Most of us live our life (both personally and professionally), managing it by goals and our “to do list” (initiatives). We promise ourselves to accomplish our action list and are hard on ourselves when we do not. This “to do” list becomes the measurement of our self-worth.
In the business world, this is no different. Many of us manage our day-to-day by a “to do list” or are given goals and a set of initiatives to accomplish by a certain date. If this list is given to us by someone else (which it often is), we agree even if we secretly are not 100 percent bought in, only to find ourselves feeling anxious and upset when we don’t deliver.
To absolve ourselves of this guilt and judgment, we tell ourselves and others, “I didn’t have enough time,” or “It must be the economy!” Then we are all convinced this is true, because we cannot figure out what else it must be.
Note the first diagram, demonstrating how most of us go about trying to reach the growth we desire. I call this The Goal Trap Cycle. Note, five of the seven pieces of the wheel are missing, when viewed in contrast to the Seven Core Connections Cycle. This is what causes incongruency in our words and actions, because we have reduced ourselves to a human-doing, and have lost touch with the vital energy needed to stay the course.
This vital energy is given to us by connecting WHO we are to our goals and activities, along with having a clear vision, mission, and values so we are grounded in WHY we are doing WHAT we are doing and the values which determine HOW we will go about achieving our goals. When we are missing these vital steps we are disconnected from the deeper expression of ourselves and our company.
This disconnection causes us to work with only a fraction of ourselves. It’s like driving on only one for four wheels of a car. Gallup Poll Research says that employee engagement in all aspects of the strategic plan can increase productivity by 74 percent. Looking at the performance wheel, you can understand why this is true: Most of the steps are missing in The Goal Trap, instead of having all Seven Core Connections flowing to create synchronicity and growth.
Let me illustrate the difference through these two examples:
A single working mother and top executive for a Fortune 500 company complained she was not getting the support she wanted to meet her goals. When asked why she believed this was true, she said three things: 1) They either did not have much to offer, so she never asked. 2) They had limitations of time and resources, so she never asked. 3) They resisted helping when asked, so she stopped asking.
She wanted to know if she needed to reduce her standards. My response was, “Clearly you are comfortable letting people off the hook, and telling yourself, “If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me! Let’s try a more collaborative style of engagement, using the questions below to get buy-in and therefore more support. When they give you excuses, say, ‘Don’t tell me what you can’t do, tell me what you can do.'”
I had another client recently tell me that his team was not on goal for the month. He complained that he had been very clear with his sales team about the goal, and the activities needed to get there including: the number of calls, contacts and appointments they needed to do to reach the goal, but they were not performing. He also explained that he believed many of his sales reps were not being honest about their activities, and were just giving him lip service. I asked him if he had a collaborative meeting to get the team in synch by asking them for collaborative solutions to the questions below. The answer was no.
- Ask: “What is our vision (for the business? the goal? this project? this week?)
- What is our mission: What do we need to do to get there?
- What values do we want to consider?
- What’s our goal: Where do we want to end up?
- How are we going to accomplish this goal?
- How do you fit in to add value?
Challenge: How will you rise above the Goal Trap?
