So, companies invest in goals because goals are seen as a stimulator, a tracker, and an evaluatorâ and these three core functions of goals are why we spend so much time, energy, and money on them.
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Most people want to do more than bring home a paycheck. They want work they can believe in and that has meaning. This may not be true of all people, but itâs certainly true of the people most likely to be solid contributors to a great company. Tap into the basic human desire for meaningful work and the traditional management problem of âhow to motivate employeesâ largely evaporates. People will be self-motivated when doing work they believe in.
At the same time, there is a yearning quality to all this planning. We are attempting to shape our future, and our plans can feel like scaffolding stretching out into the months ahead, upon which weâll build our better worldâtheir function is perhaps as much to reassure us as it is to make that world real. Plans give us certainty, or at least a bulwark against uncertainty.
But these sales goals donât beget more sales; they just anticipate what the sales will be. Sales goals are for performance prediction, not performance creation.
In the real world, there is workâstuff that you have to get done. In theory world, there are goals.
Work is ahead of you; goals are behind youâtheyâre your rear-view mirror.
Work is specific and detailed; goals are abstract.
Work changes fast; goals change slowly, or not at all.
Work makes you feel like you have agency; goals make you feel like a cog in a machine. Work makes you feel trusted; goals make you feel distrusted.
Work is work; goals arenât.
But it doesnât have to be this way. Goals can be a force for good.
This, ultimately, is what goals are for: to help you manifest your values. They are your best mechanism for taking whatâs inside of you and bringing it out where you and others can see it, and where you and they can benefit from it. Your goals define the dent you want to make in the world.
And this in turn means that the only criterion for what makes a good goal is that the person working toward it must set it for him- or herself, voluntarily. The only way a goal has any use at all is if it comes out of you as an expression of what you deem valuable.