Positive Leadership has also been recognised as a Top 50 Leadership Expert to Follow on Twitter.

Follow us on Twitter @posleadership


LEADERSHIP IS A PROCESS OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE, WHICH MAXIMISES THE EFFORTS OF OTHERS TOWARDS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF A SHARED GOAL.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Positive Leadership: The Challenges of Goal Setting


When you set goals do you struggle to find the right balance between being too tough or too easy?

Here are the “seven deadly sins” of goal-setting, all motivated by the desire to avoid uncomfortable confrontations. 

As you read the descriptions of these “sins”, ask yourself if you recognise any of them in your own dealings with subordinates (or interactions with your boss):

Backing away from tough expectations: You spend more time negotiating the goal downward than in figuring out how to achieve it.
Engaging in charades: You and your people know from the beginning that the goal is just an exercise to convey the appearance of progress, but there’s no hope of achieving it.
Accepting seesaw trades: When your people take on one goal, they are relieved of another one.
Setting vague or distant goals: The time frame is not explicitly defined or set too far into the future, so no one takes it seriously.
Not establishing consequences: You don’t really differentiate between those who successfully achieve goals and those who do not.
Setting too many goals: By assigning an overabundance of objectives you allow subordinates to pick and choose the goals that they either want to do or find easiest to do — but not necessarily the ones that are most important.
Allowing deflection to preparations, studies, and research: You allow people to spend time planning instead of committing to a real goal.

Setting specific goals in a clear and compelling way — and insisting that people work together to achieve them — is the best way to get results.

Are you putting the right kinds of demands on your people, or are you committing some of the deadly sins?

Share/Save/Bookmark