Tag: Goal setting

Goals 2014: What Kind Of Management Do You Want To Receive?

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Here’s a question to ponder as the end of the reporting and financial year draws near:  How much does your progress at work depend on the effectiveness of your manager, or supervisor?

Some people want a line manager who is closely involved in the day to day aspects of their career.  This can reassure the job holder that their performance and development needs are at the front of their manager’s mind.  That could be crucial if progression, development or bonuses depend on the supervisor’s feedback.

Other job holders are content with a different approach.  They prefer being set realistic tasks, whose delivery is discussed at quarterly reviews.  This approach gives them breathing room.  They get on with delivering tasks that are within their capability.

The Guardian’s Work blog has just highlighted a worst case scenario.  In this situation a line manager is so ineffective that their job holder is becoming ill through over work.  The customers needs are not being effectively met and team morale is suffering.  The manager is an obstacle to the job holder achieving their goal, of being productive and happy at work.

See what you think of the feedback offered in the Tweet (then have a go at the bullet point questions)

  • How do you influence your manager to give you the support you deserve?
  • What do you say when their input isn’t quite right?
  • When do you know it is time to take action to change your situation?

Goals 2014: Goal Setting In Three Steps

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Workshop Paperwork

Goal Setting Starts Here

 

Congratulations on surviving January.  The first of February is a great time to concentrate on goal setting, action planning and clarifying values.  Here are three key questions to aid in that process:

  • What significant outcome do you want to have achieved by Easter?
  • How you will get there?
  • How does that effort fit with your core values?

Spending even thirty minutes today writing down your response to these questions is worthwhile.  Narrow your focus by expressing your goal in terms that are:

  • positive
  • present-tense
  • realistic

Writing down your first, significant, step to make progress toward your goal helps to underscore that you are confident that you can pursue and attain the outcome you that you want.  So does making an absolute commitment to taking prompt action.  An end date in your diary, with action milestones preceding it are powerful triggers to progress.

This process isn’t the preserve of the business world.  It applies in the public sector or the world of volunteering too.

It was great therefore to meet the volunteer team at The Asian Centre, Waltham Forest – @tacwf on Twitter – and support their work on #GoalSetting yesterday.  An evening in their company showed that goal setting helps volunteer mentors on a community programme, just like it does paid professionals working on costly projects.  Clients benefit too, whether they are young mentees, or high net worth customers.

If you would like to find out more about mentoring you can contact the Asian Centre via their website www.theasiancentrewf.org.uk for more information on their successful #YouthMentoring programme.

So, when will you make time to set your next significant goal?  How can effective coaching help you deliver on your commitment to self-development?

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Goals 2014: How’s Your Job Treating You?

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If your workplace, or career, goal is linked to the health of the economy then there is good news today from the Office for National Statistics. The UK economy grew by 1.9% in 2013, its strongest rate since 2007.

That should make promotion, professional development, or job change easier, provided you are in the right part of the UK.

Actually, according to the Centre for Cities’ research published yesterday, London continues to be critical to the UK economy. That city is creating almost 10 times more private sector jobs than the second fastest growing city, Edinburgh.

Some of these factors feature in a recent job change query in the Guardian. Follow the link in my tweet to learn more.

Two final questions for you:

  • What sort of progress are you making on your work or career goals?
  • How much more progress could you make with coaching support?

Goals 2014: How Happy Are You In Your Work?

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These are some thoughts of mine in response to an idea from Miya Tokumitsu, revisited in the Guardian newspaper after originally appearing in Jacobin magazine.  Needless to say I don’t share the view that only the privileged are equipped to enjoy their work.

Having looked at the discussion how would you answer these questions:

  • How important is your work compared to your family or social life?
  • How happy does it make you feel?
  • Do you have a clear goal about what you want to happen within your life this year?
  • What will you feel like when you accomplish your goal?

Asking yourself these, hard, questions will help you decide what steps you will take to enjoy your work and social life in 2014.  Get in touch to discuss how I can help with that strategy.

30 Minutes Worth of TED Talks

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What's The Purpose of Climbing The Ladder? (c) R Dennison June 2013

What’s The Purpose of Climbing The Ladder? (c) R Dennison June 2013

 

I haven’t looked at the Youtube TED site for a good long while.  I have missed out on some good content as a result.  If you have 30 minutes to spare here are some recommendations.

Having mentioned Leadership recently I was spurred on to see what talks might help when thinking about pursuing leadership opportunities, while climbing the career ladder.  Funnily enough, the first talk I came across questioned the wisdom of making the climb an actual goal.

Adam Leipzig’s talk centres on the notion of finding fulfilment in pursuing one’s life purpose.  One’s purpose might not involve rising rung by rung.  He presents the process of identifying purpose as a five step exercise.  It takes about five minutes to complete the exercise from start to finish.  Here’s the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVsXO9brK7M

While you are TED focused you might also want to invest around 25 minutes in viewing Patti Dobrowolski’s talk on Drawing Your Future, and Ryerson University’s Dr Ivan Joseph’s Self Confidence presentation.

Good luck.

Two Wheels Good – Four Wheels Better

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Inspiration (c) R Dennison 2013

Inspiration (c) R Dennison 2013

Having noted that Sir Alex has now announced his retirement from Manchester United, I should point Sir Chris Hoy beat him to the retirement arena by a few days.  However Sir Chris, at 37 years of age, is actually changing gears in career terms.

As the Daily Telegraph coverage confirms Sir Chris is leaving the world of cycling to pursue a goal in the world of motor sport, courtesy of the SR1 circuit for novice drivers.  Speaking about the inspiration to pursue this new challenge, he has said:

“I love cars, I love racing bikes, I’ve still got that competitive instinct even though I’ve retired from racing bikes, and I’ve driven on circuits for a number of years now, just on track days, so to combine the two and to have a little bit of fun… it’s just a great chance for me,”

It is great too that he has identified what is important – competition plus fun – and transferred the same confidence he brought to the velodrome to the racing circuit.  That calculation suggests that his goal is clear, and the steps he will be taking to move toward what he wants are equally certain.  I would put money on him being successful in his new field too, given time.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motoringvideo/10034436/Sir-Chris-Hoys-debut-season-in-motorsport.html

Each One Teach One

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Plan B aka Ben Drew

Plan B aka Ben Drew (Photo credit: Beacon Radio)

If you achieve your life’s ambition (through hard work) you might choose to sit back and enjoy the trappings of success, once you earn them.  Kudos to Ben Drew (aka the musician / film maker Plan B) for choosing to do more than count his cash but to support others, so they too can become successful.

His charitable trust Each One Teach One – www.eoto.org.uk – has developed out of an idea previously explored in a TED presentation.   It has two stated aims, to:

  • Fund inspiring projects to help young  people to build their skills and in turn improve their lives.
  • Link up youth provision to strengthen the sector and help the journey make more sense to young people.

The coverage in the Guardian newspaper explains the trust will operate in East London initially and aims to provide disadvantaged 14 to 25 year olds with a ‘University of alternative learning’.  It will also provide the support, mentoring and counselling that they may have missed out on due to their family, community, or academic situations.

I think this is an inspiring idea.  There are plenty of young people who are motivated to do something with their lives, but who have not enough confidence to articulate their goals or make life plans.  The EOTO model could provide the extra support they need to answer the 3 basic goal setting questions:

  1. What is it that I want to achieve in my life?
  2. When do I want this experience this achievement?
  3. What is my first step to start heading in that direction?

Will this model solve all of the problems of disadvantaged youths in society?  Is Mr Drew right on all counts?  Probably not, but an effort like EOTO could make a significant difference to those motivated to engage with it and keep pushing forward.

Those who scoff at efforts to change will still be wasting their time hanging around in their communities – or getting into trouble and caught up in the criminal justice system.  Who knows, even those youths may come to realise they too can set goals and change their situation, if they want to.

 

 

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That’s What Friends Are For

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Goal Setting

Goal Setting (Photo credit: lululemon athletica)

If you were to picture yourself sitting in your rocking chair, in your twilight years, what would you imagine were the highlights of your life?  Could they include your:

–       Big detached house in the country?

–       Fleet of fancy cars?

–       CV chock full of high-flying jobs?

If so you might want to think again.  Research conducted by Dr Gregory Bonn, a lecturer in psychology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia provides compelling evidence that ‘close and enduring relationships are considered central to life satisfaction’.  According to the coverage in the Independent newspaper, material achievements are not too high on the list of Things That Make You Happy.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/money-cant-buy-you-the-good-life-8508265.html

 

Interestingly the survey findings also indicate that ‘Having a worthwhile career was rated as more important to a good life than having a successful one’.

 

There is a segue from the Independent story to one on the BBC news website.  It seems that the University of Chicago has researched the flip side of the ‘happy relationships equal happy life’ paradigm.  Their findings suggest that loneliness can lead to physical as well as psychological harm.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21517864

 

If that is sound information then it is timely, especially for the so-called ‘leftover’ women in China.  Their ambition and drive for early career success seems to have a downside.   According to BBC coverage, if these women mis-time their career peak they risk being viewed as too old for marriage.  The bad news is that over 25 may be ‘too old’!.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21320560

 

I wonder if these findings establish any useful goal setting principles?  One’s purpose in life fuels goal setting, so perhaps it is important that some goals relate strongly to building and maintaining healthy relationships.  These might take precedence over goals involving gathering material possessions.

 

That makes sense.  When goal setting we think about what we want to Be, then to Do and last of all, to Have.

 

Maybe the attachments to the key people in one’s life are more powerful and lasting than the links to physical possessions.

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#YourGoals : When Will You Ask For The Things That You Need?

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How Are You Feeling About Your 2014 Goals?

How Are You Feeling About Your 2014 Goals?

Do you have too little time to take a break from work? Or are you always too busy to make time for yourself (because you are prioritising someone else’s goals over your own)?

When you look at your answers to those questions, how happy are you with your reality? Are your authentic needs being met, at the same rate as the needs of those people around you?  How do your choices reflect your values; your standards of professional leadership; and your sense of personal fulfilment?

What Can You Do To Achieve An Authentic Balance In Your Life?

If you need to start adjusting your goals concerning that balance, there is a link in the next paragraph to a wonderfully simple TED* talk given by Dr Laura Trice, in February 2008.  Do yourself a favour and invest four minutes during your next break to look at what Laura has to say. I think you will be glad you did.

When Will You Set Yourself A Specific Goal To Ask For What You Actually Need?

Laura’s presentation shows that you can say thank you and ask for what you need By doing so you will motivate those around you to act differently.  You also deepen your authentic connections to others, at work and at home. Try it and see what happens. I’d love to hear how you get on (you can send me a tweet @RogerD_Said ).

There are more ideas relating to your work and life goals in the Archive section here and on Facebook and Google+ too.  Or if you are a Linkedin user you can visit View Roger Dennison’s profile

*In case you are unfamiliar with the acronym TED stands for Technology Entertainment Design.  It is a non-profit organisation devoted to ideas worth spreading.