You Can be Great If You Really Want To

“Soft” goals are the first and worst mistake of goal setting. “Soft” is often used as opposed to hard, cold, measurable facts. Often a coaching client may feel that what he is setting to achieve can not be expressed in numbers. It can not be tied up to specific bounding time-frames. It can not be defined in a clear understood-by-all terms. Therefore, he may try and define a “soft” goal. 

The problem is that there really isn’t such a thing as a soft-goal. What people call a soft-goal is usually an excuse to them not knowing what their results really are, or not knowing how to quantify the results, or not willing to really commit to get those results. And if you don’t really know what you set out to achieve, chances are that you will not achieve it. This is why “Soft” goals are next to useless! 

If your client defined a “Soft” goal, he indicated a wish for this result, but he didn’t really set a goal. In all probability, your client is not deliberately trying to avoid accountability. He probably doesn’t know how to do it correctly.  Surprisingly, executive coaching clients are often just as bad at setting goals as any other coaching clients. The good part is that they can be taught how to do it, and so improve their results. 

When your client comes up with a goal, spend some time with her on refining her goal to fit the following:

· The goal should be defined as an output, a result, and not as a process or an action.

· The goal should be measurable. Try not to give way on this, but if there is no way to do it, at least assure that the goal may be assessed in a consistent manner, and that the rules for making this assessment are defined clearly.

· The goal should be time bound. You client needs to commit to a specific date. 

If the result your client came with can not be measured, try to identify an alternative result that is directly linked to the first, and will give the same indication in a measurable way. Look for measurable characteristics or attributes of the original results. Those are often good candidates to replace it.

If you wish to know more about setting effective goals for your executive coaching clients, download my free e-book on “How to Set Effective Goals – coaching your client to success”  at http://www.ecoachingsuccess.com/effgoalsquz.html

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It is often said that the best competition you can is with yourself. That is outdoing your own performance and learning from your own good & bad deeds. This also helps you focus better on yourself, and lets you develop at a steady pace. It surely ensures that you never look up at yourself as a loser that can be very harmful for any individual.

But this practice becomes negative as well. As the experts also say that world’s worst criticism is the self criticism. When you are harsh on yourself and are looking yourself as a loser, you start taking all the meaningful & meaningless criticisms of the world also on your self very seriously. As a result you manage to destroy all that you had. You become you own greatest enemy.

You must realize it before it gets too late! Focus on building your self esteem yourself.

Here are some tips to build your self esteem effectively:

1. To begin with, think positive. An optimistic person is he who is able to see the silver lining in the clouds of problems. We must understand that there is no person on this earth who has no problems absolutely, and those who are probably have never tried to accomplish any meaningful deed! You have problems because you are trying and the fact that you are trying makes you a winner automatically! So do not linger on to that problem. Turn to he positive thins around you and you shall automatically get a break to think about the solutions.

2. Being optimistic does not imply that you have to become unrealistic. There are sad moments that you have to tackle with a happy mode and there are tough times where you have to be courageous. Do not restrict the though with in yourself. Look for the points where the other find optimism and you might find some relaxation for yourself as well.

3. Try helping the others, as this is another effective means of building your self esteem. In order to help people you need not be excessively rich or influential. Remember help here does not mean charity in the times when you yourself need some. Try sharing some happy moments, some emotions, some valuable time with the others that can uplift their lives.

4. Use your special talent to help the world and find pleasure for yourself. G\For instance, in case you like teaching, volunteer at some community school that helps the under privileged; in case you have a soothing throat, join your church choir. Remember, kindness that you serve, always comes back to you when you need it the most.

5. Be kind to your self as well. Right form the childhood we are trained to reach higher & higher and hence we all have big dreams. Do not forsake your dreams but achieve them one by one by setting some realistic goals for yourself. In case you are lagging behind your time table, instead of pestering your self all the more, think about the tactics by which you can get back on the track.

6. You must not give up trying. Believe in your self! It’s your dream and your soul prepared you top charge ahead; then even if people are there to help you, you really can’t bank on them! Rather, meet your targets as much as you can all by yourself!

Tell yourself that as I have seen the bad part of me, now that will come will be the good & yet if it is bad, I shall work further to improvise on it! That is self esteem!

An effective Manager understands that People Management is the central core of this role. To get an understanding of this term ‘People Management’, it is useful to separate the two elements and look at each separately, the ‘people’ element and the ‘Management’ element. On the ‘people’ side, the role requires a keen understanding of different types of people, and effective use of people skills to work productively with each one. The ‘management’ side involves structuring the activities of the Team and of the Manager so that the Team will work effectively together to achieve maximum performance.

Think in terms of People and Management

Effective Supervisors have their focus on both elements of People Management and are actively working on both sides at all times. The ineffective Supervisor is often overly concerned with one element and might be blind – or even dismissive of the other side.  They may emphasis the ‘people’ side, wanting to become a ‘buddy’ to their Team members rather than a Leader, or simply have no structure or systems to manage performance at all. The other extreme is the Supervisor who introduces processes and systems with no appreciation of how these may impact on their Team members – resulting in a low performing, de-motivated Team.

The first step to successful Leadership is to think in terms of both people and management – putting in the right systems and processes so that these people can perform at a high level.

Manage your Understanding of Your People

An effective Manager keeps a file on each of their reports, and they use this to plan and manage day to day actions with each person. The first step is to get to know each of your Team members. The best way of doing this initially is to observe them from a distance as they work or interact with others. Develop this understanding by ‘bonding’ with each. Bonding is spending short periods of time talking socially with each – about sport or family or other interests.

A good People Manager uses this time to build mutual respect and trust, but also to gain an insight in to the personality of this person. Structure and record your thoughts. What will motivate this person, what are their strengths, what are the sensitive areas?

Ensure you have these bonding sessions with each one of your reports regularly – and spend equal time with each. Promoting fair play and avoiding any form of favouritism is vital to this role.

The next step is to get an appreciation of this person in their Task role, their performance, their strengths and their areas for development. Write down a profile of the Team Member, the more information you have the better. Each person has many qualities, if you stop at the surface level, you will fail to get an understanding real potential of this person.

Benchmark the ‘Ideal Team Member’

The next area to focus on is – what are you building? You know what your Team Members are like now, but if they were much, much better, what would they look like then?

The first rule in Management is to – ‘Focus on the Goal’.  Effective Management figures out the objectives and targets, and then they put in plans and Management systems to achieve these goals. This is also true of People Management. The effective Supervisor works out what this Team Member will be like in 6 months time or a year, and then puts in goals, plans and actions to get there.

To help you do this, visualise the ‘ideal’ Team Member – one who has all the best qualities of the best Team Members. Make a long list of the qualities of this ‘ideal’ Team Member, and keep working at this list to clarify your thinking. It may be helpful to use the categories 1) Knowledge, 2) Skills 3) Attitude 4) Team Contribution to help you do this. Create a matrix with this list, to help you identify the Strengths of your Team and each Team Member, and to plan your next areas to work on.

Indentify Clear Goals for each Team Member

Use your ‘Ideal’ Benchmark Matrix to assess each of one of your Team Members in turn. First identify the top 3 or 4 strengths of each, their best qualities or performance factors. Then identify their areas for development, what to work on next.

Write down clear goals for each Team Member for the next 2 – 3 months.  In one of your early performance discussions with each Team Member, discuss these goals. Gain their input, and agree definite goals for the immediate future.

Hold Regular Performance Management Meetings

The effective People Manager begins as they mean to go on. At an early stage with each new report, begin regular, planned performance discussions. These may take only 15 to 20 minutes every week or two weeks. The goal is to help the Team Member to review their performance over the last week, identify strengths and learning points for the future. It is the time to give positive or corrective feedback and to set short term goals for the immediate future.

Build the habit of these discussions, encouraging and developing the Team Member to become engaged in their own self development.

With this core framework in place, you can continue to manage your people and to build your high performing Team.