Part 1: In other words, management leaders love to talk about goal-setting but they ignore crucial steps that must come before
There’s a whole science dedicated to goal-setting – there are goals and there are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals. Someone the pointed out that your definition of ‘achievable’ may just be what’s keeping your goals too limited and so they gave it a C for challenge. Now, goals are supposed to be SMART-C where your definition of what you can achieve is constantly being challenged by the added C. These are important conversations to have but surely we’re missing something when we lose the sight of our goals from time to time.
SMART-C in December, gone by Feb… that doesn’t sound like effective goal-setting in the first place. I’ve been there myself and from my experience, I can say there’s nothing wrong with the idea of setting goals in the first place. The SMART and SMART-C iterations are fine as well. But, when the entire operation goes belly up by February, the defenders of goal-setting try to pin the blame on your sense of commitment at some point. Then your sense of discipline gets called in. It becomes collateral damage. Your self-esteem pays the price. Come December, here’s an opportunity for a do-over. The business is cyclical. It keeps these professionals in business.
Therefore, it helps to be reminded of the needed to set goals from time to time, as I was just now while reading Prakash Iyer’s ‘The Habit of Winning’, which happens to be my Secret Santa gift by the way. He puts it simply:
‘It takes just three steps.
Step one: Write down your goals.
Step two: Make a commitment to action, to doing what it takes.
Step three: Take the first step. Today!’
That’s it. And that’s all. Easy-peasy apple squeezy, like my kindergarten-going kiddo says. If you remind him it’s lemon-squeezy and not apple-squeezy, he says he’d like to squeeze apples instead. Then you stop and think, yeah, let’s squeeze apples as easily as we squeeze lemons. wow. There’s something there. But we’re distracting ourselves.
Prakash’s reminder to set goals is very welcome. But, its portrayed simplicity misrepresents the level of complexity involved. Most humans are like robots conditioned by their basic impulses and their upbringing. And if they weren’t exposed to the magic of delaying gratification, productive work, etc. their operant conditioning drives their entire life. Because if their operant conditioning allowed them, they’d be in Prakash Iyer’s place writing this book and teaching others about goal-setting.
Our yearnings indicate what we lack. And if we lack the clarity to set goals, asking people to set goals is not the step One. Iyer’s step one is far upstream of step 0, which is to look for clarity. That should be your goal 1. Clarity – what do you want to do and why. And what you do NOT want to do and why. Often times, it’s easier to define what you do NOT want to do, which then leads you to what you do want to do. That Clarity bestows a certain direction for you, which illuminates your purpose. Once this is done, you can define your goals, set them, adopt them, design them, and all that jazz. Easy-peasy.
My realisation is that as people, we lack this clarity. We don’t know what we really want to do with ourselves. And most of this is the outcome of such operant conditioning. Which, again, leads you to a life where you keep hunting for goals while actually you should be looking for clarity. For one who is clear, goals become a scale. For one who isn’t, goals are obstacles that they try to pile higher and higher while failing through it all, looking back at the finishing line with regret. Sometimes even remorse.
I’ve seen that it’s usually the management guys that love to talk about goals and goal-setting. I think it’s intuitive for them because they assume that purpose and clarity are theirs to champion. That they’re the custodians of the purpose and clarity of the people they manage. And so, the only thing that remains for you to do is define and set your goals and spend your life trying to achieve them.
Almost like: “When I ask you to jump, you say “how high?”” Classic management speak. This is what creates the classic burnout and the quiet quitting and all its varieties.
But now, times are a changing. We’re less and less in thrall of managers. The big sharks are talking agency. They want us all to exercise their agency. We’re coming out of those discussions feeling like Rip van Winkle just woke up in a new world.
More about this in my next post.
Teacher Takes Notes 