| “People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.” –Anthony |
How compelling are the workplace
goals you have set with your team members? Are they motivated and inspired to
work towards them? Or do they have other more personal goals that are their
real reasons for effort (or lack of effort) in the workplace?
One of the keys to highly effective
coaching is to help coachees identify and clarify goals that stir them to
action: goals that speak to who they are so that they can bring all of their
energy into fulfilling them. Inspiring goals bring out the best in people.
So I’m not talking about
goal-setting, the standard management tool. I’m talking about creating goals
that reach people in a much more personal way.
What makes a goal personally motivating? Well, of
course, the answer is personal!
But here are some tips on how to find highly
personally motivating goals. And let’s start by looking at your goals.
It will be easier to help your team members improve their goals if you have
first maximized the impact of your own.
Tip #1: Find goals that express what you
really want, not just on what you ‘should’ want.
It’s easy to think our goals are our own, but on
closer examination you may realize that you are aiming for something mainly
because of outside influences.
For example, I had a client recently who asked me to
help him improve his leadership skills so that he could get promoted to a
higher level of management. He had been working at a supervisory level for
years, had watched many of his colleagues get promoted before him and was keen
to identify and address the limitations that stopped him from being promoted.
So he had his goal already in mind when we started
working together. But I still questioned him on it. I wanted to know why he
wanted to work at higher levels of leadership. His answers were firstly for the
money, and secondly to meet the expectations of his family.
As we discussed this further, it became obvious that
he could make more money more easily in the long run by doing what he most
enjoyed (not by managing others) and that a large part of his goal was
unconsciously imposed by others. When this became clear through our
conversation, he immediately changed his goal. He decided to become better at
the job he really loved rather than pushing for something that wouldn’t satisfy
him in the long run.
This goal was much more motivating to him because it
connected with what he truly wanted, not just what he thought he should want.
From this example you can see that uncovering
naturally motivating goals takes a deeper conversation. But once the better
goal is discovered, it will provide lasting motivation.
Tip #2: Find goals that are bigger than
personal needs or organizational demands. These goals are for the greater good
and speak to the greatness in you.
The majority of your everyday goals are probably
focused around what you need and what your organization needs. Those are the
goals that are on your ‘To Do List’ and that are written in your annual
performance appraisal. Some could be concrete goals like sales targets and
others may be personal development goals like improving your public speaking
abilities. These are all excellent, practical goals.
But if you ask yourself, really, why you get up in
the morning, you may find there is a bigger reason. Perhaps it’s for your
children and their futures. Maybe you feel a joyful desire to explore the world
or extend yourself. You may be inspired to create prosperity, peace, loving
kindness or other great values. When you think about those goals that have
great personal meaning to you, you may feel a motivation welling up from a
deeper place.
All of us have the potential to connect our
day-to-day goals to those much bigger goals that inspire us to greatness, that
make life worthwhile. With each effort and interaction we make everyday, we can
be working towards the things we most desire for our loved ones and the world.
How do your greater goals connect to what you do
every day?
And what
inspires your team members to live their lives to the fullest? It will be
something different for everyone.
Many people have little experience expressing this
kind of motivation and so they may need some encouragement. One way to start is
by discovering and expressing your own higher motivations for being on this
planet, and then by identifying ways that you express those higher goals
through your everyday activities. By setting an example, you can begin to
stimulate the thinking of others.
Tip #3: Make goals that are big enough to
be exciting, and possible enough to feel real.
All of us have different comfort zones around goals.
When the goal is too easy, it doesn’t demand our attention and has little
impact on our feelings and actions. When the goal is too hard, particularly if someone
else imposes it, it can cause us to resist and become de-motivated. Or if the
goal simply seems impossible then it loses its attraction; it fades and becomes
unreal.
You can adjust your goals by testing their
motivational power over you. Double the goal and see how it feels! Double it
again! Or make other adjustments to test the impact until you have a goal that
stirs you without overwhelming you.
You can also try suggesting adjustments to the goals
of your team members and watch for their responses. If their faces light up
when you suggest a much bigger goal, you know you’re on the right track. But if
you see a glimpse of fear or pulling back, add some realism to the goal. Even
better, ask them to tell you what goal would motivate them.
Conclusion:
Well-designed goals can be highly motivating,
inspiring and fun. Goals that truly move people express personal desires, not just
others’ expectations. They connect to each person’s higher motivations for the
greater good. And they are sized to compel, not to overwhelm.
To help others discover those goals requires deeper
conversations built on strong mutual trust that goes beyond the ordinary level
of workplace conversations. If you have the willingness to form truly
supportive coaching partnerships with your team members, you can use
conversations about goals as a way to deepen your relationships.
The coaching challenge, as usual, is to listen fully and
accept without judgment the true goals of your team members. Identify their
deeper goals, and you will surely find a way to make powerful connections to
their work that will motivate them for the long term.
