Setting Goals and Expectations for Success

The purpose of incorporating a coaching mindset into management practices is to facilitate the path of employees from where they are to where they want to be. This is an iterative process that allows employees to discover their own resources in order to explore new possibilities and strategies for creating the catalytic momentum to attain key milestones. From a coaching perspective, setting goals is the starting point and natural primary step on the path to achieving what we want in terms of performance. Most sports research and business practices related with performance enhancement highlight the relevance of this goal setting and feature the SMART model as an effective baselining tool in the performance management process (Doran, 1981; Locke & Latham, 2006). The SMART framework guides employees to create goals that are:

• Specific – What is exactly expected to be achieved? The more specific the description of the goal, the higher the chance of meeting that target.

• Measurable – How we can know if we are progressing towards the goal or have attained the goal? The clearer the metric, the easier it is to know how close we are to success.

• Attainable – Is this goal possible to achieve? Understanding what is required in terms of effort, time and other types of resources is very important in making a full commitment to the attainment of the goal.

• Relevant – How important is this goal? The level of importance will directly influence the motivation and resources allocated to the process of achieving the goal. A good balance between challenge and ease is recommendable.

• Timebound – How long will it take to achieve this goal? Like the relevance, timing is a critical component to establishing a goal and a good balance between realistic deadlines and flexibility can help in that process.

Now that you are familiar with SMART goal setting, you’ll quickly realize that the process to create goals using this framework is a simple, action-oriented and timely exercise; consequently, SMART goal templates also serve as an easy tool to promote an ongoing dialogue between manager and employee in which progress can be measured and appropriate corrective action can be taken and milestones achieved. All this from a dash of discipline and without a huge investment of resources or training… sounds too good to be true? Maybe.

Many managers still come to me sharing that, even though they follow this approach, they are not necessarily seeing an increase in levels of performance. But why? Because coaching individuals to unleash higher levels of performance requires additional knowledge and mastery of the five qualities mentioned above complemented by what we have learned through advances in behavioral science and technology in the past decade.

Reviewing all this research and making the connections for the broader population can take time and resources; fortunately, we’ve distilled the multitude of research into some key tips/insights that managers can use to sharpen their skills as a coach. The best way to think about it is in terms of “What, How and Why” which is discussed and explained in the next section.