What is Your Strategy When Setting Goals?

Goal-setting is a very popular topic. With each new month, or quarter, or year, there is an opportunity to initiate change, raise the bar, create new challenges, make things happen.

You get the idea. Companies decide they want to increase sales. Improve margins. Develop new marketing plans. Introduce new product lines. Open new locations.

The problem here is that most goals are nothing of the sort. In most cases, they are good intentions at best. At worst, they are simply pipe dreams.

It reminds me of something Willie Nelson once said. He owns a ranch outside of Austin he calls “Luck.” According to Nelson, “You’re either in Luck, or you’re out of Luck.” Which sounds like most goal-setting.

When people fall short of their alleged “goals,” they blame circumstances. But when others reach their goals, they cite their lucky breaks.

Goals vs. Numbers

So, which of the following two statements are most likely to result in progress?

  1. I need to start running (or its distant cousin: I need to lose weight).
  2. I will run a 5K by November 12 in 30 minutes or less. To do so, I will run two miles immediately after work, three times per week, in 20 minutes or less, for eight weeks. I will record my times and assess my progress weekly

Upon close inspection, the first statement is little more than a dream. Optimistically, it only qualifies as a good idea. But, sadly, many people would call it a goal.

The second statement, however, is a definite goal. It’s specific. Measurable. Time-based. Even more importantly, there is a plan attached. And that, in a nutshell, is the difference between success and failure in goal-setting.

To reach an objective of any complexity requires a clear and specific understanding of how that objective will actually be reached. Successful goal-setters don’t simply visualize the objective, they create a detailed, step-by-step, measurable process for reaching that objective.

The same problem occurs in the corporate world. Instead of a specific objective and detailed plans, the company gets a number to shoot for.

Someone at the top decides on a lofty objective – a 20% increase in sales, for example – and they encourage everyone to do their part to make it happen.

In some cases, there may even be a “strategic planning” session where key personnel debate a number of tactics that may (or may not) help the company reach the objective.

The problem is that a number is not a strategy. In fact, a number is not even a goal until you put a plan behind it. Until then, it’s a hope and a prayer.

So stop hoping and praying. Set specific, measurable, time-based goals that have a plan attached.

 

Kelly Riggs_head shot

About Kelly Riggs

Kelly Riggs is an author, speaker, and business performance coach for executives and companies throughout the United States and Canada. He has worked with companies in a wide variety of industries, with sales revenues ranging from $3 million to Fortune 500.

He is a two-time national Salesperson-of-the-Year with well over two decades of executive management and training experience. His background as a coach, and an owner or partner in four different business ventures has helped him to create a wildly successful track record of helping individuals and business owners dramatically improve their business performance.

Kelly has written two books: “1-on-1 Management: What Every Great Manager Knows That You Don’t” and “Quit Whining and Start SELLING! A Step-by-Step Guide to a Hall of Fame Career in Sales”.

Learn more from Kelly Riggs by clicking here and following him on Twitter.


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