{"id":1363,"date":"2015-04-10T00:39:48","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T05:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=1363"},"modified":"2020-04-29T10:24:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T15:24:34","slug":"setting-powerful-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/setting-powerful-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting Powerful Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Editor\u2019s Note: Grant Stanley is a seasoned Business Coach and a Sales &amp; Marketing Expert with a 20+ year outstanding Sales and Marketing record. He is also an author on Flevy, where he has published materials from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/business-document\/business-basics-4178\">Business Fundamentals<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/business-document\/7-important-lessons-for-management-and-leadership-excellence-4169\">Management and Leadership Excellence<\/a>.\u00a0 Take a look at all of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/author\/CSMconsultants\">Grant\u2019s Flevy best practice documents here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>* * * *<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1364\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/goals-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"goals\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/goals-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/goals.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Goal setting and action planning is probably the most critical element of the coaching structure. By creating and writing goals down we are giving ourselves permission to make them happen. If we go one step further and articulate our goals to others we enlist their support and increase the chance of our goals happening.<\/p>\n<p>One word of warning \u2013 be careful what you ask for!!\u2026If you are focused and take action. You WILL achieve your goals \u2013 they just seem to happen around you\u2026<\/p>\n<p>When we set goals we should really consider all areas of our life as well as our corporate role \u2013 our Career, Finances, Health, Friends and Family, Significant other\/Romance, our Personal Growth, Fun and Recreation and our Physical environment.<\/p>\n<p>Some key points to remember when setting powerful goals:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goals can be \u2013 short, medium or long term<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Short Term Goals! \u2013 To be achieved within a couple of months<\/li>\n<li>Medium Term Goals! \u2013 To be achieved within the next 3 -12 months<\/li>\n<li>Long Term Goals! \u2013 To be achieved anytime from 1 year to 5+ years<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All goals should be <strong>SMARTER:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>S<\/strong><\/span>pecific<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>M<\/strong><\/span>easurable<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>A<\/strong><\/span>greed<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>R<\/strong><\/span>ealistic<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>T<\/strong><\/span>ime phased<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>E<\/strong><\/span>xpressed positively<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>R<\/strong><\/span>ecorded and Reviewed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So for example you may have a goal as follows:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to deliver this project on time and in budget.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A SMARTER would be: \u201cOn March 31st 2013 our new project went live. There were no hitches and the transition was seamless. This was 12 days ahead of schedule and we are already seeing an increase in productivity as a result of the new systems. We achieved this by introducing weekly planning meetings and working with our suppliers to quickly resolve problems that were slowing us down. We also came in 3% under budget, which has allowed us to upgrade our office computers with the monies saved. I feel motivated to further increase productivity next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This goal is expressed positively and in the present (i.e. as if it has actually happened) and there are also associated positive outcomes and benefits with achieving this goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some Useful Tips<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Buy a special \u201cGoal\u201d book to write all your goals in<\/p>\n<p>2. Review your Goals regularly \u2013 at least weekly, ideally daily<\/p>\n<p>3. Create a small index card note of powerful questions to ask yourself that will drive you towards your goals. Keep this card with you so that you may refer to it often.<\/p>\n<p>Examples of powerful questions for the above goal:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat improvements can I make to my time management?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat specific actions can I take to aid problem solving with our suppliers?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat works well that I could do more of to deliver this goal?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s Note: Grant Stanley is a seasoned Business Coach and a Sales &amp; Marketing Expert with a 20+ year outstanding Sales and Marketing record. He is also an author on Flevy, where he has published materials from\u00a0Business Fundamentals\u00a0to\u00a0Management and Leadership Excellence.\u00a0 Take a look at all of\u00a0Grant\u2019s Flevy best practice documents here. * * *&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/setting-powerful-goals\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Setting Powerful Goals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[719,717,718],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate-communications","tag-action-planning","tag-goal-setting","tag-smarter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6666,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions\/6666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}