A Layman’s Guide to Goal Management

Every individual and organisation operate with some goals. Without proper goals, all the efforts and resources go wasted. It is not necessary that you have one goal. You can have many goals that you want to achieve over time. If you do not track them, it might cause confusion and goals might not be achieved on time as planned.

Goal management is a powerful way of working towards your set desires. But! What is goal management?

Goal management is the procedure of defining your goals and tracking them to ensure that you are moving in right direction. If you track your goals, it is easier for you to identify an issue and get the right guidance on time. Goal management services help organisations to evaluate their effort and performance. They also help in motivating and inspiring the employees of the company so that they put their best to achieve both personal and organisational goals.

Why is Goal Management Important?

It is true that one needs talent and skills to be successful. But without any set goal or performance standard, it is easy to deviate from the path of attaining success. Goal management uses remarkable problem-solving capabilities of the human brain. Goals signal your brain to find solutions within a definite period of time. With regular efforts and accomplishment of set goals, the brain becomes motivated enough to make it a habit.

The importance of goal setting and management is being recognised by biggest business enterprises all across the globe, including Google. If you consider data from various online surveys, you will see that by setting and managing goals the performance can be improved by 45%. It is also 65% more effective in reducing costs, effort and time.

Reasons to Set Strong Goals

Whether you are working individually, in a team or as a part of an organisation, it is important to set goals. Here’s why:

• Setting strong goals helps you focus and reduces procrastination
• Goals keep you motivated
• Golas help you to save time, effort and resources
• Setting goals strategically allow you to prioritise certain goals over others
• Goals allow you to measure progress

In their book - “Built To Last”, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras talk about the power of goals. The book talks about- big, hairy, audacious goals or BHAGs. They mention that these big goals motivate us to reach higher. And they explain their concept through the real-life example of American President John F. Kennedy. On May 25, 1961, he had set a national goal to send an American safely to the moon. The goal was achieved on July 20, 1969.

The Indian author, Nakul Grover, has also crafted a nice FREE e-book on Goal Management that’s helping people around the globe to turn their dreams into reality.

How to Set Strong Goals?

To manage and accomplish your goals, you need to know the art of setting them. Unlike the popular belief, goal setting is a process that requires a lot of careful considerations. Here are a few steps that will help you to set stronger goals that will take you ahead on your road of success.

1. Belief and Confidence

You need to have belief in the process of goal setting along with confidence in your abilities to make it successful.

2. Write Your Goals

To make your goals effective and motivating, you need to write it down. Writing your goals helps you to plan the course of actions, schedule dates for completion, and find standards for measurement.

3. Be Specific

When you are setting your goals, you need to be as specific as you can be. A goal incorporates specific facts and events has the much greater scope of being accomplished.

4. Keep It Measurable

You must set goals that you can measure. If you have vague goals without any concrete criteria to adhere to, you will not be able to measure your progress. This will delay the achievement of the goal.

5. Realistic and Attainable Goals

Another important factor to keep in mind while setting strong goals is keeping it real. While you can set huge goals, it is always better to set the ones that are attainable. Do not set goals that are beyond your capabilities or that cannot be attained within the time limit as it can be demotivating.

6. Define the Time of Completion

While setting your goal, you need to set a definite time frame for its completion. Without a definite time of completion, you will not feel the sense of urgency. And the purpose of setting goal will fail.

Once you have set a strong goal, you must also commit to your set goal to ensure that you stay accountable for the accomplishment of it. Your commitment will keep you focused and undistracted.

How to Track & Achieve Your Goals

One can neglect the goal even if they have set a strong goal. To avoid such a situation, it is crucial that you consistently track and review your goals. Given below are some tips to help you track your goals.

Make Your Tracking Effective

The main reason behind unaccomplished goals are distractions and lack of direction. These distractions and lack of direction pop up only when we lose track of our actions while trying to achieve our goal. And this can happen even if you have set a detailed and achievable goal. You need to analyse your progress from time to time.

Discipline is the Key

While you can set and track goals, you cannot achieve much without being disciplined. Discipline helps you to stay motivated and focused on your goal.

Set a Regular Review System

You need to set up a reviewing system that allows you to review your plans, actions and progress related to the goal. The reviewing system helps you to keep a track of what you are doing right and what you can improve. It also constantly reminds you of the goal.

Check Your Action Plan

To be honest, it is easy to be overwhelmed by your goal of thinking about the things that are needed or a starting and ending point. All of us do. But you need to achieve your goals no matter how impossible it seems. Setting up a detailed action plan helps in reducing the feeling of being overwhelmed. You must also review your action plan regularly and make tweaks if needed.

With proper goal management, you can achieve better results. Setting strong goals and tracking them encourages you to stay focused on your action plan until the achievement of your goal. It also helps in enhancing the performance that you put in working towards your goal. In the end, we can say that with strategic goal management anything you want can be accomplished regardless of its nature and size.

Arpita Arya, is the Co-founder of LinkOceans.com. She has been in the digital marketing industry for the past three years and contributed her expertise to various brands over the web. She has gained great experience and skill set in content marketing and improving website's traffic through cross-promotion.