Goal Setting
Goal Setting in Leadership
As leaders, we will often have to find a balance between personal and team goals
Goal setting holds valuable places in the success of our teams and organizations
Effective leaders place an emphasis on goal setting for two reasons:
◦ Helps leaders maintain a high-level performance
◦ Sparks high performance in team members/employees
High Performance in Leaders
Helps leaders focus on what really matters – the big picture
or vision that they want to get to
Focused around clear and specific goals that provide balance
and perspective in life
◦ Ex. Small problems seem less troublesome because they are
framed in the context of a larger vision
◦ Ex. Personal health and well-being are worth more than making
a quick buck
High Performance in Leaders
In positions of leadership, you need to have true sense of purpose that drives motivation over
longer periods of time.
Leaders are held accountable for their commitment and motivation often simply to themselves,
but they are also responsible for the engagement and motivation of your team
Making goal setting a practice and not a one-time affair reminds us of the long-term visions that
require updating, revision and resilience
High Performance in Leaders
To put in practice, a leader should:
◦ Define the biggest goals that are
important to them
◦ Remind themselves of the goal on a
daily basis
◦ Constantly revise tactics and strategies
to reach the goal in the face of
obstacles
High Performance in Teams
Commonly used “carrot and stick” methods have a negative impact
on tasks that require creative thinking and actually add more stress
Instead, the goal of leaders should be to support teams by working
toward:
◦ Autonomy
◦ Mastery
◦ Purpose
Leading companies use goal setting as a motivational tool – people
have autonomy to choose goals and determine how, where, and what
they do to achieve them – as long as they are completed
High Performance in Teams
To put in practice, leadership should:
◦ Understand the harmful effects of stress on creativity and problem-solving ability
◦ Empower employees through autonomy in goal setting
Beyond day to day tasks, leaders also need to identify a driving purpose to their team – where
are we heading and why does it matter?
◦ Define a clear and specific vision that is big and compelling to serve as the ultimate and unchanging goal
◦ Break it down into smaller milestones with clear deadlines to create urgency
◦ Define obstacles and set actions to overcome them
Goal-Setting Theory
When it is obvious that the goals
cannot be reached, don’t adjust
the goals, adjust the action steps.
-Confucius, 551-479 B.C.
Goal Setting Theory
In the 1960, Edwin Locke and Gary Latham
developed a prominent goal setting theory
Demonstrated that employees (team members) are
motivated by clear, well-defined goals and feedback
People are also motived by some challenge
Setting a
Challenge
Challenging goals encourage motivation
and effort
Goals should push us beyond our
comfort zone but not push us into our
“Fear Zone”
The ideal place for us to be is in the
Learning and Growth Zones. This means
we must be self-aware (personal goals)
and socially aware (team goals) –
emotional intelligence
Goal Setting Theory
According to Locke, for goal-setting to be successful, they must contain:
◦ Clarity – specific goals
◦ Challenging – difficult yet attainable
◦ Goals must be accepted
◦ Feedback must be provided on goal attainment
◦ Goals are more effective when used to evaluate performance
◦ Deadlines improve effectiveness of goals
◦ Group goal setting is as important as individual goal setting
Setting Positive Goals
Depending on how goals are framed, they can have specific effects on a person’s
learning process and performance
Negatively framed goals emphasize how a person should avoid losses/failure:
◦ For the next year, stop myself from gaining weight
◦ Prevent my grades from falling below 80%
This approach tends to be ineffective and degrading – results in anxiety, poorer
performance, lower persistence as compared to those with a positive outlook
◦ I will live a more healthy lifestyle
◦ I will finish the semester on the Dean’s List
Setting Positive Goals
Frese at al. developed the concept of “error management”
◦ Reframe errors or setbacks at learning opportunities and natural parts of a learning process
◦ Discouraging “fear-based” environments encourage people to try again
Goal setting is not a straightforward process and people need to feel like they can
fail and try again as opposed to giving up on their goals
Environments with positive goals tend to see higher energy, creativity, and
motivation
SMART Goals
SMART Goal Setting
This model reflects many of the findings outlined in
Locke’s Goal Setting Theory and helps create a simplified
and systemic approach to goal setting
Some argue that SMART goals setting lacks flexibility
needed for long-term goal setting as things can change
while you are working toward your goal
This model is no guarantee for success but it does offer a
more clear approach to effective goal setting.
What is a
SMART
Goal?
