle of focus, but it won’t ignore you. Or you can leverage this principle to achieve your top goals, one at a time, again and again. So, here’s the big question: If you understand the need to focus, why is it so difficult to actually do it?
You might say that, as a leader, it’s because you can always see more than a dozen existing things that need improvement and another dozen new opportunities you’d like to be chasing on any given day. On top of that, there are other people (and other peoples’ agendas) that can be adding to your goals, especially if they are from higher up in the organisation.
BEING AWARE OF THESE tendencies is a good place to start. Let’s examine a few of them candidly. One reason you may drive your team to take on too much is that, as a leader, you tend to be ambitious and creative. You are exactly the kind of individual organizations like to promote. Another reason you might lead your team to go after too many goals is to hedge your bets. In other words, if your team pursues everything, then it seems likely that something might work. It also ensures that, if you fail, no one can question the level of effort your team gave. Even though you know that more is not better, it looks better, especially to the person above you.
However, THE GREATEST CHALLENGE you face in narrowing your goals is simply that it requires you to say no to a lot of good ideas. This may even mean saying no to some great ideas, at least for now. Nothing is more counterintuitive for a leader than saying no to a good idea, and nothing is a bigger destroyer of focus than always saying yes. What makes it even harder is that these good ideas aren’t presented all at once. Instead, they filter in one at a time. Alone, each idea seems to make so much sense that it’s almost impossible for you to say no, so you fall into a trap of your own making.
Director Business Development & Marketing
3 年Yes indeed it is a perennial problem of sorts pevelant in most companies., Management in the designated roles, those specifically responsible for development seemingly find themselves in this paradox of eternal contradiction..whether goals are too ambitious or lack thereof. Perhaps the solution lies in the fundamentals, i.e. re-examining of the company's 'business strategic plan' , the objectives, whether or not they are stil relevant ,or have they changed? Re-examine both long and short term goals, in particular the short term goals as they move you from the current to the 'desired state' which actually determines your progress and success. Are the short term goals achievable , do they need to be fine tuned made more focused , deciding at this stage critically whether to stretch or contain. I believe if as a result a sound consensus is achieved among the stakeholders, (owners and taskforce team) convincing the senior leadership thereafter should seem logical. Generally a lack of success in achieving the goals is attributed to the goals being 'unachievable' , albeit several other factors contribute to the success, e.g. implementation,measurement etc.