‘Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.'

Elbert Hubbard

Vision, articulated through goals and objectives, is the embodiment of values, purpose and meaning. It says you are what and where you want to be. While some start this process at a young age, most will not be able to develop a clear view of their career until adulthood. This chapter provides the essential tools necessary for employees to define their career direction and move towards it.

When I decided to start my first business, a friend (who was also a leadership coach), interested in my new venture, asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?' It was a simple question, but it turned out to be a very powerful one. Although I was excited to explain about my new business, I realised my response was vague and fuzzy and lacked a compelling story to match my passion. This was a game changer for me. After this conversation I locked myself away in my study until I had nutted out my ‘why'.

It took me two days to discover that the answer had been there all along, locked away in my core values. It came to me like a blinding flash of light, and it was so simple:

At careersmith, we are passionate about careers. We believe every individual has a right to career satisfaction and every organisation has the opportunity to guide and facilitate it. Career satisfaction is a fundamental contributor to individual and organisational success. We are committed to assisting individuals to move towards their career goals and organisations to help them do it.

This articulated a vision for the business that connected strongly with my core values. It captured the purpose of the business that informed my target market, specific service lines and marketing strategy, and indicators of success that I had previously been struggling to define.

Motivation and determination

Self-efficacy, passion and persistence are three key imperatives for effective goal setting. Goals can change and evolve over time as we mature and develop and as our professional careers move forward. This is quite normal. Mario Andretti, one of the world's most successful racing car drivers, has said, ‘Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal — a commitment to excellence — that will enable you to attain the success you seek.'

Setting goals is fundamental to driving progress in just about every aspect of human endeavour. Many find goal setting difficult and are held back by procrastination and a sense of inertia, but once they get started they find it doesn't seem as troublesome as they'd expected.

It's all about getting going, making a start, taking the small steps that contribute to bigger successes. In the words of Charlie Chaplin, ‘You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down.'

Some, on the other hand, find they have too many goals and become ‘goal diffused'. Research points to goal diffusion as a major derailer of goal achievement. I've found that when I set a clearly defined goal I usually achieve it; conversely when I don't, I rarely move forward.

Knowing where you want to get to is an essential precursor to setting clear goals. In Lewis Carroll's classic book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice encounters the Cheshire Cat sitting on the bough of a tree and asks:

‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

‘I don't much care where —' said Alice.

‘Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

‘— so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.

Leaders have a unique opportunity to help their employees set goals and, importantly, to hold their focus on them. The more you can help your employees (and yourself) clearly define career goals, the more likely they will be motivated and successful in moving towards them.

Of course, in the pursuit of our goals, unexpected or chance opportunities will arise. Our ability to recognise and take advantage of opportunities that seem to emerge by sheer chance may cause us to revise, reshape or reprioritise them. I will discuss planned happenstance theory in more detail in chapter 10.

Chance does have its place, but what may appear as a chance opportunity can also be a result of the well-laid plans and goals that preceded it. Samuel Goldwyn said, ‘The harder I work the luckier I get.'

SMART goal setting

Goal setting is a not an arbitrary activity; it should be a systematic articulation of vision in concrete terms.

SMART provides a simple and robust goal-setting framework. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attractive, Realistic and Time-framed. (They are also a prerequisite of the ‘GROW' model used to guide career conversations, and discussed in chapter 10.)

• Specific: The better defined and more specific your employees' goals, the more useful they will be to them. Vague, fuzzy goals lead to vague, fuzzy outcomes.
  • – Example: ‘I will complete a postgraduate Diploma of Human Resources part time to achieve a promotion from my current role as Personal Assistant to HR Adviser.'
• Measurable: It is essential that our goals are measurable so we can track and evaluate our progress towards them. This allows us to identify and celebrate the key milestones along the way so we know how close we are to achieving our goals and can maintain motivation.
  • – Example: ‘I will study two subjects a semester, with a minimum of a credit pass for each, until I have completed my postgraduate Diploma of Human Resources.'
• Attractive: Goals must be attractive for employees to be motivated to pursue them and tackle the inevitable obstacles along the way. This is why it's essential to define your goals carefully and review them regularly to make any adjustments needed. Achieving goals can bring enormous satisfaction and pride.
  • – Example: ‘Gaining a postgraduate Diploma of Human Resources will be a critical step towards satisfying and enabling my passion for Human Resources management and give me a great sense of pride.'
• Realistic: Our goals must be achievable. It's a waste of precious energy to pursue a goal that is unattainable.
  • – Example: ‘I will complete the postgraduate Diploma of Human Resources online as an external student to enable me to study remotely and part time in the evenings and on weekends while continuing to work full time in my current job.'
• Time-framed: Setting an achievable time frame holds us accountable to ourselves for our progress. A goal with no time boundaries may never be achieved. As William James said, ‘Nothing [is] so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.'
  • – Example: ‘I will commence the postgraduate Diploma of Human Resources in the second semester this year and successfully complete it within two years.'

Staying on track

Helping your employees stay on track with their goals is a basic leadership activity. There may be times when they are tempted to give up because they're finding the demands too great. They may just need to recalibrate their goal or modify the time frame. Whatever the case, leaders should provide encouragement and help reduce the employee's feelings of self-doubt or frustration. Winston Churchill advised, ‘If you are going through hell, keep going!' I have elaborated on this in relation to understanding the change process in chapter 10.

Anthony Grant offered a simple but very useful model in his book Solution-Focused Coaching to help leaders and their employees stay on track once their SMART goals have been established (see figure 6.1).

This model is intuitive and really works! Leaders can help their employees to understand how powerful feedback loops can be in navigating progress and pathways forward. When discussing careers, the model helps to overcome the challenges and setbacks that are an inevitable part of progress.

Table 6.1 is an example of an action planning chart you could use and recommend for your employees.

Key learnings

When Jenny lost her job through retrenchment, she had an unexpected opportunity to review and reset her career path. Once she had articulated her passion she drafted a written career plan, set SMART goals and systematically executed them for success.

Her story shows the payoff of persistence and resilience and demonstrates how adversity can sometimes open a door to a dream career! Leaders need to keep such possibilities in mind in their career conversations with employees.