The Science of Creating & Completing Development Goals

Part 2: Completing a Development Goal

In Part 1 of our two part article we explored the process of creating a development goal that would motivate us to get started. We identified three success factors for pointing ourselves in the right direction. They are:

Focus on one goal;
Use a simple formula to identify your outcomes; and
Go public with your goal immediately.

Creating our goals is not typically the stumbling block for most of us. Think about New Years' resolutions or fitness goals; we have all set them and most follow the three rules above. Driving our goals to completion is where we fall down.

Did you know that less than 15% of New Year's resolutions actually get completed?

The Fort Hill Company has corroborated the 15% statistic with our own research of over 200,000 development goals from professionals at Global 500 companies.

Why do we have such a hard time finishing what we start?

The short and sweet answer is we have a tendency to focus on development activity rather than track ourselves against defined outcomes. As it relates to completing development goals; we are focusing on the wrong things. We focus on running rather than decreasing our body fat by 5%. We practice delegating instead of enhancing employee engagement and saving four hours per week.

Development is a lifelong journey; we can always be and do better. Focusing on the "means", however, can be exhausting. We need to set-up intermediate "ends" for ourselves and use development activity as a driver to achieve quick wins. Doing so ensures we continue developing, but also sets us up to complete important milestones along the way, thus motivating us to drive towards the next challenge.

Here are some tips on how to complete your goals:

Employ Accountability and Support. Ask your manager, spouse, peer, or trusted friend to check-in with you periodically. Marshall Goldsmith, a world authority in helping successful leaders get better, employs a friend to call him every night and ask two predetermined questions about his goal progress. This process helps Marshall remain focused and track his progress daily. Based on what you want to accomplish, what are your two questions?
Set-up Automatic Reminders. Put a tickler in your Outlook, Lotus Notes, or use a follow-through management system to spend time documenting the progress you have made and what you have learned. Assign a percent completed number to where you are against your outcome so that you can track your progress over time and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Reward Quick Wins. Take time to celebrate achievements and share your successes with those around you. This will give you the motivation to get started again.

Development is a lifelong journey; completing goals and achieving desired outcomes are steps along the way. Most of us don't have trouble setting goals and getting started; completing our goals tends to be more difficult. The key is to focus on outcomes rather than activity. When we do that, development goals get complete and the journey takes care of itself.

Written by Michael Papay and David Timby from the Fort Hill Company. The Fort Hill Company specialises in improving the business impact of training and development. Companies that use Fort Hill's methods and tools get a greater return on their training investment.

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