How To Set Good Professional Goals For Work (Tips And Examples Included)
Wondering why your professional goals keep falling flat? Well, it’s simple. You’ve been doing it all wrong.
There is no surprise that setting goals is one of the key practices in a workplace environment. Setting clear, attainable goals is something that has an impact on the very bottom line of the company or team.
However, a large percentage of people with professional goals never actually achieve them. And if you’re counting yourself in that group, you’re probably already familiar with the frustrating feeling of failing to reach your goals and how it can set you back.
Now, in this particular post, what we are going to do is dig deep into how setting strong goals boost chances of success in the workplace and what are the best ways to set professional goals. We’re also going to put forward tips and examples that will help you get a clearer understanding of goal setting and how to succeed at it.
But first, let’s get the basics clear.
What Are Professional Goals?
Professional goals are well-defined statements that explain the desired future or result an individual or a group of individuals plan to achieve within a finite time by setting deadlines. Set properly, using the right set of tools and techniques, professional goals help steer performance, motivation, and success in a variety of ways, both for organizations and teams.
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Why Is Setting Professional Goals Important?
Startups, small business professionals, and/or entrepreneurs, everyone sets goals. But why bother? Why set goals?
Mentioned-below are the reasons why professional goal-setting should be taken seriously — very seriously.
- Professional goals get you focused on what’s important.
You can have all the potential in the world but without being able to focus your abilities and talents in the right direction, your potential is useless. To simply put, you can never achieve anything unless you learn to focus your effort. And at the end of the day, the professional goals you set are what give you direction. So, by setting professional goals you give yourself a clear target to shoot at. You allow your mind to focus on a target instead of shooting aimlessly.
- Professional goals make measuring progress easy and accurate.
Another major reason to set goals is to be able to measure your progress easily and accurately. By setting clear professional goals, you always have a fixed endpoint or benchmark to compare with. It’s easy for you to know how far you’ve come and how far you have to go to achieve something.
- Professional goals help to overcome procrastination.
When you set a professional goal, you make yourself accountable to accomplish it. Goals serve as reminders in the back of your head that help you to overcome procrastination and get work done.
- Professional goals give the motivation to keep moving forward.
Professional goals are the root of all the motivation and inspiration within the workplace. Setting professional goals provides you with the foundation for your drive. By setting a goal you give yourself an endpoint to get excited about. You can put 100% of your effort into it and that’s exactly what develops motivation.
How To Set Good Professional Goals?
Now that you know what makes goals and efficient goal setting so important in the professional world, it’s time to explore ways one can be sure about setting and achieving his/her goals.
- Be S.M.A.R.T
S.M.A.R.T approach makes sure your goals are clear and reachable. Here’s what it stands for.
- Specific — These are the goals that are clear and specific, allowing you to focus your efforts to achieve it
- Measurable — These are the goals that you can track your progress and stay motivated
- Achievable — These are the goals that stretch your abilities but still remain possible
- Relevant — These are the goals that ensure that your efforts matter and that they also align with other relevant goals
- Timed — These are the goals with a specific deadline to focus on and something to work toward
2. Be C.L.E.A.R
S.M.A.R.T goals are effective, but considering the new business environment, we need a new way of setting goals, something clearer. That’s where C.L.E.A.R goals come into the picture.
- Collaborative — These are the goals that encourage employees to work together collaboratively and in teams
- Limited — These are the goals that will be limited in both scope and duration
- Emotional — These are the goals that make an emotional connection to employees by tapping into their energy and passion
- Appreciable — These are large goals should be broken down into smaller goals so they can be accomplished quickly and easily
- Refinable — These are set of goals with steadfast objective, but as new situations come to light, these goals can be refined and modified
3. Be Accountable
The word accountable refers to give an account. Once you’ve set your professional goals, you have to make sure that everyone associated with the goal is held accountable. Whether it is just you or someone else trying to reach a goal with you, having accountability brings you one step closer to accomplishing your goals. So, evaluate, reflect, and have accountability.
Best Examples Of Professional Goals
Finally, suggested below are some smart professional goals that might give you a good start toward success.
- Expand professional knowledge and training
Learning is a process that never stops. As a working professional, you’ve got plenty of opportunities to expand your knowledge. You can start with enrolling in courses, workshops and training programs. Seek opportunities that will help in your career or scale your capabilities and knowledge. It’s important for every professional to continuously learn new skills and practices. So, you could set a professional goal to improve yourself in every aspect of the said field.
- Improve work performance
There are various factors that contribute to a professional’s work ethics. That’s why it is important for you to learn how to work your way around common/uncommon distractions while doing your job and improve your performance. Set professional goals that will help you have a positive attitude towards your job. Start coming to the office early, Turn off notifications on your smartphone during work hours, or take a 5–8 minute break after every 2 working hours — just do one thing that can improve your performance in the day ad help you grow as a professional.
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- Better presentation skills
Being a wallflower might help you survive in today’s work environment, but sometimes, you need to make yourself stand out. Make it your goal to improve your presentation skills. You can start by being part of multiple meetings, get appointed on important tasks, or other activities that require a higher level of interpersonal communication skills, thereby allowing your public presentation skills to be put to the test.
- Gain new experiences
One of the most effective ways for professionals to truly grow in their specific fields and careers is to step out of your comfort zone. So, make it a goal to volunteer for special programs at work. Engage and interact within the workplace. Collaborate with people you have never spoken to before. Get to know their stories, learn from the mistakes they’ve made and find professional lessons to live by.
Having healthy workplace relationships can leave a positive impact on your performance and productivity. Now, there are different types of people in the workplace. You may not be fond of everyone, but you still need to set your personal differences aside and strengthen your relationship with your colleagues in a professional manner. Make it a goal to make your daily work experience a lot more bearable and rewarding.
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Conclusion
Professional goal setting is an important part of your everyday work life. However, most of you have been making the same mistake over and over again by not being specific with your professional goals. The facts, tips, and examples that we’ve listed in this particular post will hopefully give you a better understanding of the whole concept. In addition to that, you can use ProofHub’s Gantt chart tool to visualize every aspect of your project in a timeline view and use that intel to set more accurate and achievable goals for yourself as well as your team.
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