Setting goals is a great tool to inspire and motivate you. Goals give you a sense of direction and help you prioritize the most important tasks. Setting goals is one way to increase your productivity and effectiveness. In addition, achieving goals contributes immensely to a sense of happiness. However, practice shows that it is often very difficult to set the right goals. Here are some of the most common mistakes, so you don't have to make them anymore:
1. Not setting goals
The biggest mistake in goal setting is not to set goals. This is because goals give you a framework, which makes it easy to determine what is important and what is less important. It gives you a dot on the horizon where you want to go and therefore helps you make decisions. In addition, setting goals creates more energy and perseverance because we are eager to achieve this goal. Finally, goals increase your creativity and self-confidence. After all, you want to use all your knowledge, experience and skills to achieve your goal. Research shows that in 95% of organizations, setting goals leads to more productivity . Super important!
2. Setting goals for others
In many organizations, goals are still imposed by the organization. They determine who gets to work on what and what the associated goals are. This is because they require their employees to change. Employees themselves have no control over the goal and are not allowed to determine how they are going to achieve it. The new way of working requires a different way of organizing. It is demotivating for employees when goals are imposed on them by their manager or the organization. Therefore, let teams and employees set their own goals based on the organizational goals. That way, they notice that they are contributing to the higher goal, and they feel more involved.
3. Setting too many goals
When you start setting goals, several things come to mind. After all, there is still plenty to improve. However, you only have a certain amount of time and energy, and you can't pay attention to all of them. By setting too many goals and focusing on too many things at once, you are not giving each goal the attention it needs. In this, then, "quality is more important than quantity. Choose up to three goals you want to achieve. Make choices and dwell on what is achievable.
4. Setting goals that are too general
"I want to generate more leads this quarter." Nice, but what does that really mean? If you generated one more lead than last quarter, that means you have more leads. But does that really make a difference in your work? Probably not. The goal is not specific enough. How many more leads do you want to generate? When are customers satisfied? Make sure your goal is measurable.
5. Setting unrealistic or overly large goals
In the previous tip, we told you that goals should be measurable. Now we like to tell you that goals should be achievable in the time you have for them. Of course, as a business administration student you can say you want to become a pilot, and maybe that is achievable, but do you also have 2 years of time and enough money to achieve this goal? After all, you don't go from student to pilot in one week. Set realistic goals, with end dates, start small and build it up bigger and bigger. A good tip is to set a BHAG . This is a goal for about 10 years from now. You divide this goal into smaller goals that you need to achieve in a short period of time to get to the final goal.
6. Not tracking your progress
You work very hard, set about 3 realistic goals and do everything you can to achieve them. Because it takes a lot of time and effort, sometimes it feels like you're not moving forward. By constantly checking where you stand, how much you have done and what you still need to do, you are more driven to reach your goal. So always monitor your progress. You can do this very easily in Treams' app. In it you set goals, track your progress and you and your manager take notes. This way you both know at any time how you are doing and what you still need to do.