O is for OMG we’re already marching through February!

O is for OMG we’re already marching through February!

O is for … oh my goodness where did January go?!   Can you believe that we’re already marching through February?  As I sit in my office and look out into the garden, I can see crocus, snowdrops and daffodils pushing their little heads through the earth and a number of trees are laden with their blossom.  Isn’t it lovely to see that the days are getting longer and know that Spring is just around the corner?

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Although nature is seizing the moment, are you?  Have you created the right foundations for your business to enable you to achieve the results you desire this year?  And have you made everyone in your team aware by sitting down to discuss their objectives so they know what is expected of them?

People who achieve great things don’t get there by accident, they spend time planning where they want to get to and then map out the best route to get them there.  There’s a great quote by Thomas S Monson that says ‘We may not be able to direct the wind, but we can always adjust the sails’ and this is what setting objectives is all about.  Deciding what the end point looks like and then putting steps in place to help us achieve it, taking into consideration the obstacles that may get in our way so that we can create alternative routes to navigate them.

In business life I’ve always used the acronym S.M.A.R.T. to help me set goals, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Timely.  However last year, when I was working with my friend and colleague Krys Gadd, she introduced me to Roger Mager’s P.C.S. framework and I found it extremely helpful.  It concentrates on three elements.

P = Performance – what do you want to achieve?

C = Conditions – under what circumstances?

S = Standards – to what standard do you want to achieve it?

For example, I would like to lose and maintain 20lbs in weight over the next twelve months by eating a healthy diet and exercising for a minimum of 40 minutes three times a week. The performance is to lose 20lbs, under the condition of eating a healthy diet and exercising three times per week and the standard is to lose and maintain it.  Simple eh?!  Try it out the next time you’re setting objectives.  It really does create clarity in what you’re wanting to achieve.

It was Michaelangelo who said ‘the greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark’. If you are going to achieve great things this year, set your aims high and stretch yourself as you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve when you have the right support structures in place.  We are more likely to achieve our goals if we know that we can do them with the right help.

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Another way in which we let ourselves down when setting goals is to use verbs that make our success more subjective, ie more difficult to measure whether we’ve achieved what we set out to do!  If you use any of the following ‘wishy washy’ words such as:

  • to appreciate
  • to understand/know
  • to have awareness of
  • to be capable/familiar

try swapping them for some of the more measureable words in the table below:

Action verbs for Objectives

If we have true clarity of what is expected of us, we should be able to visualise what it looks and feels like to achieve it.  I’m a visual person so I like to have a pictorial goal.  A number of years ago I attended a weekend workshop in London to understand the work of Brian Mayne which focused on, amongst other things, goal setting.  I loved the way he linked the achievement of our goals to having an emotional as well as a mental attachment.  Having reflected on goals of the past that only just passed the starting line but were nowhere near completion, I realise that I had set them with good intentions but only put a tick box plan in place.   I hadn’t created the emotional attachment to make sure it was achieved when the going got tough, or even when something more exciting came along!

I know it might sound pretty obvious, but there are two main reasons why we don’t achieve our objectives and that’s because:

  • we either can’t do what’s expected of us ie we don’t have the skill to be able to do It, or
  • we can’t be bothered – there isn’t the motivation to do it

If it’s the former we can either get help from others, attend training, read up online etc, but if we don’t have the desire to achieve our goal ie don’t have the emotional engagement with the objective we may just be setting ourselves up to fail!!

You can always tell if you’ve created an emotional attachment to your goal as there is an excitement about doing it.  If you are visual, like me, it may be best to get creative and draw what your goal looks like.  As drawing isn’t my greatest skill, I often source pictures online or cut pictures out of magazines to create the right image and garner my excitement.   If pictures aren’t your thing, write the words that determine what you want to achieve.  Whichever one you choose, make sure you have your goals in a place where you will see them daily – they could be on the wall in your office or in the front of your note book.  The key is to have them in a place where you see them regularly as this will be a reminder for you and help you to remain focused.

The final element of course is to have some kind of recognition other that reaching the goal.  If you break your main goal into smaller chunks, it gives you opportunities to celebrate success more regularly which once again helps reinforce the message that you’re on the right track!   As those of you who have worked with me regularly know, I believe that everything I discuss has an impact on both our personal and business lives.  So if you have some dreams in your personal life turn them into reality by setting goals.  When the thoughts are in our heads, they may feel that they are too big to achieve.  However, once we start writing them down and creating those bitesize chunks, they feel much more at reach.  Below, I’ve noted down a checklist for writing your personal and business objectives which I hope you will find useful.

Personal objectives

Business objectives

If you were doing what you really wanted to be doing, what would it be?  Start by dreaming and then write down the most important ones

Be clear on the reason your job exists and then set up to six objectives to achieve the outcomes required

Break each of your goals into bite size chunks and set a timescale for achievement of each task

Take each goal and create realistic timescales for achievement of each element

Be realistic about obstacles that may get in your way and plan to reduce their impact/get rid of them completely

Determine who will be able to help you achieve your goals, what development you may require and plan to

Reread your goals daily and observe what is happening.  Tweak what needs to happen as necessary to keep you on track.

Have one to ones regularly to discuss progress and maintain engagement in the goal.  Discuss what’s going well and what would make the achievement even better.  Alter the journey if required.

At the end of each day/week, sit down and note down at least three things that have helped you move towards achieving your ultimate goals.  Celebrate small wins.

Celebrate success

So remember, the going may get tough throughout the year, but that doesn’t mean you should give up … as Confucious said ‘when it’s obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the steps‘.