Research Backed Ways to Set Effective Goals
Consistently successful people separate themselves from the pack in two distinct ways.
They develop good work habits, and they set effective goals. Life doesn’t just happen to them. They consciously work to shape it.
While we’ve all been told that goals are important. Few of us really understand why and even fewer know how to set effective goals.
Let’s change that.
40 Years Worth of Research
We’re fortunate that goal setting has been formally researched for over 40 years. Academic researchers from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, business and sports performance contribute most of the peer-reviewed research concerning goals. Goals and goal setting have been studied in a wide variety of settings and circumstances, which is a good thing because the breadth and depth of the research agree on several important concepts.
When goals are set effectively the research shows they consistently:
- Direct attention and align behavior to be consistent with the goal
- Energize and motivate you to work toward the goal
- Help you persist when you face challenges
- Lead you to discover new strategies and develop greater knowledge than you would without the goal
Some of that might sound obvious at first because when we think about goals in our personal or professional life we think about the conscious things we do to achieve them. What we don’t think about are the many subtle ways goals shape our behavior outside of our conscious awareness.
When you set an effective goal it causes your brain to focus on information related to the goal and to deprioritize or ignore irrelevant information. This happens both consciously and unconsciously. It is the reason you suddenly notice lots of ads for gyms when you decide you want to get in shape, but don’t notice the ads as frequently before you set the goal. You can literally affect what information makes it into your conscious awareness on a day-to-day basis. That’s a powerful thing and it means we should choose our goals wisely.
Elements of Effective Goals
Goal setting research consistently identifies two factors that are present in goals that work. The two most important factors are that the goal is specific and that it is difficult. Specificity shouldn’t surprise us. If we don’t take the time to clearly determine what we want to achieve, we aren’t likely to get what we want in life. If two people enter a negotiation, and only one person knows exactly what they want to achieve, the person without a clearly defined desired outcomes is going to get what’s left after the goal-directed person’s needs are met first.
Research consistently shows that we are more likely to do something if we clearly state our intention as well as when we will perform the action. Deciding that you “want to read more books this year” is too vague to be actionable. A better goal would be “I will make a list of the most respected books in performance psychology and read 20 pages when I get home from work each day in a book of my choice from the list.” According to the scientific research, people that set timeframes for their desired actions and results are far more likely to follow through and hit their target.
In addition to being specific, the most effective goals are difficult to achieve. Counter-intuitively, we are more energized, committed, and motivated when the goal is challenging. That doesn’t mean you should set absurdly hard goals. If the goal is too extreme, people actually become demotivated as they begin to realize they can’t hit it. A good rule of thumb is to set a goal that is 10% higher than what you think you’re capable of today. That will stretch you enough to grow, but still give you a reasonable chance to hit the target.
Avoiding Destructive Goal Setting
Goals align behavior in a way that can be constructive or destructive.
The Sears Corporation provides a great example. The company set an hourly sales goal for its auto mechanics of $147/hour. To hit the goal; the mechanics started overcharging and recommending unnecessary repairs. That type of behavior isn’t isolated as the public failings of Enron, WorldCom, and Volkswagen attest.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t set goals. It does mean we need to be thoughtful about the goals we choose to set.
Goals should always be consistent with our value system. That is true for both personal and corporate goals. As the Sears example demonstrates, how we do something is as important as what we do.
When we set goals, we should also consider whether or not they conflict with other goals. To do that we need to do the difficult work of deciding what is most important in our life and our work. I want to deadlift 500 pounds by the end of the year, but that isn’t more important than being able to bend over and pick up my son. In a corporate setting, sales goals that don’t include requirements for integrity, customer satisfaction, and profit are a recipe for trouble.
The Takeaway
There are four keys to setting an effective goal. An effective goal is:
- Specific: It should include a timeframe for completion and a specific desired outcome that is ideally measurable
- Difficult: It should be challenging, as much 10% more than you think you are currently capable of achieving
- Values Consistent: It should align with your value system and promote ethical actions
- Supportive: The goal shouldn’t conflict with other more important goals
In practice an effective goal looks like this:
“Our third quarter revenue goal for our core SaaS platform is $5,000,000 in new business sales, which will provide the resources we need to add more developers so that we can advance our mission. We will only be successful if we:
- Deliver fair value to our customers, which we will measure through post-sale customer satisfaction scores of 9 out of 10 or higher
- Develop relationships with our customers based on integrity by only selling what we can deliver
- Sell our product at a gross margin of 80% or higher”
Personal goals can be set in exactly the same manner. For example:
“My goal is to deadlift 500 pounds or more by the end of the year, which will put my strength-to-weight ratio above 3. My goal is only successful if:
- I avoid injuries by never lifting with bad technique and do not push my body when it is not at its best, because my ability to play with my son is more important to me
- Have fun and remember exercise is a way to care for your mind and your body”
Footnotes:
1. Locke, Edwin and Gary Latham “Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey” American Psychologist 57.9 (2002) 705–717
2. Ordonez, Lisa et. All “Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting” Feb 11, 2009
