To chart your mission, your team must determine what accomplishments would lead to your vision. An organization that has well-defined goals is more likely to achieve success. A group that shares a vision can go far.

Allowing team members to participate in goal-setting is the focus of the article, “Workshops Aid in Goal Setting,” in Unit Three of the Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Development Studies text. William B. Werther, Jr. points out that members of the organization are more likely to be supportive of goals they actually helped set. Participation creates a sense of ownership and a feeling of common destiny among those who help set the goals. Also, group wisdom can help eliminate impractical ideas.

Werther also recommends that goal-setting sessions produce goals that are SMART (simple, measurable, accountable, realistic and timely.)

Simple:
Complex goals are harder to communicate. As Werther points out, “Clear, simple, specific goals give people an unmistakable vision of what needs to be done.”

Measurable:
If a goal cannot be measured, it is often difficult to determine when it has been achieved. Establish how progress will be determined.

Accountable:
Although accountability may be shared by team members, the successful accomplishment of goals often depends on a specific individual being held accountable for each goal. Accountability adds a sense of urgency and purpose to the goal. Team members are more likely to do a good job if they know they will be held accountable for the results.

Realistic:
Consider whether or not you have the resources to make each goal a reality. Goals need to be meaningful to your team members. Goals without meaning are often considered unrealistic.

Timely:
Checkpoints and deadlines should be established for achieving goals. A timeline for completing tasks can help make the goal more action-oriented. Placing a specific completion time on a project and assigning individual accountability may lead to a more proactive approach to achieving objectives.

Finally, the purpose of goal-setting actually goes beyond identifying the goals your organization wishes to achieve. As Werther explains, “The process used to decide priorities and targets should leave the group enthused and committed. The involvement of others taps their ideas and creativity, which is more likely to spark the attainment of smart objectives.”

Principle-based goal setting uses all four of the unique human endowments:

• creative imagination
• independent will
• conscience
• self-awareness

Access all of these endowments and unleash the power of principle-based goal setting by thinking deeply about three vital questions: What? Why? and How?

Covey, Merrill, and Merrill explain each of these questions.

• What? What do you desire to accomplish? What is the contribution I want to make? What is the end I have in mind? A principle-based “what” focuses on growth and contribution.
• Why? Why do I want to do it? Does my goal grow out of mission, needs, and principles? Does it empower me to contribute through my roles? The key to motivation is motive. It’s the “why.” If a goal isn’t connected to a deep “why,” it may be good, but it usually isn’t best. We need to question the goal. If it is connected, we need to push our thinking and feeling until we break through and create an open flow between the passion of vision and the goal. The stronger the connection, the stronger and more sustained the motivation.
• How? How am I going to do it? What are the key principles that will empower me to achieve my purpose? What strategies can I use to implement these principles?

In short, Covey, Merrill, and Merrill write that a principle-based goal is the right thing, for the right reason, in the right way.

Focused thinking about using all four of the human endowments, setting and reaching goals and regularly checking the balance in your “Personal Integrity Account” are what Covey, Merrill, and Merrill say are required to build character strength and nurture true growth.

Source: Covey, Stephen R., A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca R. Merrill. First Things First: To Live, To Love, To Learn, To Leave a Legacy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Strengths include -

• advantages and skills, things you and others in the group do well
• resources
• established successes
• lessons learned from past failures or setbacks

Weaknesses include -

• skills and things you and others need to improve
• things you need to avoid (distractions that exist)
• things that are going poorly

To determine Opportunities -

• consider trends
• consider issues important in other parts of the organization or community
• consider local events

To identify threats -

• consider obstacles
• consider shortages of needed resources (including personnel, time and money)
• consider other organization’s or department’s activities and needs
• SWOT can bring structure and a systematic method to a group reflection process to gather, analyze, and evaluate information and identify strategic options you are facing.

Once you have recorded lists of things for each category, try looking at the lists in different ways:

S/O Analysis — consider how you may employ strengths to take advantage of opportunities.
W/O Analysis — consider how you can overcome weaknesses to take advantage of development opportunities
S/T Analysis — consider how your strengths can help you counteract threats that will hinder achievement of goals or objectives
W/T Analysis — consider how you can overcome weaknesses and thus prepare to counteract threats.

Maathai articulated her vision to re-forest the stripped Kenyan woodlands and establish principles and practices of sustainable development 30 years ago. Since then, the people, mostly poor women, joining the Green Belt Movement she founded have planted 30 million trees. From a vision to re-forest however, Maathai and the Green Belt Movement have progressively set ever more ambitious goals understanding that the vision of ecologically sound, lasting development also depended upon education and health, democratic involvement, ending corruption, and promoting peaceful solutions to political conflicts. She has followed her vision steadfastly wherever new insight into the causes of the de-forestation led her, and to combat whatever obstacles prevented her from continuing her work. Hers is a powerful lesson that a single-minded focus on a vision does not produce narrowly-focused goals.

To read more about Wangari Maathai, visit the Nobel Committee web site for the Peace Prize.

You may also wish to read a BBC news article with numerous links to additional information.

[Monika Byrd, October 2004]
Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Director of Leadership Development Programs.?

Tis the season of New Year’s Resolutions, so it is an excellent time to explore the importance of planning. Many of us make resolutions, but few of us write them down, and even fewer write a plan for achieving the goal or goals, and only a small number of those who write a plan, refer to it regularly. Workforce surveys indicate that only 3% of us write down goals, and less than 1% refer to the written goals. In the above quote, Daniel Burnham refers to plans and diagrams perhaps in a strictly architectural context, but there is wisdom in his words for any trade, profession, or pursuit. If we analyze some key parts of this quote, we can derive several important concepts to keep in mind when planning.

“magic to stir men’s blood”
It is not likely that you will finish a plan, any plan, that is not significant, important, or inspirational. It must have meaning! If it is a personal objective for which you are making an action plan, it must have great personal interest to you or you must have realized there is significant benefit to you in achieving it. Write these reasons down, even memorize them — not the objective, but the reasons why the objective is important to you. The underlying purpose and the compelling reasons to pursue an objective are what will keep you going when the going gets tough on the road to your objective.

“aim high in hope and work”
This means setting standards and expectations. Without high standards for the work of your objective and without high expectations of yourself and your ability to complete the objective, you will not grow and your objective has much less meaning (see above). Another way of remembering to do this is to recall that “the goals you set are the goals you get.”

“a noble, logical diagram”
What does Burnham mean by “noble”? Some synonyms from the thesaurus include worthy, impressive, brilliant, dignified, grand, magnificent, refined, stately ; and in chemistry, the word noble means inert, or will not react (e.g. will not rust in presence of oxygen) and is thus consistent, persistent, and lasting — gold, platinum are noble metals. Burnham, as an architect, understood the importance of design, which is much more than how something looks. It is how things fit together, work together, flow, fit the environment and the intended usage, and he worked toward a design that would meet present and future needs, as well as a design that is aesthetically pleasing. His designs have stood the test of time and were precursors to important developments in modern skyscraper architecture. Why the word “logical”? Designs, or plans, must also be clear, orderly, precise, and detailed in order to execute them.

To sum up a lesson we can derive from Burnham then: take your objectives and reflect on the underlying meaning and articulate what motivates you to work toward the objective; set high expectations for completion with grand success; create a detailed, orderly, and executable plan.

[Monika Byrd, January, 2005].
Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Director of Leadership Development Programs.

If you tell the story to yourself, or to others in your group, about why a goal is important and the imagined journey that will unfold in achieving the goal, getting started becomes less fearful, the process of working toward the goal becomes more predictable, and the expectation of completion is a “happy ending.” Done well, a story mobilizes and energizes people around achieving the goal.

There are several other reasons to try a narrative or story-telling approach the next time you are setting a goal and seeking to motivate yourself or others to achieve it. When you develop the story, you have to think about plot: the sequence of events, what will be pivotal and what will be peripheral, what obstacles will get in the way and how will the people of the story overcome them. You also have to determine who the main characters are and how their personalities and talents fit the plot and drive the outcome. In short, you are creating a comprehensive plan for reaching a goal.

[Monika Byrd, April 2005]
Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Director of Leadership Development Programs.

• Accomplish great projects.
• Peace of mind.
• Know, be, do and achieve more.
• Increase your enthusiasm and motivation.
• Improve your self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Improve your time-management skills.
• Make better decisions.
• Reach your dreams! After all a goal is a dream with a deadline!

As you set your goals, remember to start with SMART Goals. SMART is an acronym for

Simple, easy to understand and clear to everyone
Measurable, quantitative measures work best
Accountable, someone must be responsible for achieving the goal
Realistic, both in terms of being meaningful and affordable
Timely, each element of action that must occur to achieve the goal should have a deadline established

First, you need to decide on your lifetime or long-term goals. What is it that you want to achieve in your lifetime?