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How do you set goals for work that are realistic and attainable?
We have a lot of content surrounding setting goals, but here we’re discussing work-specific goals you can achieve regardless of your title or industry.
According to Gallup, 70 percent of U.S. adults attempt to set goals at the beginning of the year. With this said, many people don’t actually end up achieving these goals. Why? Accountability and unrealistic expectations are likely big factors here.
When you sit down to set goals, specifically at work, it’s important to create attainable goals in order to set expectations. Another important element of goal setting? Writing your goals down!
A study by Dominican University found that you are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. Writing your goals helps increase accountability, but seeing the goals in front of you can also motivate you to complete the tasks necessary for your success.
What Is Goal-Setting?
Goal-setting is the process of defining actionable steps to achieve your desired result. Ideally, goal-setting helps us get a sense of our current state, helps us determine where we’d like to be, and fills in the gaps along the way of the steps we need to take to achieve our desired outcome.
Liliana Blanco, Inclusion & Belonging Program Manager at Asana explains that “The act of attempting new things helps us grow. Whether or not we achieve a specific goal, the courage to try and succeed—or fail forward—builds resilience, character, and the energy needed to propel us forward in our careers.”
At work, goal-setting can take on different areas of focus, including:
- Learning and Development Goals
- Performance Goals
- Personal Goals
- Career Growth Goals
These goals are also considered category-based goals. Within each area of focus, you’ll want to ensure that you’re being both specific and plausible with your goals. If your goals are completely unrealistic, you’ll essentially set yourself up for failure.
How to Determine Goals to Drive Your Success at Work
The first step to determining goals that will drive your personal and professional success is to identify your values.
By aligning your goals at work with your core values, you’ll feel more fulfilled on a day-to-day basis. When your personal values align with your work goals, you’ll strive for excellence in an area that really matters to you.
Next, you’ll want to focus on building and mapping out SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that can help you break down the toughest goals—and achieve them with hard work and real intention.
The SMART Goal Acronym:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
When determining goals for work, be SMART with your approach to increase your chances of success. Ensuring that your goals meet each criteria will help create more effective goals.
Consider setting up a meeting with your team or your manager to go over expectations and broader goals. This will help you determine relevant goals based on overarching priorities.
Types of Time-Based Goals to Set For Your Career
Above, we discussed category-based goals. Here we’re discussing time-based work goals and what they look like.
Lifetime Goals
Lifetime goals are exactly that—goals that you want to achieve during your lifetime. The length of time to accomplish these goals may vary depending on the complexity and depth of the goal.
A lifetime goal might be where you ultimately want to end up in your career.
Here are some examples:
- Start and run your own company.
- Work in the government sector and retire with a pension.
- Retire with a specific amount (or range) input into your 401(k).
These are all considered lifetime goals. However, don't get locked into a tunnel-vision approach to these lifetime goals. They can change, so it's important to be open to that possibility.
Revisit your lifetime goals annually to make sure they're still the goals that make sense for you, your career, and your entire life.
Long-Term Goals
Long-term goals are those you want to accomplish in the future. You can take actionable steps to accomplish those goals through short-term goals.
Long-term goals may seem similar to lifetime goals, but the main difference is that lifetime goals are broader and grander in scope than long-term goals.
Here are some examples:
- Obtain a certification or license.
- Go back to school and obtain a specific degree.
- Become a board member of an organization you’re passionate about.
- Get promoted into a managerial role.
Short-Term Goals
Short-term goals are the achievable goals you can accomplish in six months to a year—in the relatively near future.
They are the foundation and stepping stones to help you achieve your long-term goals. Short-term goals are also commonly known as stepping-stone goals.
Here are some examples:
- Complete the project you’re working on.
- Join a networking group to expand your professional network.
- Schedule and conduct three informational interviews with colleagues or others in your industry to gain feedback and insight on a transition that interests you.
- Start applying for new jobs.
Four Areas of Goals at Work
When it comes to setting goals at work, it can be helpful to break it down into four areas of focus so that you can set realistic goals to set yourself up for success.
Learning and Development Goals
Learning and development goals will focus on how you can learn and grow in your career. They might revolve around learning new skills— including industry-specific software, getting certifications or licensure that can boost your pay grade, or returning to school to obtain a higher degree.
Within the learning and development area of focus, you’ll still have lifetime, long-term, and short-term time-bound goals.
Here are examples of learning and development goals broken down by timeframe:
- Lifetime: Become a Six Sigma Black Belt.
- Long-Term: Obtain a master’s degree in organizational development. Gain confidence in your presentation skills in the workplace.
- Short-Term: Apply to four MBA programs that you can complete remotely.
Performance Goals
Performance goals are there to evaluate employee performance. They may help managers assess how the employee is doing at work, but they can also work to help increase self-awareness among employees.
By setting performance goals, everyone will benefit by increasing accountability and creating transparency in expectations.
Performance goals usually have tangible measurements, such as sales quotas, and might be determined based on a team goal or what has been outlined for individual benchmarks.
Employees who achieve performance goals might get a reward to encourage hard work. (As a side note, employee engagement, productivity, and performance are 14 percent higher in organizations with recognition programs than those without.)
When you’re interested in new opportunities, hitting your performance goals will help show prospective employers your value. Be sure to note what performance goals you’ve hit and keep track of the metrics so you can easily add this information to your resume!
Here are some examples of performance goals broken up into different time-bound sections:
- Lifetime: Achieve a lifetime sales goal for excellence.
- Long-Term: Hit the milestone of making it into President’s Club and get awarded with an all-expense paid vacation.
- Short-Term: Extend contracts with two current accounts, and schedule meetings with three new prospective client accounts.
Personal Goals (Professional Development Goals)
Personal or professional development goals strongly align with your personal mission and might largely intertwine with your personal life.
While career growth goals relate to your career advancement, professional development usually deals with how you can develop as a person to benefit your career.
For example, you may want to consider how your career aligns with your values or how you could transition into a career with a greater intersection with your skills and passions.
Additionally, your personal goals may revolve around creating more work-life balance or searching for a career that allows you to earn what you deserve while providing you personal fulfillment.
Here are some examples of personal and professional development goals.
- Lifetime: Change industries or pivot your career path to better align with your values.
- Long-Term: Connect with others in your desired industry to build awareness and industry knowledge.
- Short-Term: Evaluate your skills, identify your transferrable skills, and optimize your resume to gain traction for your desired career change.
Career Growth Goals
Career growth goals directly relate to your ability to move up. This might be particularly important to determine your interest in pursuing leadership opportunities.
These goals align with your position and what kind of position you want to obtain. If you have big career aspirations that require you to move up in your career, it’s important to evaluate where you are and what you need to achieve in order to get to your desired level. Scheduling a time to chat with your manager or discuss your performance review can be especially helpful if you want feedback.
Alternatively, if you feel that you’ve been going above and beyond in your role without recognition, it might be time to schedule a meeting where you can inquire about a promotion.
- Lifetime: Get promoted into a C Suite position.
- Long-Term: Get promoted into an executive-level position.
- Short-Term: Identify your career aspirations, list out quarterly achievements, and set up a meeting with your manager to negotiate a raise and/or promotion.
How to Set Goals If You’re Uncertain About Your Career
When you move into goal-setting with the idea of changing your life and/or your career positively, the important elements needed to achieve results fall into place.
They create a sense of control—even when you're simply managing your brain space and expectations. Build check-ins for your goals to get feedback, be mindful of task complexity in order to set plausible goals, and create realistic plans to help you pivot and maneuver through unexpected events.
Doing so will help you cultivate a feeling of safety and satisfaction in your work during uncertainty. For reference, uncertainty can revolve around the job market (i.e., the insane number of layoffs happening), your personal life (will you potentially be relocating for any reason?), or because of your desire to make a change in your career.
One last tip when you’re feeling overwhelmed—remember, it’s totally normal. SURF past the urge you have to panic or react—and keep on setting big, exciting goals.
SURF is an acronym that stands for:
- Surrender: Acknowledge your reaction and feeling/thoughts.
- Unfold: Turn those thoughts off and focus on your physical sensation.
- Recede: Watch the wave recede away as it gets less intense.
- Find the name: Label the emotion. What was the feeling?
