In a previous article, I introduced the topic of goal setting. This is an interesting and vast subject on which thousands of books have been written given its importance. Personally, every successful person I’ve had to study has hammered on the importance of setting goals. Given the importance of this subject, our organization holds a two-day workshop on Goal Setting. During 8 sessions, participants are immersed in advanced theory on how leaders think and challenged to set goals that are DUMB, SMART, CLEAR and PURE.
Many people think, as I did at some point in my life, that they already have goals when they only have what I will describe as simple aspirations or wishes. The activity of goal setting requires effective reflection and questioning, two disciplines that our educational systems rarely give us. As Christian Simpson once said, “What constitutes thinking for a leader is very different from what the public considers. It is more than a mental activity; it is a deliberate and focused process that extracts innovative solutions to existing problems through imagination and conceptualization. It is a process that uses probing questions to develop what is known as critical or Socratic thinking.”
As you embark on the process of becoming deliberate and working hard on creating your career goals, this article will help you.
In his book “GOALS”, Brian Tracy references a study that was conducted at Harvard University between the years 1979 and 1989 and published by McCormack in his book “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. In this study, initially conducted in 1979, students in their final year of the Masters in Business Administration were interviewed to find out if they had clear goals for their future, if these were written down and if they had developed any plan, for their accomplishment.
Of all the students interviewed, only 3% had clear goals in writing and a plan to achieve them, 13% had vague goals but not in writing, and the remaining 84% had no clear goals. Ten years later, in 1989, similar interviews were conducted on members of the same class interviewed in 1979 and amazing results were uncovered. The 13% of students who had unwritten goals made on average twice as much money as the 84% of students who had no goals at all. But still very surprisingly, the results revealed that the 3% of students who had clear and written goals when they left the university earned, on average, 10 times more money than the 97% of students combined. (Somehow the combined salary of the 97% of students was on average 10 times lower than the salary of a single former student belonging to the 3% category). The only difference between these groups was the clarity of goals when they started their working life.
Of course, we cannot overlook the fact that acting after setting their goals was also an important phase. The key lesson is that “thinking without taking action is useless but taking action without having thought is a disaster”. A good leader is goal-oriented, he understands that having a map and a navigation plan is very important for a successful navigation in the woods. If he can be accompanied by a tour guide (mentor or coach), the visit will still be full of memorable moments.
Now, assuming that you have set your specific goals well, what would be the next step? If you ask this question to several people, they will tell you that you must quickly take action to translate these goals into results. Not bad at all! But my opinion is that the thought process should continue. Remember, a leader is a thinker!
Another important question to consider (the others are covered in our workshop) would be: “what type of person should I become to achieve the goals that I have set for myself? “.
This is a question that can change everything because after all, it is not what you earn that matters the most but who you become that is more than important. Nelson Mandela was rewarded for his fight against the apartheid and later became the president of the Republic of South Africa, a position at which he gained several advantages but beyond all this, he has become a monument of the nonviolent movement and a model of leadership throughout the world. I believe that Nelson Mandela had understood that to reach such a level, he first had to become a man of character, this is what this question allows you to reveal.
Asking the question to know who you need to become in order to achieve your goals because it will provide you with a vivid image that you can hold in your mind (we do think in images). Additionally, this will protect you from obsessing over the results and get you to watch over your character, so you do not comprise for the sake of getting to your desired results. According to some sources, Mandela was offered to be released from prison in exchange the letting go of his fight but he rejected the offer. Nelson Mandela’s behavior is typical of a leader who watches over his character in pursuit of his goals. If you don’t know who you want to become, you risk finding yourself immersed in all sorts of sauces as long as your objectives are achieved. It is hard to attain bold goals without a self-transformation because we are the catalysts of the change we seek. Jim Rohn said it well when he stated that, “For things to change for you, things need to change you.”
You cannot expect different results while remaining the same person, self-transformation needs to follow in the process. Albert Einstein called the opposite insanity, “doing the same things, acting the same way while expecting different results.” For Einstein, “we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that has created them”. The achievement of ambitious goals must always be accompanied by a personal transformation, but many people are unaware of this truth. Psychologist James Allen remarked this when he observed that: “People are anxious about improving their circumstances but less concerned about their own improvement, they therefore remain bounded.” Dr. Napoleon Hill supports Allen when he concludes that “No one can enjoy a permanent success if he hasn’t started looking in his mirror for the real causes of his mistakes.
Goals are very important but in the list of your goals should be some relating to your personal development as a leader, the person by which the change will happen. Your character, above all, is more important than your success. “Talent is a gift from God but character is a choice you must make,” said Dr. John C. Maxwell. For John, “your success stops where your character stops, you can never outgrow the limits of your character.” The good news is that you are not alone in this process. Our team here at AFRIQUE PROSPERE is eager to help you develop a strong character that will make employer exited to hire you. If you are not part of our community yet, please schedule a free 30 minutes call today to jumpstart your job hunting.