We’ve all done it; we diligently set our team some goals, get everyone fired up and then get our heads down and crack on like Arctic explorers walking into a headwind. By December we’re on our last packet on pemmican and a few people who flagged in July they were a ‘bit cold’ now have frost bite! When we get there we’re utterly exhausted and, quite frankly, glad it’s done.
Yes, there’s a end result but what about the interim goals along the way? The temptation is often to break these into logical achievements in a rather robotic, linear fashion.
Setting your goals a ‘leg’ at a time give you permission to collectively decide what you’re up for, what’s achievable given the skills, prevailing conditions, energy and mood. Hitting a stretch target one month can often set a team up for failure the next month as they try to replicate it again.
Regrouping and saying ‘OK, given what it took for us to do that last month and what we know the competition is launching this month, what do we think is an achievable target for our next leg?’
Flexing bite-sized goals enables teams to recommit to targets and, much more importantly, enables you to know when you’ve actually achieved something…….even in the Arctic there are moments for the odd champagne ice lolly.
