10 Qualities That Make A Goal Effective And Motivating

"Definite goals produce definite results. Indefinite goals don't just produce indefinite results. They produce no results at all." -- Paul J Meyer

In his book The Game Of Work, Charles Coonradt talks about the various reasons why people will pay to work harder then they'll work at work.

You know what he's talking about--it's the way the same guy who grumbles about getting up at 7am for his 9 to 5 job, and about his 45 minute commute will get up at 4 am to drive 2 hours to go skiing in the freezing cold or flyfish in frigid waters.

He outlines a number of qualities that we find in games and other recreation that both makes it more fun as well as motivates us to work harder.

He outlines 10 things a goal must be to be both effective and motivating.

By effective, I mean the goal will actually make a difference in your life or your business.

By motivating, I mean the goal makes you feel encouraged and excited to do the goal, rather than discouraged or afraid.

1. Goals must be written. Writing a goal keeps it in front of us, keeps it from changing, and forces us to start accounting for it. A goal we don't write down that is just in our minds is a goal we are never accountable to try to achieve. And that means it will probably never happen. Also, if we write down the goal and our plan for how to get it, we can see a clear, open path to the thing we want.

2. Goals must be your own. Part of why we play harder than we work is because in play, it's my hobby, my team, my sport. We'll never work as hard on a goal if we just think it's something our "manager" wants. The more a goal is tied to an individual person's wants and needs, the more motivating it will be.

3. Goals must be positive. When they decide the winner in a basketball game, nobody cares who missed the most shots. Even if one team only hit one out of every four shots they put up, if they scored more baskets, they're going to win. If you state the goal in negative terms, like "I want to stop eating so much," or "I want to lose less inventory to breakage," it puts the focus on something negative that we're afraid of. And if we're thinking about negative things we're afraid of, that's discouraging and demotivating. Instead, we should find a way of saying the good thing we do want, instead of the bad thing we don't want. So we might say, "I want to eat the right amounts of healthy, delicious foods," or "I want to increase the amount of inventory that makes it through the quality inspection."

4. Goals must be measurable and specific. From the book:

How much, how many, and by when? If you can't measure it, how will you know you've achieved it? Even intangible goals need tangible indicators. If you have a goal to be more patient, count how many times you raise your voice in a month. If the numbers drop, your patience is increasing. Unless your goal reflects how much, how many, by when, and by whom, you really don't have legitimate goals.

5. Goals must be stated in inflation-proof terms. Coonradt says a lot of people have been suckered in to thinking they were winning the game when really something had changed in the pricing. For example, when there was a paper shortage in the 80's, many businesses actually fell behind in market share because they were seduced into a false sense of security because they were posting higher profits. Those businesses that measured success in tonnage sold rather than profits had a better idea of where they stood relative to prior performance. Goals should be based on factors that are as constant as possible.

6. Goals must be stated in the most visible terms available. Goals must be measured in something you can see. Percentages, for example, are often too vague. Telling your employees we need a loss percentage of 15% might not mean much to somebody who doesn't think that way. Telling them we need to have less than $5,000 in losses might be a little clearer, but clearest of all would be to say, "We need to collect $6,000." That's like telling your team, "We need to score 30 points." It's straightforward, and everybody can understand the goal. Can you imagine telling a basketball team, "Guys, we need to increase our scoring percentage by 60% in the second half?" They'd scratch their heads. Tell them how many baskets to make to win, and they're on it.

7. Goals must contain a deadline. From the book:

If you don't have a deadline, you don't have a goal. Goals say how much, how many, and by when. The most exciting play in all of sports occurs in that last two minutes before the clock runs down. Deadlines are what make a student who never figured out how to get out of bed during a semester to find the energy to stay up all night studying for a midterm. Deadlines account for forty percent of the money raised in any telethon being raised in the last 20 percent of the time. A goal without a deadline is merely a philosophical statement.

8. Goals must allow for personality changes. And the person who has to change is us.

You cannot, for example, become a great skier if you have a strong fear of injury. Usually, people keep doing the things they do, and keep getting the results they always get. They only change when a crisis comes--a man who has always done the same things and earned about the same salary all his life, might suddenly be forced to find means of generating more income when divorce or family illness forces him to. Those things make him want to do things he never wanted to do before. However, we don't have to wait for trauma to make us want to change--goals can do the same thing. If a goal is something we want badly enough, we will step up to the plate and make the changes in our lives and personalities that make that goal possible. Otherwise, we'll fall back into our old ways. People who say, "That's just the way I am," are people who are more interested in justifying themselves than in having better things for themselves. People can change, and they do when the need is great enough.

9. Goals must contain an interrelated statement of benefits. Goals and benefits go together. He goes back to old adage of making sure there's a WIIFM--What's In It For Me?

WIIFM explains the why to people. Anybody, when asked to do something unusual or out of the ordinary, wants to know why. They are not as interested in the how. Too often we think communication is poor when we are trying to shove the how down someone's throat when they are still waiting to hear the why. But if we can clearly define the why, then we will have the kind of performance we want and the how will pretty much take care of itself.

Too often we think our communications are not being received or that people are resistant to our requests. This happens most often when we are trying to shove something down someone's throat when they still don't understand why it's important. The great paradox is that when something didn't get done, we go back and ask, "Why didn't you do it?"

These benefits might be something inherent in the goal itself (trying to hit a higher bonus level, so everyone gets paid more), or it might be a benefit the manager chooses to give the store if it hits a certain goal (such as a casual day or buying lunch on the store or giving employees a full day of instead of two half days).

10. Goals must be realistic and attainable. When I was a kid, I was always confused when I watched football. I never understood why the teams didn't try for a touchdown on every play. The goal was less than 100 yards away, and if they hit it they would get 6 points. Why not go for it every time, instead of just trying to gain a few yards?

Coonradt talks about Woody Hayes, one of the great legends of college football. Hayes had the opposite idea. His idea was "Three yards and a cloud of dust." His goal was to do whatever it took to get three yards on every play. With that attitude, he dominated Big 10 football for decades. The three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust attitude will get you further than any instant accomplishment or get-rich-quick scheme.

Sometimes we wish there was one big thing we could do, all at once, that would get us everything we want. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that. We don't train babies to pole-vault--we concentrate on helping them crawl. Once they've got that, then we work on walking.

It's the same way with us. We need to have big goals, but those should be broken down into small, attainable ones. Not necessarily easy--babies learning to walk fall down--but something that is doable.

Hope this helps!

Helping Employees Embrace Goals

Who needs goals?

Do goals even really apply to this job?

Who even cares about goals?

As we talk about goals with people, these are questions that might come up. Yeah, I know they're rhetorical, but let's try to answer them anyway.

First, what is a goal?

A goal is where you write down something that you want, and some kind of a plan for getting it.

So who needs goals?

Anybody who has something they want.

That's it. If you want something, goals are for you. Goals are the way you take things you want and start moving closer to bringing them into your life.

If people are reluctant to make goals in some part of their life, it's because:

1. They don't want anything in that part of their life. If somebody doesn't really want to make a goal at work, they probably don't really have anything more they want from work. Maybe all they're looking for is a paycheck, and since the checks keep clearing, now it's in their best interest to figure out how to do less to get that same paycheck, not more.

2. They're afraid they'll fail at the goal. It could be that somebody doesn't want to make a goal at work because they're afraid they'll fail at it. Either they won't be smart enough or strong enough or the customers will let them down, and then they'll look bad and feel like a failure, either in front of their boss or their co-workers. The consequences of that could range from embarrassment to being fired.

3. They believe they could succeed at the goal, but it would just take too much work. Sometimes people are afraid to take on new challenges, since they feel they're already working so hard before the goal even came up.

Let's look at each of these in turn:

1. They don't want anything in that part of their life.

There might be two reasons for this.

The first reason is that although the people might care passionately about some things, these things just aren't related to work. It's not that these people aren't motivated--these people are plenty motivated. They're just motivated by things besides work. They like to spend time with their family, they like to pursue their hobbies, they like to do other things.

A person like this might not care so much about how they look at work or what loss percentage their store is hitting--they're more concerned about the other priorities they have in their life.

For these people, finding motivating goals mean finding things that they can make happen at the office that will benefit the other things they're passionate about. For example, by keeping ahead of office tasks, it could free up their manager to be more flexible in scheduling to allow them more time to do the things they care about. Or getting a bigger bonus might mean more money to spend on their hobby. Or, increasing their skills so they can become more valuable to the company might mean a shot at a bigger salary increase come review time. Or, if they want to one day start their own business, helping them understand the principles of your business might help prepare them to become more capable of starting their own business.

Notice--none of these things are about what's good for the company or about what's good for the manager or about what's good for anybody except the employee. For a person to care about a goal, the goal has to be something they really and truly want, not just something we want, or something we think they should want.

The second reason for someone not wanting more out of work might be that they're just not interested in getting better in any area of their life.

Some people just don't think about the things they want. It might be because they're pessimistic and don't believe they could get it anyway. It might be because they've been taught that wanting things is greedy, and they should only think about other people. It might be that they're so stressed out by their problems that they don't even know how to start thinking about their problems, let alone thinking about solutions.

Notice what I did not say. I did not say it was because they were lazy. That's not to say that people aren't lazy. There's just usually a reason that they're lazy. Sometimes it's that they're lazy because they think someone else will always take care of them, so they don't have to try hard. But usually the reason is more personal and emotional, related to fears about what they cannot accomplish.

It's usually not that they're lazy, but just that they're looking for escape because of hard things they're going through.

People in this category might be motivated by goals that promise relief. For example, they might be motivated to take on projects that would mean less work for them later.

However, these people also need to be given hope that things can be better. That by applying a little bit of effort in the right areas, their life can get better.

Denis Whatley, a motivational speaker, says, "Losers try to escape from their fears and drudgery with activities that are tension-relieving. Winners are motivated by their desires towards activities that are goal-achieving."

For a person like this to start to be motivated by goals, they need to start focusing on what they want instead of about what they're afraid of.

2. They're afraid they'll fail at the goal.

This is a category I, personally, fall into a lot. Often, I'm afraid to make a goal not because I don't care about it, but because I care about it so much. If I try the goal, and it doesn't work, it would crush me. So I don't try, because on some level, I'd rather have the hope that I might do it some day then the crushing blow of having already failed at it.

This is often what keeps people from asking that cute person out on a date, what keeps people from starting that business they've always wanted, and what keeps people from writing that book they've always thought about writing.

Or, it might not be that the blow would be so bad for them, personally, but they're afraid of how it would look to other people. What would my boss think of me if I told him I'd hit a goal and then I didn't do it? What would my wife think of me if I didn't follow through on the goal she knew I made?

What's worse is that even when these people do try at a goal, they often go at it hesitantly. They don't really try hard, or they delegate as much as possible to other people. That way, they won't feel as bad or look as bad if it fails.

Worst of all, they actually, on some deep level, are almost glad when a customer or employee lets them down, because it gives them someone to move responsibility to, so they don't have to feel as bad or look as bad. These people will usually make mental notes about what people, things, or circumstances didn't come through, not so they can figure out ways to overcome them, but so that they can point the finger somewhere else if things aren't going right.

Literally, they stop focusing on achieving results, and start focusing entirely on their own feelings and how they look to other people.

These people need to follow the same solution as we talked about above. They need to concentrate on what they want. They need to concentrate on why they absolutely have to have it. If they can't get excited enough about the goal, then they need to pick a different goal that does motivate them like that. What is it that you want so bad, that you're willing to give it your all, even if it means you might fail? Focus on that thing. Focus on it so much that the thought of being without it becomes painful--that you can't bear the thought of not getting it.

"We change when the pain of same becomes greater than the pain of change."

We stay the same weight until the pain on our back or knees becomes to great, and then we start trying to change. We keep treating our spouse the same until they threaten to leave us, and the thought of losing them is too great and we change.

We can either wait until life or circumstances makes staying the same too painful, or we can create the motivating pain ourselves by focusing on what we truly want and how good things would be if we got it.

In other words, we will finally do the thing we're afraid to do only when we feel it is more painful not to do it than it would be to fail at it.

3. They believe they could succeed at the goal, but it would just take too much work.

Again, folks like this aren't so much lazy as they are unmotivated.

You've seen people on TV eat bugs, jump in water that might kill them, face life-long fears, even sing in front of Simon Cowell, all for the chance at money or fame or both. People will do incredible things they never thought they could do if the reward is right.

So it really isn't that the thing is too hard. It's just that the thing is too hard for what they feel they're getting out of it.

"It's not worth it to do the extra work. My manager doesn't notice. My manager only notices when I do something bad."

"It's not worth it to do the extra work. I don't get any credit for it anyway."

"It's not worth it to do the extra work. My store never bonuses anyway, so it's not like I'm going to get anything out of it."

Again, the problem here is that they've been disconnected from their true goals and desires.

It's not that they don't want to work. It's just that they don't want to work for what they feel they're getting out of it.

If you've ever had a case where either you or an employee used to feel excited about the job or really excel at the job, but then seemed to have lost the fire, this is probably the reason. There was something you or that person used to be getting out of the job, that you or that person just doesn't feel is there any more.

Most of the time, this thing is praise, recognition, and genuine appreciation for the work that they are doing, and the most common reason for this is that their work is not being seen on its own merits, but is only being compared to what they used to do. Since they're not being praised as much as they used to be, they're not working as hard, and since they're not working as hard, they're not being praised as much as they used to be.

See the cycle?

But of course, either person can break the cycle. The employee can resolve to step up and do more. Or, the manager can find ways to show appreciation to the employee again.

Which one should go first? Whichever one you are.

Summary

So for goals to work, they have to be related to desires of the people who have to accomplish them.

This means that managers should help employees make their own goals, and should know their employees well enough to know what desires their employees have, and incorporate those desires into the business's goals.

At first, figuring out goals your employees will care about can be as challenging, to a manager, as figuring out how to accomplish the goals.

However, as your employees see that you're trying so hard to make things happen that aren't just good for you, but are also good for them, they'll be more anxious to try even for goals that aren't so much about them, because they'll come to trust you, and trust that you are keeping their wants and needs in mind when you're making decisions.

In fact, the more you do this, the more your staff will feel genuinely invested in the success of the business in general.

So if you're meeting resistance, either from employees or in yourself, don't try to find the answers by trying to convince yourself or them how good goals are. Instead, do it by listening to yourself or to your employees, and figuring out what it is that you or they truly desire out of work. What they truly desire out of life.

As in so many aspects of life, the answer is in listening, not in talking.

Hope this helps.

How To Manage People -- The Blog

Welcome to the blog about managing people.

Here, we will be exploring ideas, blogs, books, and other topics related to dealing with people. All kinds of people. Motivated people and unmotivated people. Shy people and emotional people.

But above all, real people.

Because that's what this is really all about.

This blog's philosophy is that everyone, in every position, in every organization, is a vital part of that organization. And by realizing and acknowledging the contributions of everyone at every level of the organization, not only can you increase loyalty, but you can make a difference in people's lives.

Most companies have already woken up to the fact that there's real money to be made in meeting the very real needs of their very real customers.

It's time that they came to the same realization about their employees. By partnering with employees the same way they'd partner with a client or a customer, they will not only see greater results for themselves, but they can make a real difference in people's lives.

Now's your chance to build your own business while making a real difference in the lives of the people who are helping you do it.

I look forward to talking with you.