Setting goals is not enough!
I have seen the power of setting goals in various areas where I wanted to see change and progress, notably in my academics, finances, business, fitness, and career. Rather than limiting or paralyzing me, I found that setting goals helped me lay out what steps and support I needed in order to get to where I wanted. They provided me with a sense of satisfaction as I achieved each milestone on the journey. They also motivated me to carry on as life threw curve balls and distractions my way. But is goal setting all it takes? I wish it were.
Many women I have mentored come to me with goals such as securing a new job or promotion. Often, they have had the goal for a while but were unsuccessful in hitting their markers. They had defined the why and the what but not the how. They had not created systems that aligned their behaviour, decisions, and activities with their goals. These systems are known as strategy.
Manifesting the vision of your career involves the continuous process of analyzing your strengths and clarifying what matters, setting “good” goals, and implementing an effective strategy that places you on the right track toward your intention.
In 2007, a professor of psychology at Dominican University, Dr Gail Matthews, conducted a study on achieving goals. Her conclusions found that individuals who wrote down their goals, committed to taking action, and had a robust system of accountability, were almost twice more likely to achieve their goals than those who stopped at just thinking about the goals they wanted to accomplish. These three steps are the fundamental elements of an effective strategy;
Writing Goals Down: This improves your recollection and serves as a form of external storage. Whether it is a simple list or a fancy vision board, have a place where you can easily see the goals you have set for yourself.
Commitment to Act: This means deciding to take daily steps toward your goals based on the information, mindset, and exposure you have. It doesn’t matter how small your actions are or how slow you think you are progressing, you will get closer to success if you keep going. Commitment is more than motivation! Commitment means making a plan and sticking to it. It means not abandoning your goal when you hit an obstacle. Commitment requires hard work and sacrifice. It may mean waking up early, sacrificing free time and money, getting uncomfortable with the unknown, and taking risks. Commitment means doing things you may not want to do because you know it will yield the desired results.
Accountability: This relates to having accountability partners who help you set milestones, ask how you are progressing, and give you tough love when needed. They can be your friends, family, mentors, work colleagues, and even bosses. If you can afford to, you may also want to seek out someone who provides a service professionally, like a career strategist or coach.
In my book, Visible Strengths, I illustrated the efficacy of these three elements with an example of one of my clients, Funmi.
Funmi is an engineer working in financial services who, for about three years, struggled to achieve her goal of relocating countries for work. From our first call, we established that the biggest obstacle to accomplishing her goal was that she had not set good goals and did not have an effective strategy to keep her on track.
To get the ball rolling again, I asked Funmi to do four things.
1. Redraft her goal to make it SMARTER:
Her goal evolved from “I want to relocate countries” to “I want to relocate from the London office to the Paris office of my existing company by December 2018.”
Impact: By getting specific about the city and country she wanted to move to and her preference to remain with her current company, her efforts became more targeted. She focused on internal mobility opportunities in Paris rather than all opportunities in any company and country. Secondly, by selecting a date by which she wanted to move, Funmi was removing optionality from the process and giving herself a deadline toward which she would channel her efforts.
2. Write down her goal where she can see it:
Funmi created a vision board with everything she loved about Paris. She set this as her phone and laptop screen saver. She also wrote down why she believed moving to Paris was good for her career.
Impact: Whenever she picked up one of her devices, the vision board reminded her that Paris was still in the plan.
3. Commit to taking action:
Funmi and I created an extensive list of actions she needed to execute by specific dates, and we worked through them together.
Impact: Funmi realized that there was much to be done if she wanted to position and prepare herself for this transition. She acknowledged that she would continue wishing for the international move if she didn’t take action.
4. Accountability:
Funmi spoke with her father, her close friend, and one of her career mentors about her goal. She shared her list of actions and committed to calling each of them every two weeks to give an update on her progress. She also permitted them to follow up if they did not hear from her. Additionally, she had me as her coach, asking for a progress update on the action items during each session.
Impact: Funmi did not want to disappoint her accountability partners, so she was doubly motivated to ensure that she was executing those action items. She also had a group of people partnering with her on the journey. We gave her advice, connected her with people we knew could be helpful, and pushed her when needed.
Result: Success!
Funmi secured a role in the Paris office of her company to begin in March 2019. She put in the work, and she accomplished her goal.
You can implement the same for any goal you are working to accomplish. Whether securing a new role within your organization, switching careers, asking for expanded responsibilities, asking for a pay raise or promotion, or relocating, if you apply these steps, you will multiply your chances of accomplishing your goal.
To read more about Funmi’s action list and also learn more about the art of goal setting and effective strategy, get Visible Strengths today. If you would like to discuss accountability with a coach, I would love to have a conversation with you!
This article was written by Mary Mosope Adeyemi, Founder & Career Strategist at viSHEbility
References
Matthews, Gail. “Goals Research Summary.” Accessed September 30, 2021. https://www.dominican.edu/sites/default/files/2020-02/gailmatthews-harvard-goals-researchsummary.pdf
