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Hello everyone, this is Cody Nickol with Work Growth Thrive. I hold a master’s degree in organizational psychology. I’m a consultant, coach, and am currently working in talent acquisition. I’m also the author of the blog Work Growth Thrive. Today, I would like to talk with you about how you can set work goals that are motivating and result in your peak performance.
You might think from the get-go that this is the job of your manager. While there are many wonderful managers and leaders out there who care for the professional development of their employees and want to see them grow and thrive in the workplace, the fact of the matter is that many neglect this aspect of the job.
In this regard, you have to be the captain of your own ship. Take your personal and professional development into your own hands. With the framework that I’m going to share with you, you’ll have an orientation of how goals should be set at work so that you can reach your potential. You’ll be able to frame your goals so that they’re motivating, interesting, and challenging, even intrinsically motivating. The following points are based on Locke and Latham’s goal-setting theory.
Specific
The first aspect is that goals should be specific. Specific means that you know exactly what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. For example, I gave consulting at a company that’s active in recruiting, and I examined how the employees set goals. It turned out that the goals were not very specific.
For example, one goal was, “I want to contact some candidates this week.” How many candidates are you going to contact? What platforms are you going to use? The goals weren’t specific enough. When you have specific goals, you don’t waste time considering how to begin. You know exactly what you need to do and can get started right away.
Challenging
Goals should be specific and challenging. If a goal is not challenging, you won’t be that motivated to work on it. But if the goal is too challenging, you’re also demotivated because you think, “What’s the point in even starting? I won’t be able to reach this goal anyway.” Make sure the goal is challenging enough so that you’re motivated to work on it, and have the sense that trying to reach this goal is worthwhile.
Evaluation
Goals should also be used to evaluate your performance. If you set a goal for the sake of setting it, but no one ever talks about it — it’s not tied to your work review, a bonus, or anything like that, then you probably won’t focus on that goal. You’ll focus on other goals.
Regular Feedback
This brings us to the next point that you should receive regular feedback concerning your goals. Feedback is crucial for your goals to result in peak performance. Feedback helps you to know what you’re doing right and lets you know what areas you can improve in.
If you’re just working, working, working, and your manager or boss never takes the time to give you feedback, then ask for it. Regular feedback concerning your tasks is essential. Oftentimes, employees end up in a semi-annual or annual performance review, and the results are surprising. They thought they were doing a great job, but then the hammer drops, and it turns out they’re not delivering results to a satisfactory degree. This should not be the case. In these reviews, what’s discussed should be no surprise because you were receiving constructive feedback the entire time.
Meaningful
The next thing is that the goal should matter to you. Of course, when you’re employed, you’re assigned goals and tasks, and whether you like it or not, you have to do them well. As much as possible, try to be part of the decision-making process. The company I gave consulting to did this really well. The employees could set their own goals, and then the boss would intervene if the goal wasn’t challenging enough or didn’t align with the overarching goals of the company. Talk with your manager to see how much you can be involved in the goal-setting process.
Deadline
Another thing is that the goal should be linked to a deadline. Having a deadline really gives you positive pressure and helps you make regular progress. You’re probably already working with deadlines, but it’s a point worth mentioning.
If you don’t work towards a deadline and on your goal in a regular way — if you’re not making regular progress, then eventually you’re going to stop trying. To stay motivated, we need to make regular progress. Having a deadline that forces you to work on the goal little by little is extremely helpful.
Learning Goals
The next point is that learning goals tend to result in better performance than even performance goals. Learning really touches our intrinsic motivation. You learn something for the sake of learning it. You become competent, fluent, or an expert in a particular field, and there’s not the external pressure to perform well or reach a particular KPI.
Of course, you can’t always have and only have learning goals at work. But as you’re talking with your manager about your personal development, agree on some learning goals. What are your interests? What areas do you want to explore? At my work, I wanted to get a bit more into digital marketing. So I talked with my boss, and she even gave me some funding to take a course. This was motivating. I could apply what I learned both personally and at work. In the end all benefited. Whenever you can add learning goals to your performance goals.
Group Goal
The last thing that I want to let you know is that there should also always be a group goal. It’s not just about individual goals. It’s crucial that we’re able to work together with others to reach a goal. And, in order to be motivated along this line, you can use something called superordinate framing. This refers to considering how your goal is linked to other employees’ goals to reach a common goal. In other words how is what I’m doing helping other employees reach their goals so that ultimately all of us can attain to a greater goal?
For example, I work at a pharmacy chain here in Germany and there are so many different aspects that go into opening a pharmacy. You need to find the location, find someone to be an operator, order all the medicines, and build the pharmacy. My role is to find an operator. My team does a wonderful job, but if I don’t find an operator, then the pharmacy ultimately can’t open. So I see how my role is so crucial not just for me but also for everyone else. If I do my job and everyone else does their job, then ultimately we can open the pharmacy and it will be a successful project.
Summary
While setting your work goals, watch this video again. To summarize: make sure your goals are specific, challenging, and used to evaluate performance. Furthermore you should get regular feedback about your performance, goals should matter to you, and they should be linked to a deadline. Finally, incorporate learning goals and always have a group goal. Pursuing something together will keep your motivation high and result in peak performance.
If you found this video helpful, please like and subscribe to my channel. If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to reach your potential and take your next big step, reach out to me. I hope to hear from you soon. Have a wonderful day!
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