If Your Goals Fall Flat – Turn them into Objectives
(This article is inspired by a colleague in the leadership space, Sean McPheat.)
Around this time of year, many of us are frustrated with our progress. If you are like me, you spent some time at the end of the last year thinking about what objectives you had for the coming year.
Then time, energy, circumstance, and unforeseen events do what they do best; mess with our goals. We had great intentions, and maybe an inspiring team meeting the first week of January to get us on the same page. But by mid-year, our goals may feel like fuzzy objects somewhere ahead on a foggy day.
A goal is oftentimes defined in numbers or specific accomplishments. By using the concept of objectives, we adapt our specific planned goals or targets and replace them with the overall or final outcome we want to manifest in our work. It’s a broader stroke, not so finite. And not so fragile! If the detailed goals are not met, but the final objective is accomplished in a different or adapted fashion, we still are the winners!
Let’s remind ourselves of some of the secrets to accomplishing our overall objectives.
Start with Being Realistic in Your Targeted Outcome (Objectives)
Goals are similar to New Year’s resolutions in that they are often set but rarely carried out. That is because most of us create unrealistic goals for ourselves, which we don’t have the willpower or the necessary resources to materialize. Whether it is learning a new software system in a crash course before the big meeting, or receiving a promotion within the next calendar year, many of the goals we set for ourselves rely on elements that are out of our control. Often we set expectations that are not physically achievable in the allotted time.
The trick to achieving goals is to set realistic ones in the first place. Consider how much time you have, your history with creating similar goals, and the probability of you carrying out the task in the first place.
Use objectives to define the final outcome you are hoping to achieve and make a plan in advance to alter your goals as necessary to see the desired result.
Break up the Objectives into Smaller Parts – Goals Which Can Adapt as Necessary
If the goals you set for yourself are too broad, or take an exhausting amount of time to come to fruition, determine smaller steps to build confidence in your ability to succeed.
Let’s face it, your team (and you) like instant gratification. Without a win, anyone can get discouraged and lose motivation. We need to reach targets. So instead of 10 gigantic targets, consider 50 or even 100 small steps that are consistently met and ticked off the “to-do” list.
In today’s management terms, we might call that “chunking.”
If you have a large report to do at work, break it up into daily tasks to stay on top of it. This can include creating an outline, gathering materials, finding images, and devoting a day to writing each chapter of the report.
When we can cross a task off our to-do list, even if that task is small, it gives us a boost of motivation to keep going and achieve the final result.
Modify!
If this year 2020 has taught us anything, it has made the folly of our efforts to control our goals almost laughable. Few of us have had the ease of things going as planned. Even for businesses who by the very nature of their commerce, have benefited in these erratic times, the demands of such success may not have been on the proposed agenda.
This is where objectives are so helpful. If you know the final outcome you want to realize, you can adapt the goals or modify your targets and still arrive at the same destination. When we travel to a critical business presentation and follow the Google map, it may not have prepared us for the miles of traffic jam resulting from a stalled vehicle. What do we do? Simple. We find an alternative route and reach our destination in a different direction. We still made the presentation and met with the CEO of “That Business We Want” for lunch afterward. The objective was accomplished. The path was modified.
Ask Questions of Progress
There are so many factors that we cannot control in our daily lives. It is crucial to re-evaluate goals to make sure that they are still relevant, and we still have the time and resources to achieve them.
Just because you have not completed the goal at the desired time, don’t necessarily abandon it; instead, you need to give yourself more time to complete it.
If you notice that you are having a hard time completing an objective, consider what is getting in your way.
Is it due to a lack of free time, expertise, or merely the desire? What can you change in your objective to make it easier for you to make it happen?
The more questions you ask yourself and the more effort you put into modifying goals, the more chances you will give yourself and your team to turn them into reality.
Thank you!
Thank you to every subscriber! We feel privileged to mail 1800 people every week with leadership ideas. Our readers are mostly in supervisory, managerial, or leadership positions – or aspire to be. What a great objective to practice with!
