Tag: goal-setting

Goals and Means (1-22-25)

Last week was about discussing goals with others.  This week is about being clear on the means we will use to achieve those goals.

I mentioned last week that one of my goals is to get stronger, more specifically it’s to increase the amount of weight I lift on a weekly basis by 15-20% for the year.  At this point, the outcome is relatively clear.  However, the means to get there are not so clear, and the means matter.  I could increase my strength in a lot of ways.  I could take steroids, which likely wouldn’t be good for me or my family.  I get super grumpy when I take steroids for poison ivy 😉  I could cheat by sandbagging my baseline, which would make any improvements larger than they are.  I could follow a variety of exercise splits (push/pull/legs, full body, etc).  I could workout 10 minutes per day or 3 hours per day.  The means matter.  Some of them are cheating.  Some of them have negative impacts on me and others.  Some of them involve making other trade-offs I would need to consider.

What does this have to do with work?  Often, we are clear about the outcomes we want, but we are not as clear about the behaviors and means we want to see as people deliver those outcomes.  Have you ever seen someone deliver the desired outcome, but leave a trail of dead bodies on the path to get there?  I have.  Have you ever seen someone deliver the desired outcome, but they caused way more chaos and fire drills than were necessary?  I have.  Have you ever seen anyone deliver an outcome, but they didn’t collaborate or inform folks along the way?  I have.  When people reach the outcome via poor means, that’s not a success and it likely does a fair amount of damage along the way.  The means matter.  As leaders and colleagues, we all need to be clear about the behaviors and means that we hope to see from each other.

The challenge: What are your goals?  HOW will you go about achieving those goals?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Discussing Your Goals with Others (1-15-25)

Last week was about setting goals that resonate.  This week is about the importance of discussing your goals with others.

A little over a week ago, my wife and I got a room in the library with a whiteboard and spent a few hours brainstorming goals for our family  relating to health (physical, mental, social), raising the kids, building our relationship, family trips, and things to do with the house.  Some of those are individual and some are joint goals.  Basically, it’s a kick-off meeting for our family.  Yes, it was the most romantic date ever 😉

Investing this time to share our goals with each other helps us do a few things.  First, it creates a shared understanding of individual goals, so we can support each other.  Second, talking through goals gives us a chance to make sure we are on the same page.  We both have a goal of helping our kids continue to become more self sufficient, but there are a lot of different ways to do that.  We were able to talk through what we felt we needed to focus on.  Last but not least, sharing goals helps us see potential conflicts so we can handle them.  For example, if we have goals about what major house projects we’d like to do that impacts how we will think about budgets for vacation and other spending throughout the year.

What does this have to do with anything?  Have you ever felt like you worked in silos?  I know I have.  This is incredibly frustrating.  Since the groups aren’t communicating, the different groups may not be aligned on what the goal is or they might even have goals that directly conflict with each other.  We could likely avoid more of this if we did a better job of talking to each other about what our goals were.  If we were more clear, we could align which brings power AND we could plan for how to handle things when the goals are in conflict with each other.

The challenge: How can you find ways to create a shared understanding of your goals to help achieve success?

Bonus- Here are a few goals we have this year. Sharing in case it inspires anyone.

  • Date nights- Monthly date night to be scheduled the second weekend of the month.  If it doesn’t get scheduled it gets lost in the daily grind.
  • Vacations– at least 1 weeklong trip, and a 2-3 day trip in the fall and spring.
  • Work more reasonable hours- My personal goal is to shoot more for 40-50 hours per week and limited nights and weekends.  Like many of us, I put in a lot of long days and nights during Q4.  I realized that my workload wasn’t just rough for my mental health, but had a negative impact on my family’s energy as well. #needforextremeprioritization

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry