By Robert Pagliarini,
Tribune Media Services
If you set goals for yourself or for others as part of your job, it is imperative that you don’t make these three goal crushing mistakes. You already learned how positive fantasies hurt real-world success — that when you imagine the positive result too vividly, you experience some of the joy and become less energized to actually do the work. But that’s just the beginning. Not all goals are created equally. According to research from Harvard Business School on goal setting, you need to avoid these three big goal-setting mistakes:
1. Goals that are too specific. One of the benefits of a goal is that is focuses your attention. From an unlimited number of things you could do, a goal forces you to focus all of your attention, resources and energy into one area. This focus can be incredibly powerful. A guy without a goal diffuses his energy across multiple objectives; however, take that same person and have him focus and you will begin to see results. That’s the good news. The bad news is that goals can be too specific.
What’s the problem with goals that are too focused? A couple of things. The biggest problem is when you set the wrong goal. You set a goal of losing 15 pounds. Seems reasonable, but it may be too focused on a number and not accurately reflect what you really want — better health. Remember Enron? Their goal was laser-focused on hitting revenue targets. So much so that bonuses and other incentives were pegged to revenue when a much better goal would have been to target profits.
Another side effect of goals that are too specific is that you can become blind to important issues that “appear unrelated” to your goal. A tragic example of this is the Ford Pinto. Their goal was to bring the Pinto to market. Period. Safety testing? That’s secondary and will impede our progress to reach our goal to bring the new vehicle to market.
2. Too many goals. According to the Harvard report, “Individuals with multiple goals are prone to concentrate on only one goal.” But which goal? Research shows that when we have both quantity and quality goals, we will focus on meeting the quantity goals because they are easier to achieve and measure. The lesson here is to strip away as many of your goals as possible and focus more intensely on a smaller number.
3. Inappropriate time horizon. We see this play out every quarter in the stock market. It’s all about hitting this quarter’s earnings. Let’s do whatever we can to prop up short-term performance — even if it might sacrifice long-term growth. It’s the kick-the-can approach to goal achievement. If you have a time frame that isn’t effective, your goals may act as a ceiling to performance. The authors of the Harvard report highlight a study that answers the question of why it is so hard to get a cab on a rainy day. Too much demand, right? Yes, but there is more to it than that. Cab drivers typically set daily fare goals — usually double the amount it costs them to rent their cabs for their shift. With rain comes more customers so they hit their daily goal early and then go home early. Their daily goal time-frame is not the most effective. Instead of a daily goal, if they set weekly or monthly targets, they could work longer hours when it rains and get off early on days when it is dryer (and slower).
What are your goals? Are they too focused? Do you have too many? Or do you have time limits that aren’t realistic? Go through each of your goals to make sure you aren’t committing these three goal crushing mistakes and that your goals are designed for maximum success.
Robert Pagliarini is a CBS MoneyWatch columnist and the author of “The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose” and the national best-seller “The Six Day Financial Makeover.” Visit YourOther8Hours.com.
This was printed in the June 2, 2013 – June 15, 2013
