Goal Setting

Why do leaders need to set self-development goals?

  • Avoid wasting time and energy

goal setting
Steps

  1. Be clear on your roles and responsibilities.[1]

    • Each role has different responsibilities, skill and knowledge requirements, and expectations.[1]

    • For each role, pick the two most important responsibilities in that role.[1]

    • Consider the needs of the organization and how well you are aligned so far.

    • Self-development activities aim at learning new knowledge, gaining or enhancing skills, changing attitudes or values, or a combination of these.[1]

  2. Get clear on your strengths and developmental needs.

    • It is often easier to improve upon strengths rather than developmental needs.[1]

    • Learning is quicker and greater when strengths are used as a path to improvement rather than developmental needs.[1]

    • However, if a particular developmental need is an obstacle to development, consider improving it.[1]

  3. Establish self-development goals.[1]

    • There is no set formula in choosing personal development goals.[1]

    • Consider:

      • Personal strengths

      • Personal development needs

      • Family roles

      • Current or future roles

      • Organizational needs

      • Personal interests

  4. Plan agile epics or milestones to achieve the goals and to help you monitor progress.[1]

    • Break big tasks into smaller, manageable tasks.[1]

    • Start with easy steps then gradually build to steps that are more difficult.[1]

    • After establishing self-development goals, create one or more milestones to get started and gauge progress.[1]

    • Use an individual development plan to document goals and milestones.[1]

    • Use each milestone to stretch you.[1]

    • Milestones can be a mix of short-term or long-term—whatever personally works and encourages progress.[1]

    • Be specific and measurable [1]

      • They need to state what to accomplish so you can tell if you have met the milestone or not.[1]

    • Be meaningful [1]

      • They should help achieve self-development goals.[1]

    • Provide a challenge [1]

      • Milestones should stretch personal abilities and be challenging to accomplish.[1]

      • Challenging milestones increase motivation; being too easy or hard can hurt motivation.[1]

    • Have a time limit [1]

      • Time limits provide motivation and will help gauge success.[1]

    • Be flexible [1]

      • Build in some flexibility to overcome obstacles or revise milestones if necessary.[1]

    • Be realistic [1]

      • Ensure milestones are reachable with available resources.[1]

      • Keep in mind that unforeseen obstacles may occur along the way.[1]

  5. Every milestone requires at least a minimal amount of planning.[1] After setting the first milestone, create a plan to achieve it.[1] A plan can increase chances of success by:

    • Identifying all required actions.[1]

    • Identifying the resources needed to meet the milestones.[1]

    • Establishing time estimates and deadlines that help track progress.[1]

    • Dividing large tasks into smaller parts to reduce being overwhelmed.[1]

    • Identifying possible obstacles and the actions and resources needed to overcome them.[1]

    • Making the best use of personal time and other resources.[1]

    • Make milestones to stretch enough to provide a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction after achieving them.[1]

    • Decide on the reward before beginning.

  6. Decide to learn.

    • Self-development requires learning. [1] You will need:

    • Motivation and persistence.[1]

      • Self-development may require hard work over a long period, especially if the goal is to become an expert in an area or undergo significant personal growth.[1]

      • It takes motivation and effort to keep self-development efforts alive.[1]

      • Genuine motivation provides lasting energy because it is the internalization of goals and the desire to achieve them.[1]

      • Think about:

        • Why the results are personally important.[1]

        • How you will feel after reaching these self-development milestones.[1]

        • The positive effect these efforts will have on others.[1]

      • Plan learning activities that concretely connect to the real world and that satisfy your curiosity.[1]

    • Learning opportunities.[1]

    • Effective learning methods.[1]

    • Reflection.

      • The ability to learn and recall information depends upon what someone does with the information while trying to learn it.[1]

      • Reflection requires analyzing the new information, picking it apart, using it, and connecting it to already-known information.[1]

    • Learning through focused reading and analysis.[1]

  7. Maintain momentum.

    • Do not start a learning task then put it down for too long.[1]

    • Work on the task a little every day until it is accomplished.[1]

    • Get support from family members, friends, or supervisors for encouragement, accountability, recognizing accomplishments, and as a source of feedback.[1]

    • Observe others who have successfully achieved their goals. Learn and model what they do.[1]

    • Review what has been learned so far.[1]

    • Learn from mistakes and do not repeat them.[1]

  8. Unplanned learning happens when something unexpectedly captures your attention.[1] Interest in the topic causes you to pay attention and learn.[1] Attune your mind to draw attention to information related to self-development aims by thinking about developmental aims in detail—what you are trying to accomplish and why you want to accomplish these things.[1] Review what you know and what you need to learn.[1] Remind yourself of key terms and ideas related to the subject as well as who the experts in the field are.[1]

  9. Assess progress.[1]

    • Make course corrections.[1]

    • Internal obstacles to self-development include procrastination, apathy, and pride.[1]

    • Some come to realize their milestones are too ambitious, complex, unclear, or difficult.[1]

    • Others hesitate because of the effort or discomfort that the work requires or lack the motivation to start.[1]

    • A poor attitude also can interfere with learning and make it difficult to understand and remember information.[1]

    • For example, thinking that a subject is hard or disliking it can interfere with an ability to learn anything related to that subject.[1]

    • Other attitudes, such as closed mindedness, inflexibility, or rigid adherence to beliefs and assumptions, can interfere with learning.[1]

    • To combat poor attitudes, identify a productive replacement.[1]

      • Practice thinking and behaving with a positive attitude until it feels natural and becomes a habit.[1]

  10. Hold a retrospective or lessons learned session with yourself.

    • What happened and what were the consequences?[1]

    • How were my leader actions supposed to influence the situation?[1]

    • What were the direct results or consequences of my leader actions?[1]

    • How did my actions benefit or hinder mission accomplishment?[1]

    • How should I change my leader actions for better results next time?[1]

    • What did I learn?[1]

1. U.S. Army Leadership Development Manual, FM 6-22

Updated on 26 Nov 2019

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