Now that it’s 2021, it’s time for you to start planning clear goals or business plans for the next 12 months. You may be planning to use your 2020 goals or change them up a bit. However, it would be better if you had other goals, considering the many changes in 2020.
Goal Setting is the process of taking active steps to achieve the desired result. Goal Setting can help you understand your current performance and then assess what steps you need to take to reach your desired level of performance.
According to Oracle, business leaders spend a great deal of time developing strategies. Still, goals must be identified and monitored on an ongoing basis for even the best-laid plans to succeed. Goals are the bridge that connects business strategy to successful results.
In addition, PwC also believes that it is essential for business leaders to set the right goals to get maximum value from performance management. They also offer the flexibility to adjust goals throughout the year to accommodate any changes.
Types of Goal Setting
In doing goal-setting, there are three types of goals that you need to know, namely:
1. Process Goal
Process goals are targets you have complete control over, such as results based on specific actions or tasks you complete. Setting process goals means identifying what you need to do to achieve the bigger goal.
For example, you can set process goals, such as conducting employee training twice a year. These are goals that are easy to measure. You can choose to do it or not.
2. Performance Goals
Performance goals are the performance standards you want to achieve. Typically, performance goals are short-term goals set for specific tasks. Over time, performance goals will continue to grow following your business goals.
Performance goals can be in the form of agreements between employers and employees or personal initiatives by employees to meet or exceed their work targets and increase their chances of promotion.
An example is improving your business customer service, creating new products or opening new branches, and others.
3. Outcome Goals
An outcome goal is a single goal that you are working towards. These goals are often binary and involve winning, for example, wanting to be the largest employer in your sector.
Even though outcome goals are very motivating, these goals are not under your control because they are influenced by other people’s performance (employees).
Process, performance, and outcome goals have a linear relationship. These goals are interconnected because if you are to achieve an outcome goal, you must achieve a performance goal. And if you want to achieve performance goals, you must achieve process goals.
These three goals are categorized based on how much control you have over them; you have the most control over process goals and the least control over outcome goals.
When setting goals, you need to visualize and define the desired results (outcome goals). Still, more importantly, you need to focus on your process and performance (process and performance goals).
Business goals are usually set annually and must align with your long-term goals. Throughout the year, you may have weekly or monthly sessions where you review your progress towards your annual goals.
Checking for updates is essential to staying on track with what you want.
SMART Goals
One easy way to ensure you achieve your goals is to follow SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
1. Specific
To succeed, goals need to be concrete (not as abstract as your long-term goals) and detailed. For example, instead of thinking, “I want to increase my income this year,” think “, I want to increase my business revenue by 30% this year.”
2. Measurable
Assign numbers or values, such as dollar amounts or percentages, to your goals. For example, “Increase sales” or “reduce debt” are measurable goals, while “work harder” or “increase satisfaction” are challenging to measure.
Putting measurable goals in writing helps you stay focused and see how you progress. Create at the end of the specified period.
3. Achievable
A goal should be challenging but achievable. If your business is a furniture store, becoming the most popular store may not be a reasonable goal. However, a 5% sales increase in market share may be enough.
4. Relevant
Goals should align with your long-term plans. If your long-term plan is for your business to achieve $1000 a year in sales, your short-term goal should relate directly to that.
5. Time-bound
With a specific time frame, your goals can be adequately measured. Your goal must have a time limit. For example, “At the end of the year, I want to increase sales by 20%.”
Benefits of Goal Setting at Work
The purpose of having goal setting at work is to help us achieve success in our careers. Below, we will discuss the various benefits of setting goals in the workplace, including:
1. Guiding Your Career
Goal setting is an excellent way to help you choose a career path. For example, suppose your goal is to have a career with high security and opportunities for advancement. In that case, you might choose to be a software engineer over an artist.
2. Helps You Maintain Focus
Goal setting can make it easier for you to concentrate on essential tasks. When you know what is wanted from a project, you are more likely to focus on the most important ways of accomplishing the task.
For example, if you want to increase your monthly sales, you can set a small mission to make 10 sales and send a follow-up email daily.
3. Complete Big Projects Easily
Completing large projects on time is essential for long-term success. Goal setting can help you complete big projects more efficiently. You can break the project down into smaller steps.
Once you have achieved these small goals, you will be one step ahead of completing the entire project.
The Key To Realizing Targets And Dreams
The Smart Goals method described above is a pretty effective step in realizing a realistic and consistent goal.
This method can also be used to make weekly plans, career plans, annual resolutions, business plans, financial plans, etc. So that every plan can be realized into reality, there are vital things that you really have to do, including:
1. Be consistent
Consistency is one of the keys to success. In this step, you must set your heart to always be consistent in carrying out each stage of the planning that you have designed yourself. What is no less important is that you must always be ready to learn to stay consistent.
2. Do it with Passion
If every step that must be taken is not carried out with enthusiasm, then what you have planned can be shattered in an instant. So that you are always enthusiastic about making every plan come true, you must try to find positive people!
Try to have a successful mindset, build a growth mindset, and have the courage to rise from failure. You have to believe that as long as you have Passion and are willing to keep trying, nothing is impossible.
3. Have Time To Focus
Take and use your time to achieve goals and work on every dream you want to achieve in realizing a goal of someone who has focus and discipline.
Don’t let other people steal the time you spend each day. You can take part in education and training in specific fields to help you achieve your goals. However, such training requires a lot of money.
4. Review Strategy and Progress
Continually evaluate the strategy and the progress you have made. You may need different goals, adjust your goals, and so on. By tracking success and progress, you will gain valuable insight into what is working and what is not.
Not only that, but you can also find out whether you are on the right track.