It is World Cup 2018 goals fever in our company this week, even the senior managers were walking in yesterday cheering about England’s result and I have to say it has set the tone for the entire office.
Everyone feels upbeat, everyone feels united and it’s when a team feels like this, either on the sports field or in a private or public-sector organisation, that they can achieve wonderful things! On Tuesday night it was all about scoring the winning goals and again, isn’t that exactly the same in your working environment? However, if you don’t set the goals, how can you score?
We all have goals, both personally and professionally. Sometimes we may only think about them, other times we verbalise to friends or colleagues, it has been proven that by writing them down you are more likely to achieve those goals because you are making a commitment to yourself and others.
It’s very rare that we can set goals and get success by sheer luck and no judgement, those penalties didn’t go in by chance, they’ve spent hundreds of hours practicing the perfect shot. Some people believe in the art of visualisation, the process of creating a positive mental image of what you want to happen in reality. Gareth Southgate demonstrates fantastic leadership, believes in his decisions, plays to his team’s strengths and ensures that every member has equal opportunities – isn’t that again exactly what you want your leaders/managers to demonstrate in your organisation? By believing in ourselves and our goals it provides an inner confidence with a combined clarity of role which will automatically enhance our performance. Combine that with strong leadership and a clear, well thought through strategy and you surely have the recipe for success.
Multiple studies have found that there are numerous factors that all tie together to achieve our goals and you’ve got to have a mix of them all to score.
Goals – Why, How, When and What If!
Firstly, we have to ensure all of our goals are SMART – we all know the acronym by now;
SMART = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound.
We also need to have the motivation to achieve the goals, the ‘Why’ element – what is driving me to make this happen? Next, we need to have the right resources and tools in place the ‘How’ part. And finally, and this is particularly relevant in this busy digital world we live in, we need to dedicate the time to implement, plan the ‘When’. By following these steps, we should achieve our goal, right?… Wrong! Life gets in the way, other projects pop up and before you know it the goals can be completely off course, so you also need to put in a ‘What If’ scenario and plan for the unexpected to get you back on track.
Motivation is great, intentions are fantastic, but both can waiver very quickly. Back up your goals with a robust, written plan and a defined timeframe (both for execution and completion) and you stand a much greater chance of achieving them.
We’re going to have a buoyant, productive, successful week thanks to the England World Cup 2018 Team – we hope you do too!
Want to learn about setting employee goals – read our Whitepaper ‘How to set SMART Objectives’ here
