Goal Setting – In Theory And In Practice – Business Planning
During the business planning process, establishing goals is of course fundamental so as to provide a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Setting one or more goals appears to be a straightforward process. You establish a specific goal, one that’s measurable and has a defined time frame for completion. You implement your action plan, measure your progress towards reaching your goal and then evaluate the outcome objectively to refine the process further.
On the surface of things, it reads very well and sounds easy enough to do. Unfortunately, it rarely works out that way for numerous reasons; primarily because we commonly fail to establish realistic goals. Additionally, we often casually set goals with only a hazy view towards how they’ll actually be accomplished. And while we’re typically motivated at the beginning of the process, it’s not at all unusual to lose our motivation somewhere along the track.
When deciding your own goals, it’s important to understand that every goal you set must be realistic and readily achievable, given an appropriate amount of time and resources. For example, setting a goal to earn $25,000 per month within three months, when your present earnings are less than $1,000, is likely unrealistic. On the other hand, setting an ongoing goal to increase your earnings by 5% or 10% per month is not only realistic, but more likely achievable.
Once you’ve defined a goal which you believe you can accomplish, the next step is to break it down into smaller, manageable tasks and schedule them in sequence (assuming one task depends on the completion of another). Before defining the target date the overall goal must be completed, be certain that each task is given a reasonable amount of time for completion and allow the sum of the tasks to determine and influence the completion date, rather than arbitrarily selecting one.
Depending on how far into the future your goals are planned for, it’s very helpful to schedule regular progress reviews, even if you’re the only person involved. For example, scheduling time every Friday afternoon to review your progress and make any necessary adjustments will keep your goals current. Don’t be surprised if something unexpected interferes with your scheduling from time-to-time. That’s normal and you will simply need to identify some way to compensate for it.
Another barrier to actually meeting your goals is the process itself. Be careful to avoid implementing a goal management process that eats up more time than the goal itself. On a smaller scale, a simple spreadsheet will often suffice to meet all of your management needs. For larger scale management, a variety of goal management software exists, usually scalable for most organizations or complexities.
Besides actually working the process towards eventually realizing your goal, the final step is to take some time to evaluate the overall process and your performance at the end. This should be done objectively and embraced as a learning opportunity, one that will help you to improve your performance in future.
With proper planning, setting realistic goals can only benefit you and your business in the long run, especially if you streamline the goal management process. If you think of it as an evolving process focused on continual performance improvement, over time you will see a measurable improvement in everything you do!
Remember the 5 P’s – PPPPP – Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
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