How To Set a Goal and Action Plan

Setting Goals and Planning Actions

In working with thousands of supervisors in Diverse Settings, we have noted that Great Leaders, among other Positive Characteristics, always have a set of clearly defined goals.

Supervisors who struggle in their relationships with their employees and have difficulty getting their Team Motivated often have only one Goal: “Just let me survive one more day!”

The Accomplishment of anything Great Begins with Clear Goals.  There is a procedure for setting and Reaching Your Goals.

Whether your goals are Financial, Business, Educational, Family, Physical, Social, Spiritual, or Recreational, you will be successful if you follow this process.

The Goal Setting Process 

Step One : Create a Vision

Successful leaders know the practical value of the visioning process.  They also know that creating a vision is the first step in Goal Setting.  Before you begin to set a goal, you need a clear mental picture of what it is you want to achieve.  The Picture is your vision of success.

Visioning Process

To Start the visioning Process, You must get in Touch with your True Desire.

• What is important to you ?


• What matters ?


• What do you care about ?


• What do you really want ?


• See Yourself in the Picture.


• What are you doing ?


• What are you saying ?


• Wearing ?


• Who else is with you ?


• How are people treating one another ?


• How do you feel about yourself ?


• About the others around you ?

The visioning process requires quiet reflection. Are Step back from your busy, fast paced environment and Relax, Releasing your Creativity and Imagination.  The more relaxed you are and the farther away
you are from Day to Day Tensions, the easier it is to create, the easier it is to visualize.   The ability to see yourself successfully achieving your goal is a critical first step in the goal setting Process.

Step Two : Decide and Actions

Now that your vision is clear, you can begin to Determine the actions that must be taken to achieve the vision.  The Actions become the Specific Goals that are to be accomplished.  A goal is a Target, an end or an objective.

Step Three : Identify Roadblocks

Now that you know what it will take to achieve your vision by outlining key actions or goals, you can begin to identify the barriers or roadblocks that may get in your way.  It may sound negative to spend
your time and energy thinking about barriers or problems, but there are two good reasons for this :

First, if you are able to think about what problems could stop you, you can also begin to generate plans to get around the problems if they should arise.

Second, when they do come up, they do not paralyze you.  

Many people have had their goals undermined when problems surfaced.  Sometimes people will even tell you they thought the problems would arise.

Step Four : List the Benefits

If you spend time listing the problems or roadblocks you could encounter, you will find it much easier to generate a list of benefits you would receive when you achieve the goal.  The question that then needs to be answered is, “Do the benefits make the goal worth Achieving ? “If the answer is yes, you know that it is worth tackling the problems to achieve the benefits of goal attainment.

Continuing with our example, some of the benefits of going back to school and obtaining a degree might be

1.Improved chances for promotion,

2.Increased Salary,

3.Enhanced Self Esteem, and

4.The feeling or accomplishing something you have wanted for many years.

So Focus on the problems and attain benefits.

Step Five : Write the Goal

The research on high achievers shows that successful goal setters write out their goals.  Without Writing down the goal, it is merely an idea or a wish.  Writing it down helps to bring it to life.

Here is a simple, yet effective guideline for Writing Good Goals,

It is called the S-M-A-R-T  Each letter of the S-M-A-R-T Model refers to a characteristic of effective Goals.

Specific,

Measurable,

Attainable,

Relevant,

Time Bound.

Step Six : Design an Action Plan

Now that you have your goals and they are S-M-A-R-T Goals, you know exactly what you want to
achieve and by when.  The last step in the goal setting process is to Design a specific Action Plan to achieve the goals.  This is a step by step breakdown of the small actions you will take to achieve each goals and when you will take them.

Back to the Degree Example.  Let’ say your goal is stated like this:

I will complete my MBA Degree by December 2021.Your specific

Action Plan might look like the one on the next page.

Each time you complete an action, check it off or scratch it out and then celebrate.  You are on your way to achieving your ultimate goal!.