Pillar No 2 of the 12 Pillars of Leadership – Clear, Well Defined Goals
Your vision will become your mission once you have broken it down into “bite sized” pieces that you and your team can put into action. These pieces are your goals.
You will have long term goals (which is the bigger picture) and short term goals (where you want to go this week, this month and this year).
The long term goals are for YOUR files, and the short term goals are what you can share with your team. Of course you can also share a summary of your vision with them also.
When you set goals, that are in accordance with your vision:
- You create a clear path that leads to the fulfillment of the vision. Now the vision becomes a mission.
- You will have something more tangible that you can break into sets of short term goals to share with your team.
Remember: Leaders are visionaries.
They can see usually see further ahead than their team and they can see things in their “mind’s eye”.
Sometimes what you as a leader can see is not easy to describe. A set of goals that will lead to the accomplishment of the vision create a path that your team can see, understand and follow.
Here are some tips to keep in mind as you are writing out your short term goals (for your team):
They need to be clear, defined and specific.
- Write out your goals.
- Walk away and focus your mind on something totally different.
- Come back and immediately sit down and read over what you have written (without refocusing on your vision).
- Do you understand them at first glance?
- Are they clear and defined?
- Are they specific?
- Supposing you did not see your vision clearly could you follow the goals and reach your target?
Some of these tests will help you to make sure you have written out a concise set of instructions that your team can understand and follow.
They will be realistic:
The short term goals that you will share with your team will be realistic enough for them to believe they can achieve them – yet challenging enough for them to stay motivated.
They will be attainable:
It is also very important that they are attainable. There is nothing more discouraging than to work for a long period of time without actually being able to see you have achieved something.
Your team members need to see results at frequent intervals.
Make sure that each set of short term goals is attainable within a reasonable amount of time. This will keep your team motivated and with you as you work with them towards the fulfillment of your goals.
And always remember:
