Why are short-term goals Important for your team (and How it’s done)
Here’s a common scenario: A new business starts. The CEO identifies and sets specific goals and priorities for the coming year. He/she then communicates the same to everyone involved. But wait! By the time these goals and priorities reach each executive or stakeholder, too much has changed or lost due to ineffective communication. That means — while the CEO is expecting everyone to be clear about the company goals, very few actually are. Most of the people are just promising to achieve the desired goals but they have no clue about how to achieve them.
Does this sound familiar to you? If so, you might be experiencing some serious goals management issues. Luckily, you’re in the right place.
In this particular post, I will tell you why your goal setting process isn’t working and how you can break the cycle.
Why Do Goals Feel So Hollow And Meaningless?
I think we all can agree to the fact that the process of setting goals has somehow lost its cultural relevance. Basically, we’re making the same mistake again and again — we are setting goals too far in advance without any clear idea of how to follow through.
It’s like you have an idea of what to achieve, you have set certain expectations, you are doing all the smart work as well as the hard work, but everything you are doing doesn’t add up to anything worthwhile. It’s super frustrating.
Clearly, what worked in the past will not work in the future. However, there is an easy way to solve this problem, and that is by making sure that goals are short-term, SMART, and more strategic.
The New Approach: “Have A Long Term ‘Vision’, But Short-Term Goals.”
When we talk about setting goals, we get two choices based on the timeframe i.e. short-term goals and long-term goals. Both have a distinct purpose in helping an organization achieve its mission.
A major reason why many organizations set goals and never achieve them is that they fail to understand how short- and long-term goals work. They spend way too much time and effort on the future (long-term goals) and completely neglect the importance of the present (short-term goals). There are many managers and organizations that don’t even consider short-term goals as actual goals. They try to do lots of things at once, working towards their long-term goal, thereby suffering from the cost of multitasking and poor outcomes.
The thing is that setting short-term goals is important, even more important than long-term planning. Having short-term goals provide an immediate way forward to accomplish the long-term goal. For example, while you might have an end goal to complete a hike, your immediate goal should be to avoid tripping on the rock in front of you. In simple words, career or personal life, you should focus on the long-term vision but set goals that are drive results in the near future.
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Tips for Setting Short-Term Goals
Having short-term goals brings effective results, but setting short-term goals can be a long, overwhelming process. Since you’re setting specific goals, you will have to analyze and gather a lot of information. If not done right, you and your team will eventually end up with results that you were trying to avoid in the first place.
Now, before you hop on and start gathering information, it’s important that you get familiar with some of the basic rules of setting short-term goals. Follow these rules when you’re quantifying your goals and you will be able to set short-term goals that drive results.
- Keep it specific
Establish goals that can be easily measured and monitored whenever needed. doing this will certainly make it easier for you to keep a check on your progress without getting overwhelmed or procrastinating over the amount of work that your long-term goal requires.
- Keep it realistic
It’s good to have high expectations, but do ask yourself an important question before you establish goals — is it possible? Make sure that the goals you set for yourself and your team are reasonable and potentially achievable. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
- Keep it aggressive
Keeping your goals realistic doesn’t mean that you can’t aim high. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but part of Rome was built every day. Be sure to set both short-term and long-term goals that add value to your work. Don’t set goals that are too easy to achieve — go for something that’s challenging and rewarding.
- Keep it consistent
Get a clear idea of what you need to do. The last thing you would want is to inadvertently set inconsistent goals. Just make sure that you have a strong idea of what needs to be done so that you can establish priorities among your goals and identify which ones are most important.
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If you’re getting a hard time with setting goals or don’t know where to start, short-term goals are your only chance. Start with simply quantifying your goals with the help of the above guidelines and you will increase your chances at achieving the real goal — the long-term one. And for all the additional help, you’ve got ProofHub!
About The Author- Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder and CEO of ProofHub, a leading project management and collaboration software. He is constantly working to fill the communication gap between groups, organizations, and teams with his innovative ideas and unique business approaches. Through his experience and articles, he wants to inspire people to do their best work.
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