Four Keys to Developing Effective Goals

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Impact Learning Systems InternationalP.O. Box 14110San Luis Obispo, CA 93406Toll Free: 800.545.9003Voice: 805.781.3283Fax: 805.545.9075Email: info@impactlearning.com www.impactlearning.com

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Four Keys to Developing Effective Goals

Goals are what inspire us to go beyond

—

to transcend previous accomplishments and to feel thesatisfaction of continuous improvement, whether personal or professional. In order for a goal to beeffective and realistic, however, it must be more than just a wish or a hopeful intention. This articlewill help you to develop goals that meet four key criteria. Additional tips for helping you and youremployees to consistently meet goals can be found in

Managing & Motivating Contact Center Employees

(McGraw-Hill, December 2002), authored by the Impact Learning Systems team.

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The first key to a well-written goal is that it should be specific and measurable.

That meansthat it should answer three important questions:1. What will be improved?2. By how much or how many?3. By when?

For example, let’s say you develop a goal to “get my paperwork in on time.” The intention isclear, but how will you know if you’ve accomplished your goal? And how much of animprovement will you make over what you’re currently doing? A better way to write this

goal would be to make it specific and measurable:

I’ll catch up on all outstanding paperwork by this Friday. From then on, I’ll turn in my

reports and department time sheets by the specified deadline.

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The second key criterion for goals is that they should be positive.

Notice the differencebetween the following two goals:Goal #1:

I won’t keep procrastinating on the monitoring form rewrite.

Goal #2:

I will finish the revision of the monitoring form by June 12.

The second goal is more powerful because it says what

will

happen rather than what

will not

. The first example calls to mind the failure of not getting things done on time. Thesecond example is more motivating because it helps a person to visualize a successfuloutcome.