Do You Suck at Setting Goals? Stop Sucking on this Key Principle of Effective Leadership

The story has been told of the young man who took his archery set out in the field behind the barn. After carefully taking aim and launching his quiver full of arrows at the barn wall, he walked up to the barn, took a can of red paint, and painted targets around each arrow. Celebrating his excellent marksmanship, he entered a local competition and was soundly defeated, unable to hit any of the targets.

Leaders often find themselves in crisis management, reacting to the situations around them (i.e. Firefighting). Often this is because of a lack of clearly communicated goals and objectives. If we as leaders do our job first and then paint targets second, it’s bound to look as though we succeeded (even if we didn’t accomplish anything of value). If we properly paint our targets first, we will have a much better chance at achieving  our goals.

Effective Leadership Understands the Value of Goals

A key component of effective leadership is to identify and communicate the key goals and objectives of the organization.  Here are some tips for setting goals:

• Mission Driven: Goals should clearly fit into the overall mission and purpose of the organization.  Team members need to understand how their responsibilities fit into the larger picture.
• Measurable: Goals should be specific and quantifiable.  Nebulous goals leave employees uncertain of their success and always hoping that they are on track with your expectations.
• Attainable: It is OK to reach for the stars, but if it is impossible to reach, we’ll achieve nothing more than to maintain the status-quo.  However, you want to make sure that your team members know that the goals are attainable, and that you will support them in accomplishing the goal.
• Controllable: The best goals are the ones in which we control the outcome.  Instead of setting a goal to grow your customer base by 10 new clients; set the goal to contact 40 potential clients,  make 30 presentations, send 30 care-packages, etc… By setting the right small steps, you can practically guarantee the success of a higher goal, i.e. closing 10 clients. Completing the goal is entirely within the realm of your control, as it doesn’t rely on the potential customer’s response.

Communicate your goals often, and be sure to support your team members and celebrate their successes (no matter how small).  Incorporate team members in the creation of these goals, so that they have ownership in the process. You might consider reading up on SMART Goals as well.

Continuing The Conversation on Developing Effective Leadership Through Goals

The Ultimate Personal Annual Success Plan for achieving your goals is meant to help individuals create greater success in 2013 and it really is an awesome format for defining, tracking and achieving greater success. Get it before the price goes-up. For organizations please check out my workshops and consulting.

Have you successfully changed the culture of your organization through effective goal setting?  Have you ever fired first and painted targets second? Please share your thoughts below.