What’s The Goal?
Effective leaders, of the past and present, carefully articulate what the end goal is and have a robust plan to get them there. Leaders understand that they are working with scarce resources – people and capital. Their imperative is to prioritize initiatives based on the impact and the ease of implementation and then allocate their resources appropriately. I was always taught to “Under promise and over-deliver”. It may seem exceedingly obvious, but this is hard to put into practice. Many leaders, including myself, want to appear as able to do everything, but sometimes the best strategy is evaluating the end goal and choosing what not to do. Remember, the most important decisions we make are what to say “no” to.
In Lesson #39 of The Disciplined Leader, John Manning (2015) argued for developing a “What’s the goal?” culture. By specifying goals clarity is achieved, the direction is clear, and the team stays focused. This past week we had a task force go to Arizona for school planning. While we used the best practice of a collaborative agenda building exercise, I gave them my desired end goal of solidifying our plans and doing what I called, “moving action items from being written in pencil to written in ink.” The team also set goals for what was needed to be accomplished, both for our time in Arizona as well as our overall school launch project. This vital few item of goal setting helped us to stay disciplined and get an incredible amount accomplished. It also helped us to say no to initiatives which would have caused us to lose our focus and take the eye of the ball. Are you taking the time to develop a “What’s the goal?” culture?
“Defining ‘What’s the goal?’ before taking action will save time and also form greater direction and improve execution. Drive this habit through your organization, and employees will be more productive, goal-oriented, and results-focused.” ~ John Manning
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