Jahnvi got a confirmation mail from HR stating that she was being promoted to the managerial role. She was ecstatic to receive the news and thought she was more than ready to take charge of her team. Her heart was bouncing with excitement and she broke the news to her near and dear ones. However, she was not sure of what would happen when the party got over! Up until now, she was judged on the basis of her individual performance, her numbers, and her hard work in the company. Going forth, she will be seen based on her efficacy as a manager, her accords with her team, her way of motivating her team, and achieving the shared goals within the stipulated time.
Now that Jahnvi got power and authority, challenges came along the way and she felt everything falling apart. Deep down she knew she had what it takes to be a manager, however, her doubts were clouding her decisions all along. In that instant, she did what was deemed fit in the situation. She slowed down and looked backward at the situation, and she realized that she can only pull the strings together by understanding what it takes to be a first-time manager. This is how she began her journey and started contemplating ways to be a new manager. She unearthed the following concepts – the requisites of becoming a first-time manager, she ventured into her values and understood her locus of control.
While she was shuffling through different research, she found an interesting study that said,
“Richest 1% bag nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years.”
According to a new Oxfam report released, the richest one percent have captured nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population. Over the last decade, the richest one percent have amassed roughly half of all new wealth.
This research made her wonder what the richest and most enterprising people do differently than the rest of the population. When she dug deeper, she discovered that they are often highly goal-centric, and they prioritize their actions and decisions based on whether they will bring them closer to their desired outcome.
What Is Goal Setting?
Goals are both the first step and the ultimate solution to accomplishing great things. Goals fuel motivation and serve as a road map to achieving your dreams. Goals, according to research in clinical and real-world settings, can help you accelerate your success and personal growth.
“Setting goals allows us to assess where we stand in our personal and professional lives while also allowing us to envision the future we want.”
Edwin Locke, a researcher, developed the goal-setting theory. Locke’s seminal study, Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives, was published in 1968. With goal-setting theory, Locke continued his research to develop more concrete advice on how to set goals and achieve more.
Goal-setting theory’s main insight is that having a conscious, purposeful goal increases the likelihood that the things you want will happen for you. The theory emphasizes the importance of knowing what you want and making plans to help you get there.
Jahnvi is aware that as a manager she holds a unique and influential position in ensuring successful goal setting which can help her team as well as herself. While researching different ways to set successful goals, she came across two powerful frameworks to spearhead a successful, engaging, and aligned team with shared goals.
Best Practices/Rules To Set Goals
This defining feature frequently drives the motivation and hard work required for success. Enterprising people must experiment with various strategies to achieve ambitious goals after setting them. Jahnvi understood that entrepreneurs are a great source of inspiration if she wanted some insight into success. She can achieve her goals more effectively if she adopts some of their best practices. Some of the rules she learned along the way are:
1. Emotional commitment gives meaning to a goal
“Emotional commitment gives an actual meaning to a goal, otherwise, it is just a task.”
An emotional attachment to a goal motivates us and gives us a sense of purpose and fulfillment as we work towards achieving it. Sergey Bubka burst onto the international scene in 1983, winning the gold medal in the pole vault at the first World Championships, and has since dedicated his life to athletics promotion.
He is the only athlete in history to have won the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championships six times in a row. In the pole vault, Sergey Bubka holds the Guinness World Record for the most world records by an individual athlete, with 35. During his illustrious career, Sergey set 17 outdoor and 18 indoor world records between 1984 and 1994, establishing a standard for excellence.
In an interview, Sergey said while setting a new Olympic record, “It was so emotional because I took leadership with a chance to become a gold medalist, otherwise if I missed, I was off of the podium, I was still young, however, now I understand it was so important to bring the world together through sport, promote the peace and start to build a new history. To see so many stars, and champions from different sports living together was so exceptionally unique and emotional for me.”
2. Be rational in terms of your capacity and capabilities while setting goals
When setting goals, it is important to be rational and realistic about your capacity and capabilities. This means taking an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, as well as the resources you have available to you.
In our childhood, when we played on the stairs, we used to first jump from one stair, second, and then third. We never climbed ten stairs and jumped from there on the first attempt because we knew our capabilities and stretched them further with every step. It is the same thing we need to do while setting goals and identifying beforehand whether it is achievable or not.
3. Focus on your goals like a hawk
It implies that one should maintain an intense and unwavering focus on their objectives, much like a hawk does when hunting its prey. By doing so, you can maintain a clear vision of what you want to achieve and stay committed to taking the necessary steps to reach your goals.
Indian Chess wizard Vishwanathan Anand says,
“One factor that has contributed immensely to his illustrious career is his habit of ‘forgetting’ the achievements to keep the motivation intact.”
The five-time world champion says he likes to set new goals frequently. When he was young, he had steady goals at every stage. First, he focused on becoming an International Master, then a Grandmaster, and then he tried for the World Championship.
4. Incentivize your goals
Incentivizing goals can be a great way to motivate individuals or teams to achieve specific outcomes, however, it’s important to ensure that the incentives align with the overall mission and values of the organization.
Incentives were described as “one of the best investments we made as a company” by an executive who led her organization through a transformation. We delivered one hundred times what we paid for. The program was completely self-funded because we only distributed rewards after the value was delivered.” After six months of implementation, the CEO of a tier-one auto supplier said that while he was initially skeptical, he concluded that it was the critical ingredient in exceeding the company’s transformation goals.
5. Aggressive risk-taking to achieve goals
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body. But rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming… Wow! What a ride!”
— Mark Frost
True success comes from experience and the ability to take risks. In fact, it is more accurate to say that successful people pursue opportunities only after they understand the limits of the risks they are willing to take.
Successful people do not set out with a hazy plan to “be successful.” They set goals and work towards them while managing risks along the way. For example, Steve Jobs wanted to put technology in the hands of everyone — and he literally did so.
Of course, he encountered several roadblocks along the way. The Apple PDA was a flop, and the MacBook was a flop as well. Nonetheless, Jobs eventually achieved his goal after 20 years of relentlessly pushing forward and navigating the surrounding risks.
Now that Jhanvi got an understanding of the practices to take care of while setting and achieving goals, she was curious to get some background knowledge on goal setting and its paramount importance to achieving success as a first-time manager.
Framework To Help You Achieve Goals
Goal-setting is the process of actively pursuing your desired outcome. Setting and achieving small (and large!) goals is central to our dreams. Each of these major goals can be subdivided into smaller, more attainable objectives that will propel you to success. Process, performance, and outcome goals are interconnected. When you meet your process goals, the chances of achieving performance goals, and certainly lead to achieving your outcome goals.
Set SMART Goals
Specific
Specific goals have a much better chance of being achieved. To make a goal more specific, consider the five “W” questions:
- Who: Who is involved in achieving this goal?
- What: What do I hope to achieve?
- Where: Where will this goal be attained?
- When: When do I want to achieve this goal?
- Why: What motivates me to pursue this goal?
A general goal might be, “I want to encourage team spirit.” A more specific goal might be, “I want to engage with my team and work towards a shared goal by supporting each other to achieve great results.”
Measurable
A SMART goal must include metrics for tracking progress. You won’t be able to determine your progress or whether you’re on track to meet your goal if there are no criteria. To make a goal quality and quantity-wise measurable, consider the following:
- How many/how much?
- How do I know if I’ve met my objective?
- What is my progress indicator?
Building on the specific goal stated above: To achieve my long-term goals, I should break them into smaller goals, and keep track of the progress on a monthly basis. I will keep a tab on my productivity on a daily basis.
Attainable
A SMART goal must be realistic and attainable. This will assist you in determining how to achieve and work toward that goal. The goal’s achievability should be stretched so that you feel challenged, however, defined so that you can actually achieve it. Consider the following:
- Do I have the necessary resources and abilities to complete the task? What am I missing if not?
- Have others done it successfully in the past?
Realistic
A SMART goal must be realistic in the sense that it can be achieved given the available resources and time. A SMART goal is likely to be achievable if you believe it is doable. Consider the following:
- Is the goal attainable and realistic?
- Is the goal attainable given the time and resources available?
- Are you willing to make a commitment to achieving the goal?
Trackable
They can be measured, monitored, and evaluated in a specific and quantifiable manner. These goals can be easily tracked and assessed to determine progress and success. Having trackable goals is important because it provides a clear roadmap for achieving success and helps to stay motivated and focused. Examples of trackable goals may include:
- Learning a skill every quarter.
- Focus on increasing employee engagement and team collaboration within a certain time frame.
- Improve team productivity by monitoring the team’s output and tracking how long it takes to complete the projects.
All of these goals have specific metrics and timelines, which make them easily trackable and measurable. By tracking progress against these goals, individuals or organizations can make adjustments and modifications to their plans and strategies to ensure that they are on track to achieving success.
SMART goals help you succeed by making your objectives specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and trackable. The SMART method pushes you further, provides direction, and assists you in organizing and reaching your goals.
While Jahnvi discovered the SMART way to set and achieve her goals, she stumbled upon an amazing technique to achieve her individual goals. She understood that she had to sow the field of her life uniformly to germinate the seeds successfully and get a healthy crop. She had to balance the different facets of life – EPIC [Emotional, Physical, Intellectual, and Career] to become a life-preneur before an enterprising person for her team.
Set EPIC Goals
Emotional
Our emotional health is critical. As creative people, we must always be in touch with our emotional selves, not only because we are human, but also because that is where our creativity lies!
When you break the word emotion down, it is energy in motion. If you allow yourself to step out of your ego and look at your every emotion without bias, then you can create a canvas of your creativity and love by channeling your emotions. That is how every work of art contains a piece of your soul.
Physical
Our mental health is proportional to our physical health. No matter what time of year it is, there is always an opportunity to improve our physical health. The more we concentrate on our health, the more productive we are in life.
It is totally up to you to keep up the pace, whether it is a run or a walk outside, a Zumba session online, or hiring a fitness instructor. It keeps you in shape, strengthens your breathing, and keeps the endorphins flowing so you can stay creative.
Intellectual
Every successful person’s primary habit is learning. “Sharpen your saw,” Stephen Covey says. We will wilt if we do not grow. Learning helps us to evolve and grow in life. Set a goal of learning something new on a regular basis and a reward for successfully completing it. It will help you stay in the game and will enhance your awareness. It will immediately increase your productivity.
Career
The most important decision that affects our overall well-being is the career path we choose. If we choose a job that is stressful, we should be able to handle it. If there is still uncertainty about where the passion lies, the best way to choose a career is to try new things.
Consider the following question: Will you be able to monetize your passion? Maintain a reality check, ask yourself honest questions, and if you are good at something, see if you need any training to improve your skill. Your career is your baby, so how you care for it and find value in your role is entirely up to you.
These four facets are like the four wheels of our life’s vehicle. If one goes missing, then there is a fair chance to miss out on the actual essence of life. Jahnvi was on her journey to unearth the best version of herself and she just found the best technique to focus on a fruitful and healthier life-preneurship to become a better leader for her team.
https://www.sundayobserver.lk/2021/12/12/sports/sergey-bubka-broke-world-record-35-times
https://rhapsodystrategies.com/successful-people-take-risks/
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/management/smart-goal/
https://sdtp.co.uk/unlock-life-sampoorna-samropana-pravapna/
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Written By: Jimmy Jain
Edited By: Afreen Fatima
Society of Design Thinking Professionals
