goals

Let’s stop setting Goals…

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Why we set up Goals? A simple answer is to be successful. If you are a sports-person winning the sport. If an entrepreneur then achieving a revenue level or key metrics.  And if a student aiming to excel in exams to get a good career.

At the same time, I am sure our fellow sports-person, business competitors, or classmates are also setting similar goals.

But only a few of us achieves these goals.  So what differentiates between setting Goals and achieving them –

The Systems(Process) is the differentiator, which we build consistently not Goals.

Here are few problems with setting Goals:

Winners and losers have the same Goals

Every Olympian participating wants to win gold, but only a few wins it. Every candidate wants to get a good job. And if successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals, then the goal by itself cannot be the differentiating factor between the winner and the losers.

It’s with the systems, the process that makes winners achieve their goals.

Achieving the goal brings only a momentary change

Imagine you worked hard and got your dream job, but after joining you got complacent in the job. As your performance drops, you start feeling frustrated and if you don’t mend ways soon you may have to leave the job.

Achieving the goal only changes our life momentarily. Maintaining that level or as we aspire more we need to be always performing or learning at that level, in fact, keep increasing our bar.

So Goal even if its achieved, is temporary, not a long-term achievement. 

Goal restricts our happiness and limits motivation

Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy. The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone. 

In this case happiness was always something for future self to enjoy. 

When all the hard work is focused on a particular goal, motivation to keep working hard drops once we achieve it. Whereas in life there is always the next level of aspirations.

If we enjoy the systems, the process we will be much happier and will be consistently achieving success.

Goals without Systems makes us dependent on luck

Without proper systems, we may achieve a goal or may not there is no surety. In the end, it’s about performance but unless we are sure about ourselves, it’s left to chance. Mentally it is accounted as being lucky if we achieve the goal or unlucky if not.

Edison’s failed 10,000 times before perfecting his electric bulb, do you think he was dependent on luck or goal setting? If he would not have followed the process diligently, again and again, it’s not possible to achieve such a feat.

Even luck favours Systems and Consistent hard work. 

So enjoy the process, build the systems and don’t worry about goals, it will follow you around.

Inspect what you expect…

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As a leader or manager, it’s puzzling and sometimes frustrating “why people do not do as expected”.
Even though we define clear goals and target numbers, it’s still not achieved.
Let’s look at some of the possible reasons & solutions.

#Miss-Communication:- Are we sure that goals and targets are clear to the individual. You should confirm that let’s ask the individual to repeat it in writing if possible. Not that you don’t trust, its just that it’s imperative to understand their clarity.

#How to Achieve? :- “What to Achieve” is clear, but what about the “How part”? Both the manager and the individual should have a fair understanding of how to reach the goal. This should give some confidence level on the achievement of the goal.

#Inspect what you expect:- This is the most critical step, to inspect what you are expecting at regular intervals. Check the status of the plan, where its reached, what are the bottlenecks etc and any glaring problems. Discuss with the individual to understand and help her if possible.

#Postmortem of past failures to learn:- Let’s learn from failures to ensure that in future we do not repeat the mistakes. Ask the individual to do the analysis and comeback with recommendations.

Overall “Inspect what you expect” at regular intervals to guide your team to achieve their goals.