GREAT LEADERS WELCOME 2015 WITH GOALS SET!

The great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said that, “A goal properly set is halfway reached”. As we welcome the new year, Great Leaders will ask themselves these questions …

  • Are the goals I’ve set clear in my mind? Great Leaders recognize that, first, they must have a clear vision of the future that they want to create. This cannot be a collection of vague ideas. The Great Leader must have the clarity of thought to know precisely what they desire the future to look like.
  • Am I communicating my vision clearly and with specificity? Great Leaders understand that, having been given the privilege of leading a team, they now have the responsibility to deliver specific goals and objectives. They cannot allow team members to wander aimlessly in the wilderness of generalities that is populated with only the current industry buzzwords. The Great Leader must communicate their vision with clarity and in sufficient detail that team members can see themselves turning that vision into a reality. In essence, they empower the team members to feel the warmth of the goal attainment sun on their faces long before they complete the journey … they can smell the sweet smell of success that beckons them onward.
  • Do I have a road map in my mind that tells me what steps must be taken in order to traverse the path between vision and reality? If the Great Leader is to guide the team, he or she must know how to get from Point A (the vision) to Point B (making that vision a reality). Like the captain of a sailing vessel, the Great Leader must be able to identify the correct route and ensure that it is taken. There must be a specific course set and adhered to; no orders to the helmsman to set a course “thataway”.
  • Have I delegated tasks to the people most qualified to perform them? COREMAP shows us that each personality type has strengths and weaknesses that can significantly impact job performance. For example, if the job requires close attention to detail, it is probably best to assign that responsibility to an individual who has an Organizer personality (lives for policies and procedures that make certain that the job is done right) rather than to the person with a Commander personality (sees the “big picture” and prefers not to deal with details) or the person who has an Entertainer personality (may or may not know where to find the details). If the team has a number of clashing personalities, the Great Leader knows the importance of including a person who has a Relater personality, someone who is skilled at helping team members find common ground and building consensus.

Great Leaders will ask and answer these questions; make adjustments as needed, and then, monitor progress toward the goal. With these questions answered, the Great Leader has taken the all-important first steps toward reaching the goals and turning the vision into reality. Make 2015 your best year ever!

Have you set your goals? Care to share? Click “comment” to share your goals for 2015 and how you will turn those goals into reality.

Tom Hoisington is a speaker, trainer, and author whose goal is to provide leaders and potential leaders with tools that empower them to build teams that are creative and cost effective along with a clearer understanding of how personality types interact within those teams. He can be contacted at tom.hoisington@eagleoneresources.com

What Are the Key Ingredients When a Great Leader is Setting Goals?

Great Leaders face the end of the current year with a mixture of emotions. They feel a sense of nostalgia as they look back at the year that is ending. They feel pride in the accomplishments that have been recorded. They feel humbled by the recognition that, perhaps, not every goal has been reached (yet). They feel gratitude for the efforts of others that made goal attainment possible. They feel optimism that the coming year will bring new accomplishments and achievements. They feel excitement for the challenges ahead.

As we anticipate the coming of the New Year on Wednesday night, let’s take a few minutes to look at the goals we’ve set and the key ingredients that are needed if we are to reach the goals that we’ve established.

  • Have the goals been written down and made public? Great Leaders know that goal attainment requires some form of accountability. A quick search of the internet will yield a multitude of websites designed to help us set goals.  Some tell us to write them down on a piece of paper.  Others instruct us to record them in a page on-line.  Still others will suggest that we post them on one or more of our social media pages.  Whichever method we choose, the important thing is that we have them written down someplace so that we can see them regularly.  Making them public doesn’t necessarily mean that they must be posted to social media; but, it is important that others know about them and will hold us accountable for them. Remember that every Great Leader is accountable to someone or somebody; a Board of Directors perhaps. For our accountability partners to be able to hold us accountable for the goals we set, they must know what those goals are.
  • Are the goals we’ve set believable? For a goal to truly motivate us, we have to believe that we can achieve it.  W. Clement Stone wrote that, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”.  To believe, we must be able to visualize ourselves reaching the goal and feeling the satisfaction that will come with the achievement.
  • Are the goals we’ve set specific? Goals that are vague aren’t really goals.  They are vague suggestions that provide no ultimate end point. To be truly motivating, the goals we set must be very specific. If the goal is to purchase a new car, the goal should specify not only the year, make, and model. It needs to specify the color, the options, the interior finish; everything about the car down to and including that “new car smell”.
  • Is the goal measurable? For a goal to truly motivate us, we have to be able to see how we’re progressing toward it and to know when we’ve reached it.  Let’s assume that the goal is to create an emergency fund that has 2 months of actual living expenses in it.  Since we know that our basic living expenses are $2,000 each month, we know that we need $4,000 in the fund.  Each month, we deposit $167 into the account and, when we get our bank statement, we can see the balance increasing by not only the deposits we make but by the addition of interest as well.  Viewing the increasing balance each month allows us to measure our progress toward reaching the goal.
  • Does the goal challenge us? Our goals need to be big enough to make us stretch.  Doing just enough to get by may keep our heads above water, but it won’t help us grow.  The sales person who knows that by doing the same thing every year he/she can reach his/her quota won’t grow and advance.  But, the sales person who challenges himself/herself to increase sales by an amount that requires a bit more effort is the person who rises to the top of the organization; both in terms of professional responsibilities and financially.
  • Does the goal inspire us? As the great motivational speaker Jim Rohn once suggested, setting the goal of earning enough money to pay our bills may be a goal, but it seldom inspires anyone.  Goals that inspire us to “go the extra mile” lead us to greatness.
  • Does the goal have a deadline? My first agency manager, Ray, told everyone that “goals are simply dreams with deadlines”. “Someday” is not a deadline.  “Someday” is a dream … an illusion … a mirage that may appear to be leading us somewhere we want to go; but, is really leading us to nowhere. Goals with specific deadlines help us see exactly where we are and how close we are to reaching the desired end-result.
  • Do we have a plan for reaching the goal by the deadline? Great Leaders know that goal attainment requires more than wishful thinking and hope. Reaching the goals that we set requires that we have a plan that details the actions that must be taken to reach the goal by the deadline. Whether the goal is a personal goal, a professional goal, a short-term goal, or a long-term goal, we need a plan, a road map if you will, showing what must be done to reach the goal. This road map must include “way points” along the way that we can check off and say “got it” because the more often we get to check off a way point reached, the more motivated we become to reach the ultimate goal. There is a real sense of achievement each time we check off a way point and get to say the words “got it”.

One year from today, each of us will look back at what we have accomplished in 2015.  Will we like what we see; or, will we look back with regret for what might have been?  Only you can determine what you will see. Make 2015 your best year yet!

Tom Hoisington is a speaker, trainer, and author whose goal is to provide leaders and potential leaders with tools that empower them to build teams that are creative and cost effective along with a clearer understanding of how personality types interact within those teams. He can be contacted at tom.hoisington@eagleoneresources.com