A New Year: Resolutions or Goals???
I've been wondering.... why do so many New Year's Resolutions - no matter how sincerely, well intended at the time they are made - amount in so many dismal failures, when research consistently shows goal-setting to be a reliable approach to motivating the behaviours & persistence that lead to achievement?
Maybe its the same reason so many performance management processes fail to produce motivated people and high performance.
Maybe it's because New Year's resolutions aren't goals - they are shoulds...agreed to in order to please or appease our conscience (or those dear others around us who have voluntarily assumed the role of our conscience!)
In the same way, many 'goals' set by managers aren't 'goals'... they are shoulds... agreed to by anxious (and resentful) employees in order to please or appease 'the boss' (in whose hands we have placed our fate).
In a 2006 Fortune article, on What It Takes to be Great, Geoffrey Colvin highlights the difference between a good intention (I want to be a better golfer or I'm gonna improve my game) and regular, sustained and deliberate (ie goal-focussed) practice:
Maybe its the same reason so many performance management processes fail to produce motivated people and high performance.
Maybe it's because New Year's resolutions aren't goals - they are shoulds...agreed to in order to please or appease our conscience (or those dear others around us who have voluntarily assumed the role of our conscience!)
In the same way, many 'goals' set by managers aren't 'goals'... they are shoulds... agreed to by anxious (and resentful) employees in order to please or appease 'the boss' (in whose hands we have placed our fate).
In a 2006 Fortune article, on What It Takes to be Great, Geoffrey Colvin highlights the difference between a good intention (I want to be a better golfer or I'm gonna improve my game) and regular, sustained and deliberate (ie goal-focussed) practice:
- Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.
What I am trying to achieve while doing this (the goal) is equally clear and unambiguous: leave the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time.
Are your New Year resolutions as clearly defined and unambiguous? AHow about the goals you set as work, for yourself or others?
Maybe this year is the year to practice setting defined and unambiguous goals in order to become an effective manager or leader... hmmm now, what would my goal be? How will I define success?
posted by Gail Broady at
8:55 AM
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