GOAL SETTING

Chris Byrnes

The 1957 graduating class of the Yale Business School was asked to take a survey. One of the questions buried deep inside this survey asked how many of them set themselves goals and reviewed those personal goals from time to time.

These people where the brightest of the bright, now equipped with the knowledge and tools from years of study at one of the world's best business schools. You may therefore be surprised to learn that just 3% of all those polled set themselves goals.

In 1977 the school tracked down the surveyed students and found that those 3% had a higher net worth than the combined net worth of the other 97%!

This is a clear demonstration of the benefit of setting goals. I suspect if you were to conduct the same survey with the staff of most radio stations you may find that even fewer than 3% set personal goals. I am not talking about the sales goals, which we know as monthly sales quotas set once the annual budgets have been completed. I'm also not talking about the programming goals which in rated markets are normally built around the desired share of audience. I'm talking about the individuals' career goals.

As managers, I think it is important that we help each and every member of our staff to set career goals that can be achieved. For some, the new fiscal year has just begun and of course the first of the year is always a good time to put into action a goal that you hope will become a reality at some point in the year. We all joke about those new year's resolutions, you know the ones where we're going to lose weight, get that credit card under control or spend more time with the family. Sadly, most of these goals are doomed to failure because most people don't know how to set goals and change their habits to meet them. The old adage "If you always do what you've always done, you always get what you always got" often comes true when people fail to set realistic goals. Here then are some suggestions you may find helpful:

There are five important elements to consider when setting a goal:

1. Specific: Describes what you want to accomplish with as much detail as possible.

2. Measurable: Describes your goal in terms that can clearly be evaluated.

3. Challenging: Takes energy and discipline to accomplish.

4. Realistic: A goal you know you are actually capable of obtaining.

5. Stated Completion Date: Goals that break longer term goals into shorter pieces and clearly specify target completion dates.

Of course there is a "7 step program" and motivational speaker Gene Donohue suggests the following is the key to creating actionable written goals:

1. Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not just something that sounds good: When setting goals it is very important to remember that your goals must be consistent with your values.

2. A goal can not contradict any of your other goals: For example, you can't buy a $750,000 house if your income goal is only $50,000 per year. This is called non-integrated thinking and will sabotage all of the hard work you put into your goals. Non-integrated thinking can also hamper your everyday thoughts as well. We should continually strive to eliminate contradictory ideas from our thinking.

3. Develop goals in the 6 areas of life:

1. Family and Home

2. Financial and Career

3. Spiritual and Ethical

4. Physical and Health

5. Social and Cultural

6. Mental and Educational

Setting goals in each area of life will ensure a more balanced life as you begin to examine and change the fundamentals of everyday living. Setting goals in each area of life also helps in eliminating the non-integrated thinking we talked about in the 2nd step.

4. Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative: Work for what you want, not for what you want to leave behind. Part of the reason why we write down and examine our goals is to create a set of instructions for our subconscious mind to carry out. Your subconscious mind is a very efficient tool, it can not determine right from wrong and it does not judge. It's only function is to carry out its instructions. The more positive instructions you give it, the more positive results you will get. Thinking positively in everyday life will also help in your growth as a human being. Don't limit it to goal setting.

5. Write your goal out in complete detail: Instead of writing "A new home," write "A 4,000 square foot contemporary with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths and a view of the mountain on 20 acres of land." Once again we are giving the subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give it, the clearer the final outcome becomes. The more precise the outcome, the more efficient the subconscious mind can become. Can you close your eyes and visualize the home I described above? Walk around the house. Stand on the porch off the master bedroom and see the fog lifting off the mountain. Look down at the garden full of tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers. And off to the right is the other garden full of mums, carnations and roses. Can you see it? So can your subconscious mind.

6. Make sure your goal is high enough: Shoot for the moon, if you miss you'll still be in the stars.

7. Write down your goals [This is the most important]: Writing down your goals creates the roadmap to your success. Although just the act of writing them down can set the process in motion, it is also extremely important to review your goals frequently. Remember, the more focused you are on your goals the more likely you are to accomplish them. Sometimes we realize we have to revise a goal as circumstances and other goals change. If you need to change a goal do not consider it a failure, consider it a victory as you had the insight to realize something was different.

Conclusion: Thousands of books have been written about goal setting and a lot of people make their living coaching and speaking on the subject, so I cannot hope to do it justice in these few lines. My hope is that a few readers will spend some time reviewing their career and personal goals, make a few notes and get serious about shooting for the stars. The end result will be more motivated happier broadcasters who will produce even better radio.

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