“Where has the summer gone?” many people are asking, most notably those parents preparing their children for school, whether post-secondary or otherwise. The cycle of preparing children for their upcoming year and related goal setting for homework, work and play times begins again to move forward at a higher level (one hopes!) the next year.
Additionally for many business people it is another fiscal budget year being prepared. As with school, the cycle begins anew for a serious look at current facility maintenance, proposed customer and/or competitive aquisition, and realistic employee recruitment, training and benefit costs to translate into savings for shareholder profitability.
In business one also needs to set out personal goals whether recognized annually during the performance review cycle or in individual areas such as an achievement of certification in a specific area of focus.
When reviewing what one wants to achieve in the upcoming year one needs to know how to set realistic goals in such a way to not be overwhelmed. Whether for school, business, or personal endeavours, here are few simple things to remember before one goes about goal setting:
1. Clarity
Remember that diamonds, more than their cut, are greater prized and treasured for their clarity. Diamonds with yellow, blue ang green hues are simply alluring. But ‘alluring’ is not what to do with your business goal. One wants and needs a business plan that is clear from the onset, in order for the cumulative internal factors that make up your business run smoothly.
2. Realistic and Results-Oriented
Remember Enron, World Corp and News Corp? Being subject to “willful blindness” is not a viable option.
A hundred theories have been presented trying to explain why such situations happened, but if everything was based on rhetoric, then one really doesn’t progress. Whatever goal being set out must be tangible and concrete, that may be proudly present to everyone with the full expectation of being realized.
Setting out unrealistic goals puts everyone in harms way where there is potential that shareholders are not realizing their full value for a dollar, and ultimately may result in the shutdown of the business.
3. Write it Down
Determine where the company should be and what it will look like for the next year. Effective business goal setting needs to be detailed and put into writing to give a concrete basis for further review in the future. This is helpful to review later on for the ideas and/or assumptions made during the goal setting phase when that ‘eureka’ moment happened.
4. Use Active Words
Active words are not limited to authors writing novels. In order to capture any goal the use of active words and sentences will give direct responsibility for those involved. Statements such as, “My company will capture this particular market by the middle of next year”, and not, “This particular market will be captured by my company by the middle of next year” show how one intends to breathe action and life into the business goal.
5. Smaller Goals Complement Bigger Goals
The smaller goal will help you achieve the ultimate goal of your business, by providing the step by step actions leading to the ultimate plan. By doing this, one will also see more clearly the initial errors inherent with an imperfect plan. In the process, it becomes clear what actions are effective and what are not.
6. Employ Fellow Visionaries
People who share your dreams and ideas may not share your concept on how to do things but if these people share your vision they will at least give potential alternative routes in reaching one’s goal(s). These alternative routes represent their own view with the world and their belief in doing things.
Following this process will give one the chance to improve ideas to fulfillment and review of any plan or business goal. Do revisions as needed depending on changes one encounters as the plan progresses, and when there are changes, big or small, accept them wholeheartedly. This is what effective goal setting is all about.