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THE IMPORTANCE OF GOAL-SETTING

 

It is very difficult to plan a trip, to make arrangements, to know what preparation is needed unless you have decided where you are going on your trip. If you know you want to go ‘somewhere’ but you have not decided where that ‘somewhere’ is, then you are going to have trouble getting anywhere. Setting a destination for a trip can be likened to setting a goal for a team – without a clear goal, your team may not be able to achieve their full potential.

As Anthony Robbins once said: “Setting goals is the first step to turning the invisible into the visible.”

 

Goals can be team goals – “Our team wants to come in the top 3 in the league” – or more personal “I want to improve my batting average by 5% this season”. Regardless of the nature of the goal - goals give individuals something to work towards.

 

In setting goals one well-known model to use is the EXACT Coaching Model. This model focuses on the goals, objectives, and outcomes of the coaching process. As mentioned previously, it is highly important that the coach, the players, and all other people involved have an understanding of what is to be achieved or where the team is planning on ‘going’.

 

According to the EXACT model, when setting goals, goals should be:

·         Exciting (Do they invoke positive emotions?)

·         Assessable (How will you measure your goal and whether you have reached it?)

·         Challenging (Does this goal challenge us to strive for greatness?)

·          Time-framed (When do we want to reach this goal by?)

These elements of EXACT are explained in more detail below.

 

In order to ensure that goals garner more support from all people involved, the goals should evoke positive energy and excitement in all people involved. It is human nature to seek out positive activities – so if the goals are positive, then there is more chance that the player and team members will work hard to achieve them.

 

Put simply, if you can not measure your goal, how will you know that you have reached it? A goal is not properly set if it can’t be measured. It is important to remove as much ambiguity from the goal as possible. For example, saying that you want to substantially improve a certain player’s average run rate would not be as clear as saying that you want to improve the player’s run rate by 5%.

 

Setting goals that encourage the individuals and the team to push beyond their perceived limits can often result in them achieving things they previously thought impossible. People often have misconceptions about their abilities and possibilities – so encouraging them to ‘think big’ can result in the team achieving things that they have not achieved before.

This is important because if you don’t set deadlines you will just set excuses – “we can reach it next season.” If the team and individuals are not given a time-frame then there will be less drive to achieve the goals. For example, if a team knows that the goal is to win the league – there needs to be clarification as to whether it is this year, next year, or in the next ten years. These three time-frames would have very different impacts on how the team operates.

 

In conclusion, Vince Lombardi once said “Everyone has a will to win but very few have a will to prepare”. Goal-setting is just the first step in coaching process. Goal-setting turns any team into a more focused team in which all people understand where they want to be. By making sure that all people have EXACT goals in mind, it affords any coach the opportunity to focus entirely on the next step: how they are going to get there.

 

-          Katherine Kerrigan

 

Bibliography:

Wilson, C. (2007). Best practice in performance coaching: A handbook for leaders, coaches, HR professionals and organizations. London: Kogan Page.