Learn to Esatblish Your Goals

I can not recall the amount of times that I have sat down to write my goals and have just ended up writing a to-do list instead. Goal setting can be a difficult task if you are not sure of how you will achieve what you want to achieve. When setting goals we must remember what Anatole France said “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe”. When setting goals within a company all that are involved in the company need to be aware of these goals. Goals that are set up between a manager and an employee need to be established and agreed on. These goals need to be measurable and as strange as it may sound they need to be difficult. The employee is there because they are getting paid to perform to a certain level and if they do not then tell them goodbye. Setting goals with employees is all about stretching their capabilities in order to deflect burnout and boredom. As an employee you need to remember that the name of the game is communication. You need to translate the goals to the employee’s level. These goals need to be challenging enough to motivate and specific enough to measure. Too many organisations will fail in fulfilling their goals as they forget or do not know how to establish goals up front. I am certain that you will be able to relate to this in some way? What needs to be structured first is clarifying the goals, mission, values and visions of the organisation down to a tactical level. That vision now has to be implemented to the individuals. This is a discussion that needs to be clarified and thrashed out by both employee and employer. Establish what the employer is doing well and where they need to go. The next part of establishing your goals is to define the specifics of how you are going to do it as one of the greatest challenges that I have come across on Training courses is that the goals have not been specific enough. What you need to do is write clear performance standards which will answer how you will produce the results that you are planning. Here you also need to discuss what key roles and competencies that this person will need to meet. Under each of these elements you need to decide what will be needed in order to achieve a high level of performance within these elements, such as what would be needed to perform a high level of teamwork. Once this has been recognised be sure to facilitate the right skills that are needed to gain these agreed goals. Through creating appropriate, measurable and achievable targets you are half way to attaining these goals. Through Training courses I always advise the client to write up and sign the agreed goals so that that it is put in writing and not forgotten.