As we approach our mid year reviews at Unboxed, we are taking stock of the goals and actions we set ourselves back in April. Goals help provide direction, motivation and a sense of purpose.
As we approach our mid year reviews at Unboxed, we are taking stock of the goals and actions we set ourselves back in April. Goals help provide direction, motivation and a sense of purpose.
It’s important to aim towards achievements, for both our personal and professional development. And it’s important for our business. We want to deliver the best outcomes and experience to our clients. We want our people to thrive and progress. And goal setting plays a role in trying to achieve these things. Working towards clear goals, accompanied by the right feedback and support is a powerful source of motivation and allows us to celebrate our achievements. Goals hold us accountable for what we’ve said we would do.
However, setting goals is hard and often problematic. For some roles it’s more challenging to measure outcomes. A survey of people’s happiness or wellbeing at work for example, will only capture a certain amount of information. It’s a complex and nuanced area which is often time and emotion bound. Other goals such as project outcomes and sales targets are easier to measure.
If we don’t reach the goals we’ve set then we can feel a sense of failure. Or take a knock in confidence. A specific, time-bound, measurable goal might drive behaviour that’s narrowly focussed and misses a wider context or achievements. An example of this was software testers being set a goal of finding more bugs. It resulted in logging lots of small and ultimately unimportant issues that developers had to spend time fixing, which didn’t result in a much improved user experience. In the worst case, cheating or falsification can happen. In a small agency, things change quickly. A goal set at one point in the year might not be relevant in a couple of months down the line. So goals need to be fluid and adaptable to changes in circumstances. That makes them hard to measure.
The challenge then, is to set the right goal or area of focus, aligned with our values, in an appropriate time frame and with the right level of stretch and flex.
Why does your goal matter to you?
What is a goal, and what is a value?
When goals are aligned with our values and intrinsically motivated, we are much more likely to achieve them. Values give us a sense of direction. They act like an internal compass. Goals however, are the way we intend to execute our values. Goals are specific and future based. We either achieve/partly achieve our goal or we don’t. Values are more persistent, formed through lived personal and professional experience. It’s easy to forget the purpose behind a goal. Particularly when we are busy with lots of competing factors. So aligning it with a value means it’s a goal we know we want to achieve.
At Unboxed, our review process is owned by our people. Goals are set by individuals in line with both their personal interests, areas of development and values, and those of Unboxed. This should mean that goals and actions will be meaningful and motivational - because they are set by our own intention and aligned with our values instead of being imposed on us by someone else. A goal that is externally or arbitrarily set is unlikely to be achieved and the journey along the way is probably more stressful.
As we approach our half year review, it’s important to reflect on how we reached, or didn’t reach our goals, and on what we’ve learned, new skills and knowledge gained and the challenges we’ve faced. If we reflect through the lens of our values we can ask ourselves whether a particular value helped us succeed. Or helped us to overcome a setback
For me personally, the last six months have been challenging. I have struggled to achieve the goal I had set for myself. But this is not a sign that the process isn’t working. When I reflect on the circumstances that have contributed to not achieving exactly what I had planned, this instead highlights the values of care and attention and healthy relationships. The kindness and support of colleagues has enabled me to do the best I can and has enabled me to focus on the goals that are going to be achievable for me in the next half-year.
