Goal setting, while essential, creates a unique paradox.
The moment you set a goal you immediately recognize you are NOT where you want to be. The gap between your present state and your desired future comes into focus.
But worse yet, when you look at the journey ahead, the mind immediately searches for potential perils and obstacles, and generates a list of doubts, fears, and problems that will need to be resolved to get to your desired future.
Let’s be clear. A goal is a milestone—a marker on the road to a brighter more desired future. Goals help you measure progress. You may have heard the business adage: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
As a leader, one of the biggest problems to solve is how to help inspire positive goal-achieving mindsets and drive-out negative mindsets that would otherwise hinder or derail a team’s ability to accomplish the work ahead.
Three essential mindsets:
- Mindset #1: We know where we are going! Help your team envision the desired future, and mentally simulate the accomplishment of the goal. When you can see, hear, and feel the end results of having arrived at your completed goal, you have a stronger reference point for directing your thoughts and actions today.
- Mindset #2: This matters to us all! Keep the “why” front and center to help tackle all the projects and tasks ahead. When you focus on the goal behind the goal, the goal becomes more meaningful. It is easier to dedicate time and energy when you have a strong purpose and know the benefits to be realized.
- Mindset #3: We can do this! Taking the first step must demonstrate a full-out commitment, not a wishy-washy “let’s try” approach. When you are all in, you and your team will be unstoppable. You will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to arrive at the goal. Commitment includes giving everyone the necessary resources to succeed; time-allocation, energy management, skill building, management support, and budgetary requirements.
