This is the
time of year when people are trying to turn over a new leaf. The beginning of
the year marks a point where people make New Year’s Resolutions. Unfortunately,
many fail to keep those resolutions. In fact, 81 percent of resolution’s fail
within two years. The top New Year’s resolutions rarely change year to year.
The most popular typically revolve around losing weight, managing stress,
getting out of debt, quitting smoking, and learning a new skill.

Personally, I
recommend forgetting the whole concept of resolutions and concentrating on
setting goals instead. Resolutions and goal setting may seem similar, but
resolutions typically take a let’s start something and see what happens approach,
while goal setting is about planning a specific path to success.

Goal setting is
a process whereby you decide what you want to achieve and set up a plan to do
it.  The very first step of goal setting
is to, first, determine what you want at the end of the journey. That is your
ultimate destination.  Some people say
that goal setting is just a matter of sitting down and deciding what to
do.  If you fully intend to achieve your
goals, you should perceive goal setting as an extremely powerful process of personal
planning.

Here is my top
10 list of the ways I’ve seen goal setting go from ordinary to something useful
in aligning, enabling, and accelerating individual and organizational
performance.

1. Align to
   Company Mission – Goal setting, at its best, is used to align the individual
   goals to those of the organization, in support of executing on a competitive
   strategy in service of the organization’s mission. Make sure the individual
   goals are consistent with, aligned to, and enable the organizational strategy or
   that they are relevant to the organization’s mission. The natural flow is:
   Mission >> strategy >> objectives >> plans (budgets) >>
   capabilities >> performance >> behaviors. A great check to see if
   the behaviors enable better performance to achieve the strategy is to ask: “If
   this person delivers 1000% above their set goal, what difference will that make
   to the organization achieving its strategic goals?” If the answer is “nothing”
   or “not much” then you are either measuring the wrong goal or you may have to
   look at how that job is designed.
2. Manage Risk –
   The riskier we make goal setting and performance reviews, the more defensive
   the activity will become. This risk is where people will maximize their
   outcomes. If you have a risky environment where people who fail to meet their
   goals get fired then that will drive a defensive approach to goal setting
   (e.g., sandbagging or under-promising to then over-deliver). First, risk
   mitigation is to de-couple goal setting and performance reviews from
   compensation discussions. Yes, performance and compensation should be aligned.
   But we all recognize that more goes into compensation than just goal setting.
   The more tied to compensation, the more likely you are to see ‘gaming the
   system’ or other manipulation for personal maximization.
3. Fewer, Simpler,
   More Meaningful Metrics – We have a growing capability to measure a lot of
   things. That data can become overwhelming. Some of the best people who are
   measuring performance boil it down to one, two, or three key things. Too many
   metrics, too many goals and they will invariably come into conflict with one
   another or get so complicated in tracking that the marginal utility turns
   negative. Even people who measure a lot of things, over time will tend to
   simplify things into a primary measure with a few supporting measures. For
   example, Apple Watch uses 10,000 steps as a proxy for activity. It is not
   complete or definitive, but it is directionally correct, easy to remember, easy
   to monitor, and easy to action. There are hundreds of other metrics they could
   use.
4. Focus on
   Outcomes, not Activity – Goals should reflect the outcome we are trying to
   create. I ask clients which they would prefer: the person who accomplishes a
   task in 2 hours or the person who accomplishes an outcome in 20 hours? Let’s
   not reward activity. The goal should be SMART, but also reflect the outcome.
   SMART goals are specific, measurable, are attainable, relevant, and timely.
   Avoid counting hours or number of times attempted or other work-in-process
   indicators. What is the result you are looking for?
5. Understand Your
   Contribution – One of the most important elements in a goal setting
   conversation is the discussion to understand how well the person setting their
   goals really understands their context. How well is the company doing? What is
   their contribution to key processes? Are they part of a cost center or a profit
   center? What are the key things the organization competes on in the marketplace
   and what is their contribution to achieving that. Be sure to ask a number of
   questions to check their level of understanding. If they don’t understand the
   business, then that could be one of their goals.
6. Motivate, Not
   Discourage – Goal setting and performance management is an opportunity to build
   the capabilities of the people in the organization. Only in a few cases does
   being critical to a person become motivating to them. Those people tend to do
   well in athletics or the military. Most people work better from encouragement,
   mentoring, and guidance on what to do. Often simply stating the impact their
   actions or inactions have had are enough to motivate a desire to improve, then
   the focus can shift on helping them to improve. That help should start with
   building on what they are already doing well.
7. Be Aware of Set
   Backs – Goal setting usually involves doing something more or different or new.
   If it’s a case of doing something different or differently or new, as the
   reviewer you need to expect performance to drop initially. This effect – where
   performance degrades as the person tries new skills or behaviors, but
   eventually returns to baseline then improves – is called the J-curve. Putting
   in new systems in warehouses or data processing, we knew it would take 13 weeks
   of practicing the new way to get back to baseline and within 6 months there
   would be significant year-over-year improvement. So, build that learning time
   into the goal setting.
8. Behaviors are More
   Important than Numbers – When you are trying to adopt new ways of working or
   achieving higher performance, focus more on the demonstration of new behaviors
   and less on the actual performance metrics. When Harley-Davidson moved to a new
   production method in their York plant in 2009, the focus was on the behaviors,
   not on the metrics. They knew that if they focused on recognizing and acknowledging
   their team members doing the right things, then the performance metrics would
   eventually show that improvement. Simon Sinek has a great example about working
   out and eating healthy – if you look in the mirror every day after working out,
   you won’t see much progress, and you’d be tempted to say after a few days that
   it’s not working, even though there is long-term data that exercise and good
   diets promote health.
9. Vertical
   Accountability – Goal setting is as much about the person setting the goals as
   it is about the person they report to. Goal setting for the manager and
   executives should be aligned throughout the vertical reporting chain. Meaning,
   as a manager, one of my goals should be that my team members achieve their
   goals. Getting the boss invested in helping their team members succeed is an
   important way to gain alignment and support. If a manager has a team where no
   one meets their goals, chances are good that it’s not entirely the fault of the
   staff. Know what your boss’s boss’s boss’s priorities are. Even better is to
   hold the leaders accountable for their teams achieving their goals.
10. Increase the
    Frequency – Employees entering the workforce today are digital natives. They
    are used to getting things on-demand (e.g., Amazon, Google, YouTube, etc.).
    They are feedback intensive. They want to know if they are doing a good job –
    and they want to succeed. If they are working for you, and you are still
    reading this, chances are they (and you) did well in school. Digital natives
    had instant feedback and constant pressure to get an A in school. So, the more
    you can move goal setting and performance feedback from annual to quarterly to
    monthly to constant, the more they will benefit from those short conversations
    where you check in on their progress, ask them what help they want from you,
    and offer some suggestions. They will love the feedback and strive to achieve
    their goals and, in doing so, achieve your objectives, and in doing so, help
    the organization deliver on the strategy and serve their mission.

Goal achievement
is an art form and understanding and becoming proficient in all these steps of
goal setting will help you achieve the success you deserve and for which you
are striving. No strategy is set in stone, which makes the goal setting process
a dynamic endeavor. Consider yourself a coach on the sidelines, continuously
referring to playbooks and constantly re-evaluating strategies and players or
making adjustments at halftime. Set goals, and execute on them—but be sure to
evaluate those goals year-round, not solely during performance reviews. The
more you monitor individual objectives, the greater the likelihood that they
will be on target and fulfilled.