When I started out in sales, I worked for a manager I’ll call “Jim.” One of my goals at the time was to find a mentor, to learn from someone with experience in the industry. I thought I’d found that mentor in Jim, until I learned his goal was to retire in three years. Nothing wrong with that, except that Jim focused all his time and energy on his impending retirement in a nice house on a golf course, not on his job.
You might think it’s silly to even try to define a goal, and that’s okay. I thought I knew the definition of a goal until I spoke with a motivational coach. He told me that only 2% of the population has goals. With that, a debate began.
The process of writing down our goals forces us to transform our vague desires into concrete objectives.
Specific goals help us focus our energy and make the most of how we spend our time. Rather than saying, “I want to make my life better,” set specific goals such as, “I want to purchase a condominium on the beach,” or “I want to have two kids.”
If our goals aren’t measurable, how will we know when we’ve reached them? Examples of measurable goals include “I want to lose 15 pounds” or “I want to sell $2 million worth of products.”
We must put our goals in terms of time; otherwise we might put them off indefinitely. The time frame for one of your goals could be anywhere from one week to twenty years or more. The important thing is to have a deadline—and stick to it!
* “I have a goal to produce $2 million in the next fiscal year through sales of my new product.”
* “My goal is to own a three-bedroom vacation home at the beach by the summer of 2010.”
* “I have a goal to open up 15 new franchise locations of my business in the next five years.”
* Now that you know the difference between goals and dreams, do a personal inventory.
What are your goals? You need a picture of where you want yourself and others to go. At work, this will help maximize your efforts and determine what you need from your employees.
Questions to help you delineate your goals:
* “What’s my vision of the future?”
* “Where do I picture myself three years from today?”
* “How will others perceive me in the future? My boss, my peers, my family?”
* “What has to happen in the next two years for me to be happy with my progress?”
* “What visual image do I have for my team? What visual image do I have for my company?”
* “How do I want to be perceived by my customers? My employees?”
* “How would my boss define me in one sentence?”
* “What excites me most about my job? What do I want to do more of/less of/stop doing altogether, so I can achieve what’s important to me? To my team? To my company?”
* “Which mountain do I want to climb?”
* “What’s my definition of success?”
* “What benchmarks do I need to achieve in order to feel successful?”
* “What actions do I need to perform on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to achieve my goals?”
* “What areas of my job should I focus on in order to have the most impact on my staff?”
* “Where do I need to prioritize to insure my success? My team’s success?”
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