The Pursuit of Goal Clarity

As I reflect on conversations I’ve had with leaders about goals and goal setting, I’ve found that there are common lessons that emerge. We’re sharing those here to help leaders better prepare to deliver, achieve, and assess goal clarity throughout their organizations. These lessons allow leaders to achieve ambitious goals in a way that’s sustainable, scalable, and that leads to an ever increasing rate of learning.

1) Goals Bring to Life the Vision

Imagine that the vision for the entire organization is an artist’s vision for a painting. (In many ways early stage leaders/founders are themselves a form of creative artist after all). When bringing the organizational vision to life, the goals the leader chooses are the brush strokes that will create the finished product. Goals are not the specific colors, types of brushes, or types of strokes; these details are analogous to the tasks or projects that need to be completed.

Members of successful teams have a shared understanding of those goals, they have a plan/design to bring the goals to life, and on excellent teams, any outcomes that don’t match the goals (the artist’s brushstrokes) are assessed and corrected. In short, there are specific goals that are brought to life by a leader or leaders, and, when achieved, bring to life the initial vision that inspired the endeavor.

2) Goals Provide the “Why” & Promote Initiative

Clear goals address the “why” for members of the organization and enable them to take initiative and own the design in a way that makes sense for themselves and their teams. The “why” connects activities to purpose and meaning, and inspires action beyond the task at hand. In high growth companies with rapidly changing contexts, goal clarity creates much needed organizational flexibility. If tasks (“how”) are dictated in place of goals, micromanagement increases drastically. As soon as those specific conditions change, the organization is often less capable of shifting the design to meet the goals. Leading through goal clarity, on the other hand, allows direct reports to remain fluid and adjust in response to changing conditions and new learning; which, in turn, decreases the likelihood of micromanaging. Teams and departments across the organization have the ability to modify plans or initiatives over time. By aligning the organization around the “why” goals, we can increase flexibility, motivation, and productivity, promote initiative, empower teams, and build cross-company collaboration.

3) Goals Form Measurable Trajectories

While they should answer “why”, goals also need to be specific enough to form measurable trajectories. To accomplish this, goals need to be measurable, time-bound, and have responsibility assigned to a specific team member. When setting goals leaders need to explain the expected trajectory leading up to the end goal. For example, in sales it is easy to outline the quarterly number, but what is also needed are checkpoints to define the expected rate of progress over time. Intangible goals, like igniting morale, establishing safety and trust, or promoting collaboration, are even more difficult to measure. Therefore, goals such as these require even more time, attention, and collaboration to identify and define the milestones that will establish the optimal trajectory.

4) Goals Serve as the Basis for Diagnosis and Learning

Measurable outcomes and trajectories allow the leader to assess the existing trajectory relative to the ideal. They help the leader identify what is suboptimal, to better position the team to diagnose gaps or divergences, and to redirect a team or design as necessary. Once in diagnosis-mode, it’s not uncommon for leaders to build a narrative that first places responsibility on a direct report or a team without first considering whether they themselves have established clear goals, milestones, and trajectories. Any divergence at the outset will drive further divergences over time. Unless identified and addressed proactively rather than reactively,- often significant problems emerge., Leaders need to first consider and reflect on whether they (and their senior team) achieve clarity across these dimensions at the outset. Only when that most important variable (ourselves) is addressed can we see the situation clearly enough to accurately and fairly learn about the actions of our teammates and merits of the existing design.

Recommended Reflection

We encourage you to think of specific key strategic initiatives you have been working on recently. Take a moment to reflect on the following prompts as they relate to that one strategic initiative

1. If every goal you have set is met, will you be bringing the full vision, as you imagine it, to life?
2. Do the goals you have created provide broader meaning and purpose and connect to why they need to be accomplished?
3. Do your managers feel empowered to take initiative, make critical decisions, and remain flexible in response to changing conditions?
4. Have you identified the checkpoints that will define the optimal trajectory towards the end goal?
5. Are you using your goals to evaluate progress, diagnose problems, and continue to create learning for your team?