SMART Goal Setting: A Surefire Way To Achieve Your Goals

I encourage you to pick up a pen and a piece of paper and jot down the goals you want to reach. Look at each goal and evaluate it. Make any changes necessary to ensure it meets the criteria for a SMART goals:

• S = Specific


• M = Measurable


• A = Attainable


• R = Realistic


• T = Timely

Specific

Goals should be straightforward and emphasize what you want to happen. Specifics help us to focus our efforts and clearly define what we are going to do.

Specific is the What, Why, and How of the SMART model.

• WHAT are you going to do? Use action words such as direct, organize, coordinate, lead, develop, plan, build etc.


• WHY is this important to do at this time? What do you want to ultimately accomplish?


• HOW are you going to do it? (By…)

Ensure the goals you set is very specific, clear and easy. Instead of setting a goal to lose weight or be healthier, set a specific goal to lose 2cm off your waistline or to walk 5 miles at an aerobically challenging pace.

Measurable

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. In the broadest sense, the whole goal statement is a measure for the project; if the goal is accomplished, the is a success. However, there are usually several short-term or small measurements that can be built into the goal.

Choose a goal with measurable progress, so you can see the change occur. How will you see when you reach your goal? Be specific! “I want to read 3 chapter books of 100 pages on my own before my birthday” shows the specific target to be measure. “I want to be a good reader” is not as measurable.

Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goals.

Attainable

When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop that attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. Your begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

Goals you set which are too far out of your reach, you probably won’t commit to doing. Although you may start with the best of intentions, the knowledge that it’s too much for you means your subconscious will keep reminding you of this fact and will stop you from even giving it your best.

A goal needs to stretch you slightly so you feel you can do it and it will need a real commitment from you. For instance, if you aim to lose 20lbs in one week, we all know that isn’t achievable. But setting a goal to loose 1lb and when you’ve achieved that, aiming to lose a further 1lb, will keep it achievable for you.

The feeling of success which this brings helps you to remain motivated.

Realistic

This is not a synonym for “easy.” Realistic, in this case, means “do-able.” It means that the learning curve is not a vertical slope; that the skills needed to do the work are available; that the project fits with the overall strategy and goals of the organization. A realistic project may push the skills and knowledge of the people working on it but it shouldn’t break them.

Devise a plan or a way of getting there which makes the goal realistic. The goal needs to be realistic for you and where you are at the moment. A goal of never again eating sweets, cakes, crisps and chocolate may not be realistic for someone who really enjoys these foods.

For instance, it may be more realistic to set a goal of eating a piece of fruit each day instead of one sweet item. You can then choose to work towards reducing the amount of sweet products gradually as and when this feels realistic for you.

Be sure to set goals that you can attain with some effort! Too difficult and you set the stage for failure, but too low sends the message that you aren’t very capable. Set the bar high enough for a satisfying achievement!

Timely

Set a timeframe for the goal: for next week, in three months, by fifth grade. Putting an end point on your goal gives you a clear target to work towards.

If you don’t set a time, the commitment is too vague. It tends not to happen because you feel you can start at any time. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to start taking action now.

Time must be measurable, attainable and realistic.

Everyone will benefit from goals and objectives if they are SMART. SMART, is the instrument to apply in setting your goals and objectives.

Source Goal Setting Guide

The 2 Most Important Keys to Effective Leadership

According to a study by the Hay Group, a global management consultancy, there are 75 key components of employee satisfaction (Lamb, McKee, 2004). They found that:

• Trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization.


• Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas was the key to winning organizational trust and confidence:
  
  
  
  1. Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy.
  
  
  2. Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.
  
  
  3. Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employee's own division is doing — relative to strategic business objectives.
  
  
  
  

The Ability to Lead with Integrity

Leadership is about character, integrity and courage more than being the smartest, strongest or the best at something. The foundation of a leader is integrity and must be displayed. The dictionary states integrity as; soundness of moral character; honesty. Simply put integrity means true to your word, owning up to your mistakes, not making excuses and taking responsibility for your actions. Courage is doing the right thing, for the right reasons even when no one is around. The ability to act is truly courage, action is how you are courageous to go against all the odds when you know something is right.

Do what you say. The saying, lead by example, are the actions of a leader. Think of someone you have personally known who you thought was a good leader, but it turned out they were not. They were saying all the right things and you probably believed them, but their actions did not reflect what they were saying. These are the actions of a leader who have their own agendas and do not possess the courage to do what is right for their people.

Leaders never give up on something, once they have chosen their dream. Many leaders have failed countless times, that is how they have learned. If you try to avoid failure, you will also be avoiding action. The ability to persevere and never give up is how you become a leader.

Integrity, lead by example and perseverance these are the qualities of a great leader. The greatest leaders are also compassionate towards others, but are not easily influenced. I will now leave you with a quote that shows the power that a single leader can produce. “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion”… Alexander the great.

Source successfuleducation.com

Are you asking yourself the right questions?

Are you asking yourself the right questions? Inspiring minds want to know. The right question can be just the right prompt to inspire you to action, gain better perspective, or help you make the most of any situation. But it's up to you to make sure you ask yourself some of these questions.

Here is a set of 101 questions that can help shape your day, solve a problem, figure out next steps, or get “on the right path.”

1. What’s the way forward?


2. What do you want your life to be about?


3. Who do you want to be and what experiences do you want to create?


4. How does that serve you in terms of who you are and who you want to be?


5. Are you giving your best where you have your best to give?


6. What do you want to accomplish?


7. What do you want to do more of each day? … What do you want to spend your time doing more of?


8. What do you want to spend less time on?


9. If this situation were to never change, what’s the one quality I need to truly enjoy it?


10. If not now, when?


11. If not you, who?


12. What’s right with this picture? (if you always ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?”, this is a nice switch)


13. How can you make the most of the situation? … If there are no good options, what’s the best play I can make for this scenario?


14. Who else shares this problem? … Who would solve this problem well? (a great way to find models and learn from the best)


15. What would <famous or interesting person XYZ> do?” … How would I respond if I were Bob Hope? … Leonardo da Vinci? … Guy Kawasaki? … Seth Godin? … etc. (this is a great way to come up with new ideas or plays for your situation)


16. What are you pointing your camera at? (a simple way to direct your day on a scene by scene basis)


17. What’s good enough for now?


18. What can you be the best at in the world?


19. What’s the most effective thing for me to focus on?


20. Are you asking the right question? … Is that the right question?


21. How is that relevant?


22. What’s that based on?


23. What’s the goal? … What are the goals?


24. What would success look like?


25. What do you need to be successful? … What do you need to be successful in this situation?


26. Is it working? … Is it effective?


27. What do you measure? … What are the metrics?


28. What are the tests for success?


29. How do you know it’s working?


30. How do you know when you’re done?


31. What did you expect?


32. Are you creating the results you want?


33. Does it matter?


34. Will it matter in 100 years?


35. Is it worth the effort?


36. What actions have I taken? … What steps have I tried? ( a great sanity check when you’re testing your ability to take action)


37. What’s next?


38. What do you want to do?


39. What’s best for you?


40. What’s the best thing for now?


41. What’s your next best thing to do?


42. Is that a good idea?


43. So what? Now what?


44. What’s the problem?


45. What’s the threat?


46. What’s the concern?


47. When do you want it by? … You want what by when?


48. Who needs to do what when?


49. Who needs to do what differently?


50. Who should do what when?


51. What would you have them do differently?


52. What’s wearing you down?


53. What’s lifting you up?


54. Why do you get up in the morning and come to work?


55. What do you want to experience? … What do you want to experience more of?


56. What are you trading? … What are you trading up for?


57. What did you learn that you can use next time?


58. What would you do differently next time around?


59. Where’s the growth?


60. What would people pay you for?


61. Do you want to run towards or away from the problem?


62. How big is the pie, how big is your slice?


63. Does it make business sense?


64. Is it business critical?


65. What’s our capacity?


66. What’s our constraint?


67. What are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?


68. What’s our core business?


69. What does the market want?


70. Is it push, pull or indifferent?


71. What’s the trend?


72. What to cut back on?


73. What does the pro know that you don’t? (this is a good way to figure out if knowledge or insight can make a difference)


74. Now what are you going to do about it?


75. Can you teach it to someone else?


76. How can I use this?


77. What do you want to say?


78. What’s the right thing to do?


79. Is now the right time?


80. Is this the right forum?


81. How much time do you have?


82. What are you making time for?


83. How much time should you make for it?


84. What can you do all day long?


85. What are you spending the bulk of your time on?


86. Does your schedule reflect your priorities?


87. If you had all the time in the world, how would you spend your time?


88. If you had all the money in the world, how would you spend it?


89. Where are we on the map?


90. What would make life more wonderful for you?


91. How can you chunk it down?


92. How fast can you do it?


93. What’s the impact?


94. What would you like to have happen? … What would you like instead?


95. What’s the opposite of that?


96. How might that be true?


97. What are you seeing that I’m not?


98. What did you see, what did you hear?


99. What’s the writing on the wall?


100. What’s their story?


101. Who’s stopping you? … What’s stopping you? … What’s holding you back?

What questions drive you? … Share your favorite question in the comments.

Source Sourcesofinsight.com

Solving the Leadership Puzzle

Many of the challenges we face as a leader seem tough, unusual, and perhaps unsolvable.  Many puzzle enthusiasts, working on puzzles as diverse as Sudoku,  crosswords, video games (and more) thrill for puzzles with those same descriptors.

Perhaps our leadership lesson from them starts from recognizing their attitude and it’s important to ultimate success.  Rather than procrastinating or ignoring a tough problem, puzzlers get started.

Once they get started they likely use a three step formula (consciously or not) to help them get going.

1.  Look for patterns.

2.  Find the way in.

3.  Build on your success.

These three points were in the May 2009 issue of  Wired Magazine (the issue isn’t online at this writing).  The points are attributed to Dvora K. Klaviatura, head of the Belarus Enigmatology Institute, and you can see how they make sense to a puzzle.

When considering a challenge or problem you as facing as a leader, make these steps part of your next leadership activities:

1.  Recognize that problems and challenges come with the territory. Rather than lamenting or procrastinating, take the puzzlers approach and dive in.  Not only do you stand to solve the problem, but you will also learn something and gain confidence and excitement from success!

2.  Look for patterns. Ask yourself questions like:  What about this situation looks or seems like past challenges or problems?   What else does this situation remind me of?

3.  Find the way in. Look for an entry point – something to try, someone to talk to, a way to begin a conversation, a question to ask.  Finding the way in, helps you take action and get started.

4. Build on your success. Once you have gotten started, be persistent.  Use what you have learned up until this point to help you be more successful.  Apply what has proven successful so far as you move forward (without becoming blinded by success – remember the challenge you face may be pretty complex!)

Consider these steps as you solve a leadership puzzle – and recognize these as building blocks to your effective leadership skills

Source Kevin Eikenberry

Team Building to Improve Efficiency

by yewenyi

Team Building to Improve Efficiency

There is no doubt about it; Team building certainly does improve efficiency in the workplace. Very often people from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds find it difficult to work together. They are under the pressures of their work and do not then have the time to find out just where the other person is coming from or what makes them tick.

It's like working with strangers all the time - people you are not quite sure you can trust and you don't empathize with. But once Team Building Activities begin you are able to relate to those people in a different way. Team Building Games help people to see each other in a different light – in a social atmosphere rather than just in the workplace.

Team building events place people on the same team so that they begin to see each other as team mates who must pull together to win. This feeling then spills over into their working relationships and their workplace. Suddenly they start to work together as a team rather than several different entities that just happen to work for the same company.

This is particularly so with adventure team building because there is nothing like having an adventure to meld people together. There are now many Corporate Team building events that employees can be booked into, from paintball to table tennis and from ten-pin bowling to caving. Melbourne team building can help many companies with their team building efforts.

If you are based in Sydney and looking for some ways to help your employees into higher creativity, Team building in Sydney have many solutions. Likewise, team building in Canberra may have just the right games, events and simulations to ensure your team building efforts not only build teams but that those teams have fun while they are learning to work together to achieve their goals.

Source Team Building Articles