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Wednesday Wisdom: Are you setting real goals?

This continues our Wednesday Wisdom series where we review some of the top leadership issues we are currently assisting our clients through. We hope you enjoy reading!


Ok, so we all have the corporate goals we need to be working towards. You know, the ones set by the bean counters and the people in the corner offices who lack any idea of what you and your team actually do. You push yourself and your team over the top to make sure your report card shows all “A’s.”


What about the real goals? Do you have any goals that YOU have set for yourself? Do you want to be in this same job this time next year? What about in five years? Do you want to change careers? Do you want to be a better mother/father or husband or wife? What is it that YOU are working towards?


What about your team? Do you talk to them about their goals? Do they have any goals established? Do you know what their goals are? Are you helping them work towards their goals? Are you setting any goals for them?


I have seen too many leaders go outside the corporate “goals box” and actually work on goals for themselves and their teams. I hear the same excuses all the time, “We do not have any time for goals” and “If I help them reach their goals it means I am going to lose them on my team.”


The problem with this is that organizations end up with stagnant teams. Let me explain. So let us examine the role of an administrative assistant say forty years ago. Some of the skills that were most helpful in that role was the ability to answer the phone, direct calls, take messages, schedule meetings (likely using a paper calendar) and typing on a typewriter. Some of those skills are still important today, but I do not know many organizations who are still using a typewriter. So, if that administrative assistant had a personal goal of learning how to use a computer and learn to navigate Outlook and was not given that opportunity, they would not have evolved to what we need today.


Often times people are stuck in jobs where they are miserable because they want to be challenged, they want to learn, and they want to succeed. Enter us busy leaders who are so focused on the daily minutiae of the office routine that we actually end up keeping them here with us and prevent them from finding joy and satisfaction in their jobs.


As a leader you absolutely must be setting your own goals, regarding things you are passionate about. You also must be having conversations with your team about their own personal goals. It is also your responsibility to help them set some goals. Most often they do not see the same strengths in themselves as those on the outside looking in see. They need you.


Please, take the time to invest in your team. Our people are our best asset. We need them to be successful, and they need us to help them become more successful.







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