Goals Need a Plan: The Essential Steps
Goal setting is essential for success, but are you missing crucial steps in the process? In this episode you will learn how to break down your goals into actionable steps, track your progress, and make adjustments along the way. Andrea and Michelle discuss the importance of creating a recipe for achieving your goals. Emphasizing the value of writing down your goals, establishing deadlines, and communicating with others for accountability.
Takeaways
Establishing goals is essential for success.
Writing down goals increases accountability.
Involving the team in goal planning enhances engagement.
Regular check-ins are crucial for tracking progress.
Identifying necessary resources is key to achieving goals.
Monthly reviews help keep goals on track.
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Goals Need a Plan: The Essential Steps
We all know the feeling of starting a new year, a new quarter, or even just a Monday morning–we're brimming with motivation and ready to conquer our goals. But as the weeks pass, our initial enthusiasm wanes, and our ambitious targets start to feel more like distant dreams.
Why do so many people struggle to achieve their goals, even when they're genuinely committed to them? The answer often lies in the absence of a well-defined goal-setting framework.
At Revela, we believe that having a framework for goal setting is crucial not just for individuals but for teams and organizations as a whole. In this episode of our podcast, The Leadership Hustle, hosts Andrea Fredrickson and Michelle Hill break down the common pitfalls of traditional goal setting and offer a practical roadmap for achieving goals.
The Problem with Traditional Goal Setting
Traditional goal setting often sets us up for failure. As Fredrickson points out, many people simply "identify a goal" without creating a "recipe" for achieving it. This lack of planning, documentation, and regular review hinders progress and leads to frustration.
Hill adds, "We don't spend a lot of time thinking about…how do I want to get there?...what's the current state…what are going to be…the next best steps." This highlights the common pitfalls of traditional goal-setting strategies:
Lack of a Concrete Plan: Simply stating a goal – like "increase sales by 20%" – without outlining the specific steps involved is like setting off on a journey without a map.
Failing to Document: Not writing down goals and action steps makes them easily forgotten among the daily whirlwind of tasks and responsibilities.
Insufficient Review: Life throws curveballs, so we need regular check-ins and adjustments to correct and adapt to changing circumstances.
Poor Communication: Failing to communicate goals and progress in a team setting creates confusion, reduces accountability, and makes collaboration challenging.
Introducing the Goal-Setting Framework
To overcome these challenges, Frederickson and Hill propose a goal-setting framework emphasizing planning, action, and communication. Here's a breakdown of the essential steps:
Step 1: Define and Document Your Goals
As Fredrickson emphasizes, "One of the most important things about goals is not only establishing the goal, getting it written down, but writing down the path of how you're going to get there."
Writing down your goals is the first step towards making them real and involves the following “mini steps:”
Creating a "Recipe": To achieve your goal, create a detailed "recipe" that outlines the necessary resources and action steps, such as market research or product development, just as you would for a dish you want to make.
Setting Target Dates and Deadlines: Establish a realistic timeline with specific progress milestones by breaking down larger goals into smaller, more manageable chunks and setting deadlines for each one.
Documenting Potential Barriers: Anticipate potential roadblocks—such as budget constraints, competitor activity, or resource limitations—and develop strategies to overcome them.
Step 2: Involve Your Team
When setting team goals, involve everyone in the planning process. This fosters a sense of ownership and encourages buy-in. Hill highlights the importance of this, stating, "If it's a goal that the team is going to accomplish…involving them in the process of the planning" increases engagement and generates diverse perspectives.
By bringing everyone to the table, you can leverage their collective knowledge and experience to create a more effective plan.
Step 3: Allocate Resources
Identify and allocate the necessary resources for each goal. This might include financial resources, personnel, technology, or time. Fredrickson uses a compelling analogy: "If I'm creating a recipe, what are the resources I need? I need a stove that works, the pan, the ingredients, [and] time."
Similarly, achieving your goals requires having the right resources in the right place at the right time. Prioritize and allocate resources strategically to ensure that your team has what it needs to succeed.
Step 4: Establish a Cadence for Review
Regular progress check-ins are essential to stay on track and maintain momentum. We recommend the following periodic assessments:
Weekly/Bi-weekly: Review KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to monitor progress toward your goals. These might include sales figures, website traffic, customer satisfaction scores, or project completion rates. Regularly tracking these metrics provides valuable insights into what's working and what needs adjustment.
Monthly: Conduct more in-depth monthly reviews to assess overall progress, identify any roadblocks or challenges, and adjust your plans as needed. This is an opportunity to celebrate successes, address concerns, and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Quarterly: Step back and take a broader view every quarter. Revisit your initial assumptions, make any necessary course corrections, and incorporate learning from the previous months. This allows you to adapt to market changes, refine your strategies, and stay ahead of the curve.
Overcoming Obstacles to Goal Achievement
Even with a solid framework for goal setting, challenges can arise that slow down, or derail, our progress. As Fredrickson and Hill discuss, proactively addressing these challenges is crucial for success. Here are some common obstacles and solution recommendations:
Lack of Prioritization: Use time management techniques like the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize tasks, focus on activities that significantly impact your goals, and avoid getting bogged down in urgent but less important tasks.
Procrastination: To make daunting deadlines less overwhelming, break large tasks into smaller steps with individual deadlines, fostering consistent progress toward your overall goal.
Distractions: To maintain focus and achieve your goals, create a dedicated workspace, minimize distractions like notifications and social media, and learn to decline non-essential commitments.
Inability to Say "No": To avoid burnout and stay focused on your own goals, practice setting boundaries and politely declining requests that don't align with your priorities, even when you want to be helpful.
Lack of Accountability: To foster a culture of accountability and achieve team success, establish clear expectations, provide regular feedback, and create a safe space for open communication about progress and challenges.
Supportive Team Environment: To move toward goals confidently, all team members must feel safe admitting vulnerability and asking for help when needed.
The Power of Communication and Cascading Goals
Clear communication is the lifeblood of any successful team or organization. Regular updates keep everyone informed about progress, challenges, and any changes to the plan. This can be done through regular meetings, email updates, or project management tools.
Connect individual goals to team goals and overall company objectives. This creates a sense of shared purpose and ensures everyone is working towards a common vision.
And when sharing progress, don't just report the numbers. Explain what they mean in the context of your goals, how they compare to previous performance, and what actions you'll take based on the data.
Bringing it All Together: From Plans to Progress
At Revela, we believe that achieving your goals requires more than just setting them. It demands a structured goal-setting framework incorporating planning, action, and communication.
Want to learn more about how Revela Group can help your business? Connect with us!
Listen to other episodes of The Leadership Hustle podcast for more insights and in-depth discussions about improving your workplace culture and leadership.
About the Hosts
Andrea Fredrickson
Andrea Fredrickson is a thought leader and consultant at Revela, an organization based in Omaha, Nebraska specializing in the development of leaders, culture alignment, and business strategy for private and family businesses of all sizes. Revela is one of the region's most experienced thought challengers, helping individuals and companies find their greatness. Andrea has built an amazing team by believing that fundamentally people want to be successful and become better versions of themselves.
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Andrea has degrees in education, management, and business. She is the author of Insight Unseen; How to lead with 20/20 business vision. She helps people see things differently, self-reflect, and never stop looking for ways to improve themselves on a personal and professional level. Andrea has spent more than 30 years researching and developing methods to help people communicate and lead more effectively.
When Andrea isn’t working with clients, you’ll find her spending time with her family & friends and making memories by exploring new cities.
Michelle Hill
Michelle Hill is a master facilitator and coach at Revela, an organization specializing in the development of leaders and aligning the culture of privately held and family businesses of all sizes. Revela is one of the region's most experienced thought challengers, helping individuals and companies find their greatness.
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An ambitious leader, Michelle has the natural ability to create forward momentum to build teams and get results. She inspires others to look within themselves and to challenge the status quo. She helps create high-performing environments. Michelle brings a diverse background: operations, employee development, and sales in the steel, hospitality, and consulting industries.
Outside of work, you will see her competitive side engaged in her daughter’s sports and ISU athletics. She loves life, her four-legged companions, and captures all the moments through her camera’s lens.
TRANSCRIPT
Andrea Fredrickson: On this episode of The Leadership Hustle, we're going to talk about what you're missing when you're setting your goals. Hello, and welcome to the Leadership Hustle for executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready. Hi there, and welcome back to this episode of The Leadership Hustle. I'm Andrea Frederickson.
Michelle Hill: I'm Michelle Hill.
Andrea Fredrickson: And we're here today to talk about goals. And I say that I'm like, oh, I was going to say something really exciting. I think goals can be really exciting. There's a lot of people that get excited about establishing goals just randomly throughout the years. Some people do it at the beginning of their calendar or fiscal year. Some people do them in a variety of different ways, but I am amazed at the number of people that will establish a goal.