Set Personal Goals
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Posted On :
Jul-16-2010
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Article Word Count :
874
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Danny is the Customer Support Manager of PM Publishing in San Mateo, California. He was surprised to be promoted to this position after the previous manager resigned. Danny was not quite ready for the promotion.
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Danny is the Customer Support Manager of PM Publishing in San Mateo, California. He was surprised to be promoted to this position after the previous manager resigned. Danny was not quite ready for the promotion. He managed 5 service employees in the company’s West Coast office before he was promoted to managing 36 employees in 5 offices nationwide.
Danny has never taken time to plan changes in his life. He was thrown into the situation, thrown into resolving endless escalations from the regional offices. He resolves delivery delays, customer complaints, order changes and other typical service issues; always floating along in whatever direction the river of events takes him. Danny is completely reactive, struggling to manage his team and losing control of his work life. Always the last to leave every day (except of the night shift employees), he gets home after his kids have gone to bed. One night, while crunching on the cold dinner left behind by his wife, he wondered if there was a better way to manage his life.
Danny, like many people, has never set personal goals. For him, things just happen without a plan. It has never bothered him before, but being promoted to leadership caught him unready. He did not realize that living life without setting goals is like driving a car without knowing where to go. Danny recognized that he needs a compass to guide him in setting priorities and balancing his life.
If we want to avoid feeling out of control like Danny, it is important to set personal goals. Goals are a road map to guide us toward a destination, like a lighthouse, compass or GPS.
The end of a year is a good time to setup goals for the following year. Most companies plan the next year at this time. It is good to align your personal goals with your corporate goals so your career path will be congruent with your company path.
When I set up personal goals for the first time, I accomplished less than 10% of my goals by the end of that year. Since then my goal setting has changed dramatically. In the beginning I focused on career and prosperity. Over time, my goals (as well as me) evolved to include goals outside of career and prosperity.
Here are some topics to think about when setting goals:
1. Health
If we get sick our set of priorities changes immediately. If we face a life threatening illness, survival becomes top priority. Prevention is important.
Sample goals for health can be:
- Exercise 3 times a week for 45 minutes
- Quit smoking by dropping from one pack per day to 10 cigarettes by March, 5 cigarettes by June, 2 cigarettes by September and none by December.
2. Relationships
As social creatures, we naturally want to improve our relationships with our loved ones. Our life styles occasionally stand in our way. Setting relationship goals helps to determine the changes we are looking for in our relationships.
Some ideas:
- Get involved with kids school.
- Surprise spouse with a romantic dinner at least every 3 months
- Volunteer for favorite charity 3 times a year
3. Leisure
Leaders work hard and play hard. We must take time off to re-charge.
We can set goals like:
- Play tennis every Sunday
- Take guitar lessons every Monday night
4. Prosperity
Everyone would like to achieve financial freedom in one point of time (and better sooner than later). If we don’t save for retirement we can never afford to retire. If we won’t plan we won’t save.
We can set goals as:
- Allocate 20% of monthly salary to a saving account
- Invest in rental property
5. Career
We spend half of our waking time at work. We definitely want to be accomplished and rewarded. This does not happen by chance. Successful career paths are planned. Where are we heading? What do we do to get there? Such goals can be:
- Start an MBA and complete in 2 years over the weekends
- Attend a tax course to reach a tax advisor certificate
- Restructure department(s) to prepare for business expansion
6. Self-Actualization
What do you feel is your true calling? This is not always easy to find this answer, but one can make small movements toward it. It’s helpful to spend time to gain clarity on the “larger questions” in your life. Some goal setting ideas include:
- Define a purpose or framework within which you pursue all your activities
- Define core values that drive you
What in the world does goal setting have to do with leadership?
Leaders must lead themselves first in order to lead others. Setting goals, defining vision and values develops the inner strength that leaders require. Titles, nominations, rankings are superficial. True leadership comes from within.
Find out next week a foolproof plan to achieve most (if not all) all of your personal goals. Before then, take some time to write down 2 personal goals for each of the 6 items above. Stay tuned for the next post.
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Article Source :
http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Set Personal Goals_25828.aspx
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Author Resource :
Original article by Dave Osh who is a forward thinking leader who has steered his way to the corporate pinnacle. His Thought Leadership blog is a wealth of stories, ideas, experiences, values, traits and skills which every manager who seeks a breakthrough towards international enterprise leadership needs.
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Keywords :
Dave Osh, leadership, CEO, corporate, management, development, training, skills, business, qualities, organization, effective,
Category :
Self Improvement
:
Self Improvement
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