With 2024 approaching quickly, now is a great time to set or revisit your goals. To help with that task, below are some tips to help you and your team be successful in accomplishing your goals, as well as insights on how to handle things when they don’t go as planned. 

Remember your Passion: One reason some teams don’t accomplish their goals is they lack the burning passion to turn their goals into reality. Without passion, it’s hard to get motivated to get something done. When life shoots a hole through your plans, don’t get defeated. Learn to take a step back and remember your passion. Then, regroup and revise your goals accordingly.

Ensure you have a Positive Vision: There are three types of visions (link to vision article): a positive vision, a status quo vision, and a negative vision. Only positive visions motivate people to take action and move in the direction needed to accomplish the goal. Negative visions tend to repel people or at least repel the type of person you want to be around. As a leader, you need to have a deep belief that, by achieving your goals, tomorrow will be even better than today.

Set Immediate and Future Goals: When you have big overarching goals that take time to accomplish, you need to break them down into smaller goals to reach your vision. Get in the habit of setting weekly, monthly, or annual goals to ensure success and maintain motivation. This way, you celebrate the milestones along the way and measure your success more frequently. 

Embrace Flexibility and Failure: It is rare to set a goal and have it be successful the first time. That is where WD-40 got its name. It was the 40th formula that worked. Think of failure as the road to success. Don’t think of it as failing, but rather trying different ways to be successful. Know it usually takes many attempts and adjustments to be successful. If a goal doesn’t work, be willing to change your tactics or even switch goals. Some people spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find out they tilted their ladder against the wrong building. Be willing to pivot along the way.

Celebrate Accomplishments and Milestones: Some people are frustrated because they set the same goals, year after year, and still don’t accomplish the goal. To ensure you and your team stay motivated, celebrate your accomplishments and milestones along the way. Doing so will help you recognize your successes and continue the momentum. 

Enjoy the Journey: Although you have a vision and a goal to turn the vision into a reality, life will be even more fulfilling if you have the flexibility to take detours along the way. Being flexible will allow you to enjoy new experiences, and the ride, even more.

All of us are striving to accomplish something either personally or professionally. To do this, we need to set goals. Some will say they don’t believe in goals. But, even people who set a goal to not have goals, have a goal. To be successful, we need to follow the steps above to ensure we pivot along the way and have the flexibility and disposition to succeed. Bill Copeland said it best when he said: “The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” 

The post Setting the Course for Success in 2024: Turning Visions into Reality appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

Communicate a Positive Vision

Leaders who lack confidence tend to have a status quo or pessimistic vision of their team’s and organization’s future. Although these leaders may not communicate their negative thoughts, we know that confident leaders tend to communicate a positive vision and focus on the improved outcome. Confident leaders believe they have the skills needed to figure it out, find the resources, build a team, and consistently deliver the needed results. Their positive vision allows them to lead positive conversations.

Over Communicate

Leaders who don’t have faith in themselves tend to be poor communicators. They are so hyper-focused on not slipping up that they will hesitate to make decisions, respond to emails or communicate their vision. When leaders shy away from communicating, making decisions, or withholding information, they hold-up other team members’ work. This leaves employees feeling more confused and less confident in their leader’s abilities. Confident leaders focus on never holding up another team member’s work. They also practice good communication by actively listening, asking good questions, and being decisive.

Take Risks

Leaders who lack confidence are afraid of failing, so they avoid being innovative and taking risks. They think that playing it “by the book” will keep their team or organization consistent and safe so that they won’t be accountable for any mishaps. This sparks issues because while leaders may not make any mistakes, they aren’t leading change and improving the organization. Confident leaders take calculated risks. They confidently forge into the unknown and learn from their mistakes. This goes along with the classic Mark Twain saying, “You’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did do.” If leaders begin to take risks rather than play it safe, the possibilities are endless. Confident leaders believe they can accomplish their goals.

Give Credit where it is Due

Leaders who lack confidence are not comfortable giving credit or expressing gratitude to members of their team. These leaders tend to take credit for the wins and are quick to point out the mistakes of others. To keep the team’s trust and commitment, confident leaders know they must show appreciation for their team’s hard work and contribution to the organization’s success by properly recognizing their achievements. Confident leaders trust their teams and allow them to flourish and grow. Giving credit also means accepting compliments and not discounting them. Instead of discounting the compliment, learn to say, “Thank you for that feedback.”

Be Resilient

Every great leader, at one point or another, has made a bad decision or has tried something that did not work. The difference, however, between a confident leader and a skeptical leader is that the confident leader will turn a negative outcome into a positive outlook for the future. A confident leader will take every loss, mistake or obstacle and look at it as a learning experience that they can improve upon in the future. Confident leaders will not let failure get in their way and stop them because they know that failure is the path to learning and growing and will bring them one step closer to achieving their goals.

Call upon a Mentor or Executive Coach

Leaders who lack confidence believe that since they were hired for the job, they should already have all the skills they need to do the job. They don’t want to admit that they do not know what to do or have all the answers. Confident leaders are comfortable asking for help and advice of people who have gone before them. When meeting with a coach or mentor, confident leaders love to use the line, “I need to run something by you.” Asking for help is a sign of strength, and confident leaders use mentors, coaches, or advisors to help them become even stronger leaders.

Defeat Imposter Syndrome

Every leader, even CEO’s of great organizations, has questioned themselves if they are really the right/best person for their job. These bad thoughts almost always lead to comparing their leadership to someone else… whether it is one of their direct reports or the CEO of a competitor. In challenging moments or situations, leaders who lack confidence believe that there is someone better than them who could do their job. These thoughts erode confidence and lead to negative thoughts and visions. To become an even more confident leader and overcome the Imposter Syndrome, we recommend leaders build a list of ten to fifteen reasons (skills, traits, and competencies) why they were selected for this leadership role.

Your job as a leader is to constantly improve the condition of your team and organization to succeed. Remember, you were put in your position of power and influence for a reason. They hired you for the job; now make them look good and take advantage of the opportunity you were given.

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Recently an executive asked me “Is this vision thing overrated?” It’s a great question and many times in my career I’ve had managers and executives tell me that they really don’t see the power and emphasis placed on leadership and vision. What’s really neat about vision, is a simple definition. It’s a clear mental picture described in words. And what’s neat about vision is, all of us have a vision, everyone has a vision, even your most negative employee has a vision. And it’s one of three visions.

Vision number one is a positive vision. These leaders deeply believe that tomorrow is going to be even better than it was today and, “I’m helping to lead it.”

Vision number two is what we describe of a vision of the status quo. “I hope that sales are as good next quarter as they were this quarter.” Or, “I hope my budget for next year is the same as my budget this year because it worked.”

And vision number three, it’s a negative vision. These are the employees who walk around going, “You know how bad things are? Just wait, it’s going to get worse.” I’ve got some bad news for you. If you’ve got one of these negative visionaries on your team; they aren’t ever leaving you. They’re with you for a lifetime and you ask why? “If they’re not happy, they don’t like the company, and they don’t like me, why don’t they leave? I’d leave.”

They don’t leave because of their vision. They actually have a vision that the next place is going to be even worse than your team. And the second reason they don’t leave is everybody who’s ever worked with them and left is not taking them with them.

A great analogy for a vision, is a jigsaw puzzle. I don’t know many of you really enjoy building one of those 1000 or 2000 piece jigsaw puzzles, I hate them. And I hate them because I always work on them for two or three hours and I glance over at my five or my six pieces and then I glance over at the box top and I glance back at my five or six pieces and the only thought going through my, bottom line, results oriented mind is “why are you duplicating the effort? This is not going to be a huge surprise when you’re done, we got the end result staring at you right there.”

When you think about the job of a leader, it ties right in to a positive vision. The job of the leader is to continuously improve the condition of their team or of their organization. So, with this new information on vision, go do your job and continuously improve the condition of your team and your organization.

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The single most influential difference between those people who are wandering across the median of life, and those who are the peak performers achieving great accomplishments, is that the peak performers almost always have goals and a plan of how they will turn their vision into a reality. We all have goals for our job, team and even our personal life. But how often do you put a plan in place to turn the goals into more than words on a piece of paper. When you write your new year’s resolutions this year, or set your team’s goals for the year, take the next step to make them reality. To ensure your success, here are six steps to creating great goals and building a successful path to accomplishment.

Step One: Create a powerful, positive, compelling vision of the outcome

Without a clear, compelling, positive vision of what you want to accomplish, it is very difficult to know what goals to set and actions to take. A vision is a clear mental picture of the outcome you are trying to achieve. A great analogy of a vision is the picture on the cover of a jigsaw puzzle box. You know what you are trying to build and what the puzzle is going to be before you even start working on the puzzle.

Once your vision is clear, make a list of all the actions you will need to take to turn your vision into a reality.

Step Two: List the potential problems and benefits

Most goal setters do not take time to acknowledge potential problems. It is important that you take the time to list every problem that could stop you from accomplishing your goal. It could even be as simple as one word such as time or money. If you take the time to list the problems and create a plan to overcome them, there is a good chance that the problems may not arise.

Once you list the problems, compare them to the benefits. The benefits have to outweigh the problems or the problems will stop you.

Step Three: Create a written plan with measurable actions and time frames

When writing out your plan, you need to include both milestones and deadlines for accomplishments. Without deadlines, things always take longer to accomplish. If you were leaving for vacation tomorrow at 10:00 am, between now and then, I promise you will accomplish a ton more than you ever would or could if you were not leaving for vacation.

Once your plan has been written out step by step, you have successfully worked through the plan both on paper and in your mind. At this point, you could actually lose your written plan and most likely you will still be successful in accomplishing your goal.

It is important to note that every action and goal needs to be measurable. Without goals and measurements clearly identified, you will still be rewarded, but most likely, rewarded in Heaven.

Step Four: Is the goal realistic and obtainable to YOU?

This is a step that is not discussed much in the literature. The reason I feel it is important is that there are far more people in this world who will tell you what won’t work or can’t be done than there are people who will extend their arm and lift you up with encouragement. Some of you are the type of person that truly gets pumped and motivated when someone tells you something can’t be done. If the goal is realistic to you, GO FOR IT!

Step Five: Be willing to do whatever it takes

In 1982, a little book called The Ultimate Secret, written by an author known only as J.D., shared what I feel is the most important ingredient to your success after you have crystallized your vision. J.D., in his book, says the ultimate secret is asking yourself this one question: Are you willing to do whatever it takes to successfully accomplish your goal? If you can answer yes, then nothing will stop you. If you are not willing to do whatever it takes, there is a good chance that one of the problems you listed is going to be too big of a mountain for you to climb.

Step Six: Celebrate your successes today!

Life is short. It is over in one heartbeat. If you wait to celebrate your successful goal accomplishment, you may never find the time. Celebrate what you have accomplished today and set new goals for tomorrow.

As you begin this New Year, Dream Big. Set Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Believe in yourself. Take Action. If you do so, you will be a person who out accomplishes the wandering generalities of life. When our time comes to leave this world, we all want the ability to say, “I made a difference and left this world even better than I found it.” I encourage you to set goals and make a positive impact in 2018.

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To become a leader that makes a positive impact on the world and your organization, follow the six steps listed below to greatness.

6. Embrace Our Rapidly Changing World.

You’ve probably heard it said more than once, “The only thing constant is change.” You can decide that you are going to help create change and learn from it, or you can try to resist change; either way the world keeps changing. Because of global competition and the rapid increase of information and technologies, many large organizations are eliminating layers of middle management and supervisors to be more responsive to change and to their customers. Great leaders know their success depends on their ability to quickly adapt to change; they look into the future to see how they can make a difference and how their talents and energies can be applied in the organization.  Your ability to adapt to change will significantly impact your leadership and organizational success.

5. Make Friends with the Unknown.

One of the necessities to becoming a great leader is to be empowered; to do this, great leaders become comfortable with the unknown. As fast as our environment is changing, it is impossible to know all the facts or have all the answers all the time.  If you wait until all the available information is in to make your decisions, the chances are you have waited too long. In today’s environment, we no longer can afford the luxury of waiting until something is absolutely perfect. Effective leaders make decisions based on the best available information and lead the charge!  As Peter Drucker once said, “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”

4. Be the Change You Want to See in the World.

In light of these words by Gandhi, great leaders do not wait for the world to change, they lead the change. Where are you going to spend your energy? Complaining about things you cannot change or creating the things you can? If you feel your destiny is in someone else’s hands, you do not have to take responsibility for your actions. Focus on what you can do and take responsibility. There is power in responsibility.

3. Value and Incorporate Different Perspectives.

It is easy to communicate with people who think just like you. It is difficult to effectively communicate with someone who has a differing viewpoint. If we only have the ability to communicate with people who think like us, we are limiting ourselves from learning new and valuable information and we are limiting our leadership effectiveness.  To quote Andy Stanly, “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people with nothing to say.” Reach out to people who have different points of view; invite their input and incorporate their ideas; whenever possible. With information and the environment changing as rapidly as it is, we can no longer afford to look unilaterally for one right answer. Become multilateral in your thinking. Search for possibilities–not just one solution.

2. Genuinely Care about Your People.

We recently heard a manager say that he did not care about people’s emotions. He went on to say, “We have a job to get done!” Unfortunately, people are the ones who are going to get that job done. And, people have feelings. In fact, everything about motivation and the desire to do good work is based on a feeling. If we do not consider people’s feelings, it is impossible to be an effective leader.

1. Develop a Leadership “Tool Kit.”

No one can have all the answers. What you can develop is a “tool kit” of resources that can help to solve problems. If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Collect information, and then learn and practice leadership and management techniques. Remember, good leaders never stop learning.

Make 2018 the year you become the leader your organization and the world needs!

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Luckily, with a high performing team, these issues can be avoided.

As you read the following 10 traits of a great executive team, reflect on what you are doing correctly and what executive leadership traits you can incorporate into your leadership to improve.

Accountability: There needs to be accountability in two different ways. Each individual in the company, executive or employee, needs to be held accountable for delivering the goods on time and within budget. No excuses. There also needs to be a formal or an informal leader who’s responsible for holding the executive team accountable. This could be the CEO or another leader who verifies that the team is meeting agreed upon goals.

Clear mission and positive vision: This leader needs to ensure that he/she routinely articulates a clear, positive vision of what the team will accomplish, not only in results, but also how executives will function as a team.

Clear goals: Once the mission and vision have been clearly articulated, each executive needs clear goals with measurements for success and the time frame for when the results will be achieved. Each executive needs to know how their work contributes to the overall success of their team and the organization as a whole.

Clarify roles and responsibilities: The big question is, “Who is responsible?” The right response is, “Everyone on the team is responsible.” But, on every team there are questions and conflicts concerning who has the responsibility for the end result. Almost always, for each executive to be successful, they need help and support from other executives. When people work well together as a team, very seldom is there a question of responsibility. When teamwork is lacking, the CEO or team’s leader needs to get involved and figure out who owns the outcome and what support that executive will need to achieve the desired result.

Pick the right people: When baseball players step up to the plate, they’re considered great players if they get a hit in one out of three balls. That’s similar to hiring. If you hire the right person on the first pick over 50 percent of the time, you have a great batting average. Ultimately, you need to hire someone with great technical skills and great people skills. The minute you start justifying someone’s inadequacies in either of these areas, you’re compromising the success of the team. If you’ve realized that you’ve made the wrong hire, quickly admit your mistake and share the person with your competitor.

Deal with problems or conflicts quickly: Be vigilant, agile and tenacious when problems or conflicts emerge. How long does it take the leader or the executives to identify and effectively solve problems? Most executives are good at identifying problems. What will separate a great team from an average team is how quickly you resolve problems and conflicts, especially between executives.

Maintain primary loyalty: In his bestselling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni highlights this concept. When an executive leadership team agrees to accomplish something, every member of the team commits to accomplishing the goal. Almost always, each executive will meet some resistance from their own department. However, the minute the executive makes a decision to support their individual department’s concerns over the goals of the organization, they have lost primary loyalty and have decided that secondary loyalty (to their own team) is more important. When this happens, the success of the organization and the executive team will almost always be compromised.

Honest communication: This almost sounds trite. Of course executives need to communicate honestly! But, in reality, poor communication is what undermines the success of most teams. When it comes to communication, practice the concept of no surprises. If you communicate in a way that prevents others from being negatively surprised, you will find it is easier to build team trust.

Accomplish goals: Ultimately, what will define success for you individually and for your team is accomplishing your goals. You will be seen by your clients, employees, and even your competitors as a winner. This is what separates a winning team from a mediocre team.

Have fun: Life is short. When you love what you do, and your team is successful, you don’t actually have a job, you have a vocation that you are paid to do. Celebrate your successes, even the small ones.

Creating and sustaining a high performing team is not easy and requires continual evaluation—What’s working? What’s not going well? What do we need to do to fix the problems that have been identified? But the payoff is fantastic. There’s no greater feeling than knowing that your organization is lead by a great, high performing executive leadership team.

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In the blog, Jeff writes that big visionary goals will always meet opposition and resistance from doubters. This comment is so true, and is the real test of how big a goal or vision really is. I have often said that visions are almost always reality statements, until someone questions if it can actually be done.

A vision is a clear mental picture of the outcome you are trying to achieve. Another way to describe your vision is that it clarifies and crystalizes the picture you have of your future destination. Your goals are the results or the outcomes you will need to achieve to turn the vision into a reality. Your strategic plan is the actions you will take to accomplish your goals.

When someone questions the legitimacy of a vision or a goal, they are actually telling you that they are uncomfortable putting this vision or goal on paper and being held accountable to the results. Either the vision is not seen as achievable, ever, or they do not know how to turn the vision and goals into a current reality.

There are two ways that you can reduce the tension and make people feel more comfortable about stated visions and goals. One way you can reduce the tension is to lower the vision and goals. Instead of saying, “Our goal is to be the nationally recognized industry leader,” you could say, “Our goal is to be a locally recognized industry leader.”

Lower visions and goals make people feel more comfortable, because the vision is more easily achievable. A second way to alleviate the uncomfortable feeling is to set goals and work hard on achieving the goals that take you closer to turning the vision into a reality.

Three years ago, we worked with a transit authority that set the goal of delivering stellar service and becoming nationally recognized. When the vision was created, several team members wanted to change the vision to “regionally recognized.” Today, they are recognized transit leaders; making presentations at national transit conventions, telling people about the innovative programs they have implemented.

Although there may be times we need to lower our annual goal, I don’t ever recommend lowering your vision. I am often quoted for saying, “Great leaders make people feel uncomfortable.” Great leaders create bigger visions and set higher goals. The logical outcome is you are going to encounter resistance from doubters and other team members who are uncomfortable with your lofty vision.

Here are 5 keys to building a great vision or setting goals that are guaranteed to create doubters and meet resistance:

Stay Focused on Strategy

Stay focused on only articulating the vision and not discussing the “how to” or planning the actions. Great visions are all about strategy. The minute that someone says, “That can’t be done,” they have moved out of a strategic discussion and into planning. One guarantee . . . action planning will kill great vision and goals every time. Create a great vision or goal that meets opposition and resistance. Then, in a separate meeting, put a plan together of what it would take to turn the vision or goal into a reality.

Stay Focused on Passion

Great vision and goals are tied to emotion and passion. Recently, while working with a financial institution, they stated their vision was to provide the financial means to teach customers how to turn their dreams into a reality. Some team members wanted to jump to planning by asking, “Wow could that be done, as some customers have poor credit?” Since we were not at the planning stage at this point of the discussion, the appropriate vision question to ask is, “If we were able to turn our customer’s dreams into a reality by providing them with the financial solutions, would that make you feel passionate and proud?” To this question, almost every team member responded yes.

Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable

When we help companies with strategic planning, we always give them one guarantee. In the process to formulate a great vision, you will become frustrated. In vision discussions, it is helpful to utilize an outside strategic planning expert. A facilitator who has expertise in strategic planning is well worth the investment. They can keep the group stay strategically focused by asking the right questions that will help the team end the session with a vision and goals that everyone will be proud of and motivated to turn into a reality. Too many strategic planning sessions end up with team members being angry and frustrated with the feeling that everyone wasted their time. If you don’t work through the frustration, there is a good chance your vision and goals will not be great. If you lower your vision to something everyone agrees upfront can be done, you have a reality statement that at best could be described as a “ho hummer.” A second reason to utilize a consultant is where Boards are involved in the strategic planning process. Boards love to skip over the hard strategic questions and jump into the operational planning which is not their job.

Hold Team Members Accountable

Once the vision and goals have been set, it will be critical for each team member responsible for turning the operational actions and goals into a reality to be held accountable. Execution will determine whether this strategic plan is a success or not.

Meet Often

Historically, strategic planning has been an annual event. With the pace of change occurring at a rate we have never seen before, most of our clients are holding an annual strategic planning session, but then following it up quarterly to ensure they are on track. If there are challenges or issues with accountability, course corrections can be implemented much sooner than waiting another year.

Great visions and goals will always meet resistance and encounter doubters. That is the test that validates that you have set an inspiring vision and a great goal. Follow the tips mentioned in this blog to dream and create a radial, inspiring vision, and win over even you biggest resisters!

The post What to Do When your Big Vision Meets Big Opposition appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

Won’t somebody please give me the playbook and tell me what’s next, and how it all ends? I’ve got great goals and a good plan to bring them to fruition, but the goal posts keep changing.

Life gets messy from time to time, and I find myself navigating through unexpected twists and turns. Sometimes, I even wonder why I bother to set goals, knowing from experience the frustration that results from goals gone awry. Despite my best planning, occasionally, things just don’t play out like I expected.

Someone once told me, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plan.” I think they might be right! So, when it comes to setting goals and having the flexibility to accomplish them, even when things change, here’s what works:

Go with your passion

One reason that many people don’t accomplish their goals is they lack the burning passion to turn their goals into a reality. Without passion, it’s hard to muster the motivation to get up and get something done. Even when life throws you a curve ball and things change dramatically, remember your passion, regroup and revise your goals.

Crystallize your positive vision

There are three types of visions: a positive vision, a status quo vision, and a negative vision. What motivates most people to take action is a deep belief that, by achieving their goal, tomorrow will be even better

Set both short and long range goals

Some goals may take a lifetime to achieve so get in the habit of setting weekly, monthly or annual goals. If needed, start small, taking baby steps and chipping away at your goal bit by bit. Don’t forget to celebrate the milestones along the way.

Enjoy the journey

Although you have a vision and a goal to turn the vision into a reality, life will be even more fulfilling if you have the flexibility to take detours along the way. Being flexible will allow you to enjoy new experiences and enjoy the ride even more.

Be flexible and be willing to change

If a goal doesn’t work, be willing to change your tactics or even switch goals. Figuring out what works and what makes you happy is far better than spending your life working your fingers to the bone in your quest to achieve a goal. Some people spend their whole life climbing the ladder of success only to find out they tilted their ladder against the wrong building.

Celebrate what you accomplish … let go of what you don’t

Some people are frustrated because they set the same goals year after year and still don’t accomplish them. Maybe the goal is to lose weight, become fiscally fit, or to go back to school and complete your education.

I believe that everyone sets goals. Even people who set a goal to have no goals have a goal. All of us are striving to accomplish something, either short-term, such as trying to make it to work on time, or long-term, like trying to amass a significant retirement plan.

Whether you set goals or set a goal to not set goals, this life is short, at best. It’s over in a heartbeat. Be flexible in scoring your goals and enjoy!

Photo courtesy, Rabiem, Flickr

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When I asked him about his goals to grow his business, he replied, “This year I set a goal not to set any goals because I don’t want to limit myself.” This is interesting because many people believe that to be successful, you need a compelling positive vision about the future. Then you need to set measurable goals, bound by specific time frames to turn this vision into a reality.

This business owner is actually onto something. It’s possible to be very successful and not be a goal setter. Here’s my challenge, I’ve always defined success as the accomplishment of pre-set goals. In whatever you choose to do with your life, if you set goals and work towards those goals, you can achieve the success you desire. When speaking with this business owner, I became very clear about his positive vision, but he was adamant about his unwillingness to set goals. Although he wasn’t setting goals and crossing them off his plan, he was working hard and taking the necessary actions each day to achieve his passion and his vision.

So when it comes to setting goals and having the flexibility to accomplish them, here’s what works:

Go with your passion: One reason that many people don’t accomplish their goals is they lack the burning passion to turn their goal into a reality. Without passion, it’s hard to muster the motivation to get up and get something done.

Crystallize your positive vision: There are three types of visions: a positive vision, a status quo vision, and a negative vision. What motivates most people to take action is a deep belief that, by achieving their goal, tomorrow will be even better.

Set both short and long range goals: Some goals may take a lifetime to achieve so get in the habit of setting weekly, monthly or annual goals.

Enjoy the journey: Although you have a vision and a goal to turn the vision into a reality, life will be even more fulfilling if you have the flexibility to take detours along the way. Being flexible will allow you to enjoy new experiences and enjoy the ride even more.

Be flexible and be willing to change: If a goal doesn’t work, be willing to change your tactics or even switch goals. Figuring out what works and what makes you happy is far better than spending your life working your fingers to the bone in your quest to achieve a goal. Some people spend their whole life climbing the ladder of success only to find out they tilted their ladder against the wrong building.

Celebrate what you accomplish … let go of what you don’t: Some people are frustrated because they set the same goals year after year and still don’t accomplish the goal. Maybe the goal is to lose weight, become fiscally fit, or to go back to school and complete your education.

I believe that everyone sets goals. Even people who set a goal to have no goals have a goal. All of us are striving to accomplish something, either short-term, such as trying to make it to work on time, or long-term, like trying to amass a significant retirement plan.

Whether you set goals or set a goal to not set goals, this life is short, at best. It’s over in a heartbeat. Be flexible and enjoy!

The post Do Your Goals Have Wiggle Room? appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

The answer is… both.

A vision is a clear mental picture of a future desired state, preferably written. A great analogy for a vision is a jigsaw puzzle. Before you even begin to organize and assemble the small puzzle pieces that are inside of the box, you will see, very clearly, the final outcome displayed on the puzzle’s box top. That’s your vision; the outcome that you’re striving to create.

Thankfully, life isn’t laid out for us like a puzzle. We get to create our own vision. Your vision may have nothing, whatsoever, to do with the reality of today and everything to do with the outcome you want to create for your organization or team. Good visions address the following types of questions:

• What picture do we want to create for the future of the organization?
• How do we want to be seen in 3-5 years by our employees? Customers? Community?
• What’s the higher, larger cause for which we fight?

Here’s something every leader should keep in mind: it’s absolutely critical that you have a long-term vision of the future that you hope to create for your organization or team. This vision should be big and strong enough to guide your team or organization for the next 3, 5, or 10 years. Your vision should be:

• A force that encourages and energizes an individual
• A picture of what the organization hopes to achieve
• Idealistic vs. realistic: don’t limit yourself to what you think can happen
• Not time bound: In 5 to 10 years, you may still have not achieved your vision
• A strong positive statement that’s exciting and compelling

Once you have a compelling, positive vision to guide the long-term direction of your team or organization, the next step is to set short- and long-term goals that, when completed, will turn your vision into a reality.

For example, if your vision is to create a culture where employees love coming to work, some of your short-term goals might include conducting an employee engagement survey and taking action on the areas the employees feel have the greatest opportunities. A second goal may be to support leaders by providing leadership development training or executive coaching.

Setting and completing these short-term goals will help you achieve your long-term vision. Some of the keys to setting great goals include:

• Ensure your goals are written and specific, with a plan for accomplishment
• Make the goal measurable and time bound
• Assign a person who will be accountable for the accomplishment of the goal
• Celebrate success

Strong leaders recognize the value of a clear vision, and understand the importance of communicating that vision. According to our employee engagement research, employees from companies in the Best of the Best benchmark responded 15 percentage points more favorably in response to the statement, “Employees at my company are clear on the company’s goals and future direction.” Our clients Best of the Best Benchmark tell us that visions work because they:

• Concentrate everyone’s focus and energy toward a common goal
• Build teamwork by creating excitement about the future
• Transcend pettiness
• Build momentum to overcome problems that develop

Great visions, combined with the short- and long-term goals to turn the vision into a reality are a key to being a great leader. With a powerful positive vision, most team members will find it easier to feel excitement and pride. Joel Barker said it best, “Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”

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