![Your company has a vision, now what…]()
by Katherine Macey
Once you have a vision for your company, giving you a long term view into the future, it’s time to set some goals, milestones and next action steps.
Let’s start by looking at how these all fit together. Think of your vision as the view of Earth from space. You see the whole thing, but without any details. Next, your goals, are like flying in a commercial airplane at 35,000 feet. You see the general lay of the land and still see the horizon, but still not many details. Your milestones are like flying in a two-seater plane at 10,000 feet. You just see the horizon, but most of your sight is filled with the features on the land. Your next action steps are at ground level. You’re very focused on the details, on what’s right in front of you.
So set goals with the vision in mind, set milestones with the goal in mind and set action steps with the milestone in mind.
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by Katherine Macey
How many of you have ever had a hard time setting and achieving your goals?
I have. I love dreaming about the future and coming up with things I’d love to see happen in the world and, honestly, there are lots and lots of those goals I’ve failed to accomplish. And after a while, it becomes disheartening if your vision never seems to come to fruition. So I’ve developed a new way of setting my goals. And this year, it seems to be working, so I thought I’d share the idea with you. SMART PATH goals.
I think I first learned about SMART goals more than 20 years ago when I was training for the New Zealand Women’s Canoe Polo squad. We were training for the 1st World Championships and the national association brought in a sports psychologist. Now, to an engineer (or anyone else with a logical mind like mine), a SMART goal makes a lot of sense. You get into the details of the goal and make it more easily attainable. SMART stands for:
- Specific (so you know exactly what your goal is)
- Measurable (so you know when you’ve achieved it)
- Achievable (so you can achieve it)
- Results (so you know what you are getting)
- Time based (so you know when in time it will happen)
This method for goal setting has served me well in most respect ever since then. The part I struggle with most is the achievable part. There are three aspects to the achievable aspect that I’m sharing about today.
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