I remember when I was in high school we attended a rally where some sportscaster came and spoke to us. I guess he had been an athlete in an earlier life and had settled on a career in media after he left the sport. He talked to us about “goal setting”. Goals are important. I was talking to my son about setting goals and that talk came back to me. I don’t think I have ever thought about that speech much since leaving high school. But suddenly as I was telling my son something important I flashed back to that day I was sitting in the audience, bored to tears, listening to some “has been” athlete talk about how great his life was.
I get it now. I really, really get it. You have to live the life to understand it. Goal setting is crucial to being a parent. One of your first goals in parent life is to learn how to change diapers quickly and effectively. My wife was always more patient with the diaper changing chores. She would play with the babies and talk to them and blow on their bellies. I was always in a hurry to get rid of the poop and the pee and put the baby back to sleep.
When the kids were more grown my goals changed. I had to plan ahead so I could mow the grass in the summer and get one of the kids to a local party or event. I had to reward my wife and myself for a week well-done being parents. I wanted to take more vacations as an adult but always planned vacations as a parent. I relished the day my kids were old enough to go camping.
You set goals all the time. You just don’t realize it. So why do motivational speakers make such a big deal about goal setting? Why did I sit my son down and talk to him about setting goals? What is the point? It’s an endless pattern we repeat generation after generation. There is a deep, theoretical meaning to it all I am sure.
In business goal setting makes more sense to me. We have to meet sales targets every quarter. We have to keep our expenses within budget. We have to achieve production targets. That’s all stuff that works out on paper so that we have a plan. These are what I call “concrete goals”. You don’t just write them down on paper; they must be written down somewhere, in a report or chart, or no one will take them seriously. When you read about the success of business people on the Web you’ll miss a lot of details in their biographies. What the biographies don’t cover are the endless meetings and memos where ordinary, everyday details were hammered out.
It could begin with a contract negotiation. The salesperson goes to see a client and closes a deal. The deal is for 100,000 units of some device. The production department has to order parts and materials for the units. The purchasing department has to buy the parts and materials. The receiving department has to accept the shipment, verify the manifest, log the parts and materials into inventory, and confirm for accounting that we received the order. Production then gets to work making the stuff. And then it has to be delivered.
At every step along the way people are writing down goals, sending those goals to someone else, and meeting goals they have been handed. That is how goal setting really works in business. Sure, you can have the sales meeting where the CEO says, “Fred, we need to increase sales by $10 million this quarter”. But that’s not an explicit or concrete goal. You don’t push the big red Sales button and generate more sales. Someone has to make those sales happen, and sometimes they happen and sometimes they don’t.
I suppose there isn’t much of a distinction between a goal and a target but I draw a line between a concrete goal and a target. With a concrete goal you are committed. It’s hit or fail, not hit or miss. How do you take that home and turn it into a life lesson for a 13-year-old kid? He can barely sit still long enough for you to tell him how you remember being his age. And just like you did when your dad gave you that speech, he fidgets and couldn’t care less. “Yes, dad, but you’re old. That doesn’t matter any more.”
You know what? He’s right. That falls into the category of “that’s what you did for me last week; what are you going to do for me this week?” We have to take all the life lessons home or we’re sending a mixed signal. A lesson in setting concrete goals goes like this: “Bobby, your allowance is $5 this week. If you mow the grass on Saturday by 11 AM you’ll get $15.” There are rewards for meeting the goal and consequences for missing. He got $10 for finishing by 11:30.
Next time he mows the grass he’ll finish early because he knows he’ll get more money and he’ll be able to spend more time doing his own thing. That’s a goal he sets for himself. Lesson learned.
