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Every executive and business owner has one key objective and that is to
improve performance. Behind every business objective, (whether it is, for
example, to grow your business by 10%, increase ROI by 5% or become a better
leader), is the innate desire to improve performance. It is this aspiration
that makes us successful in our labours. Leadership development specialist
Judith Germain of Dynamic Transitions Ltd recommends adopting seven simple
goal setting steps to ensure optimum business performance is achievable.
Performance Improvement
can be defined in many ways. For example, the International Board of
Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (2003) defines it as the
process of designing or selecting interventions which may include training
directed toward a change in behaviour, typically on the job.
I believe that
performance improvement is any positive change that can be measured after
you have actively decided to make a change in your current circumstances.
This is why defining the improvement requirement and measurement method is
so critical.
If we assume therefore,
that a key success factor in business is to improve performance, where would
you start? A logical approach would be to decide which area of performance
needs improving and look for experts in this field to enable you to achieve
the appropriate improvement. For example, you may need to improve your sales
so you engage a marketing consultant to enable you to achieve this.
In reality, the first
step towards performance improvement is defining your goal. Following a goal
setting process will ensure that performance enhancement is made.
The Goal Setting Process
There are seven steps to
setting the goals that will achieve your objectives and improve your
performance. Using the above example of improving sales to explain the goal
setting process, the seven steps are as follows:
1.
Define what you wish to achieve
To begin the process,
consider what it is that you broadly want to achieve. For example, you wish
to improve your performance by increasing sales.
2.
Make sure that your goal is specific and time bound
Once you have determined
the broad area of improvement you will need to define your goal more
specifically. What is it that you wish to achieve and how will you measure
the change? What is the appropriate timeframe for the improvement? These are
the first questions that you need to ask yourself. If you are not specific
in your goals then it will be difficult to achieve it, especially if you
have not set a timeframe for achievement. Many of us work best when we have
deadlines to work towards. Setting realistic timeframes and measurements
enables us to assess our progress.
3. State your goals
appropriately
It is very easy to
sabotage yourself when you are setting yourself improvement targets. You may
consciously wish to improve your sales but subconsciously believe that
improving your sales will increase your profits. Increasing your profits may
make you believe that you will be wealthy and wealthy people are never
happy. You therefore sabotage your attempts to improve your sales. The
annoying thing is you may have set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic and time bound) objectives perfectly, but are not able to achieve
them because you are unknowingly working against your core values. For
example – I want to be happy and being wealthy means I will not be happy.
To ensure that you
achieve your goals you need to understand fully why you wish to achieve them
and what has been stopping you from achieving them. It can take time to
discover your subconscious motivations and realities but once this has been
achieved you will be able to achieve your goals because you are not working
against yourself. You are now ready to state your goals in a positive
fashion. Goals should never be stated negatively, for example, ‘I will not
fail to improve my sales’.
The reason for this is
because the subconscious mind cannot process negativity. It will look for
the command in the statements that it ‘hears’. So in the above statement it
‘hears’ the command ‘I will fail to improve my sales, not’. This is another
example of you sabotaging your ability to achieve. Your goal could be stated
‘I will improve my sales by 10% within 3 months’. To support this goal you
could also assert the statement ‘I have improved my sales in July’. By
believing that change is possible enables you to draw towards yourself
opportunities to exploit positively.
4. Record your goal
and have leverage
To ensure that you
become fully committed to your goal you should record it. This will give the
subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more
information you give it, the more clarity the final outcome has. Once you
have recorded the goal you will need to write down the factors that will
motivate you to achieve the goal. It helps to know whether you are motivated
towards or away from things. For example, if you improve sales you will be
able to retire early (positive motivation), if you improve sales you will
not be bankrupt (negative motivation). If you are aware of how you are
motivated you will be able to record a number of reasons why you must
achieve the goal based on your motivation bias. You will have established
leverage on yourself and make performance improvement more likely.
5. Check your
priorities and resources
If you have more than
one goal, you will need to prioritise them to ensure that they do not
conflict with each other in terms of deadlines and values. For example, ‘I
will improve my sales by 10% in 3 months’, and I will reduce production
costs by 1 month’ when you have already decided that the only way to reduce
production costs is by increasing sales. The increase in sales would take 3
months. Only set the number of goals that you can fully focus on. If that is
not possible, then I recommend that you revisit the goal definition stage.
This will ensure that you only tackle the key things that will improve
performance in the timescale that you believe is appropriate. You must
ensure that you have the right resources available to achieve your goal.
Without this vital check you will not be able to realise your desired
outcome.
6. Chunk your goals
and make yourself accountable
It can be difficult to
improve performance when you have provided yourself with a stretch target.
Sometimes the sheer size of a goal can make it unachievable. In
circumstances like this you need to chunk your goals into small more
obtainable ones. For example, the goal to improve sales by 10% in 3 months
can seem difficult to achieve. To achieve this goal you can chunk it down to
smaller goals (ie increase the number of sales conversions. This can be done
by increasing the number of targeted cold calls by 15%). This process will
enable you to set manageable smaller goals that work towards the larger
goal. Make yourself accountable, by telling someone of your goals. This will
help focus you on achievement. You are more likely to achieve your goal if
you have to explain to a third party why you have not completed your goal.
If you feel that you cannot, find a third person who will be objective in
this process, like a mentor or coach, then write your goal in a place where
you will see it regularly.
7. Check and review
progress
This is the final step.
It is important to ensure that everything that you do is working towards the
performance improvement. By checking and reviewing progress you will be able
to adjust your performance accordingly.
Judith Germain is
managing director of Dynamic Transitions, a leadership company which specialises
in developing leadership talent and helping companies to nurture effective
and productive leaders (www.developing-leadership.com) |
