As a business consultant, author and executive, I have worked closely with leaders for 25 years helping create engaged workplaces that make positive impact on the world. I hope my blog is helpful for those who want to make a contribution, as a leader at work, in your community, in your family, or in your own life.
If your vision is only about yourself, you are too narrowly focused.
If you take only from your environment and contribute nothing in return, you are harming that which supports you. In fact, that’s the definition of a parasite. And ultimately you are harming yourself.
Your vision needs to include the larger context in which you exist – your community. Strengthening your community makes you stronger.
My friend and colleague Hank van der Merwe, author of the powerful new book Live on Purpose, reminded me of the importance of this principle. Hank lives is Johannesburg, South Africa where “only 500,000 of the 1.5 million children starting school will end up sitting for their final year exams. Of these, less than 70% will meet the minimum requirement. And only 20% will get access to higher education.”
Hank is concerned that the children in his community have little hope for their future. A professional speaker and expert on self-leadership, he volunteers his time speaking in schools with children about how they can take personal responsibility for their own lives. And he leaves them with a copy of Yes I Can – a workbook he created for children that reinforces the concepts he talks about.
I was deeply touched when I saw his video.
Additionally, Hank challenges corporate leaders to join his “Pay It Forward” campaign.
We each need to find our own way to contribute, the one that works best for us. Hank’s approach is to save “one starfish at a time.” (Check out this short video if you’re not familiar with the moving story The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley that explains this concept.)
Some people seek to change systems that are not working, either from within or outside. Others, like Hank, choose to help individuals. Those of us who work within organizations can influence our companies to make contributing to the community more than a simple PR effort.
There are many ways to make a contribution. What’s important is to find the right fit for yourself.
Three things to consider if you want to expand your vision:
Be aware of what the needs are in your own community. They may not be as drastic as they are in Johannesburg, but you can be certain your community needs you.
Connect with your community using the skills you have. You don’t need to develop new skills. If you are a facilitator, help facilitate. If you are a speaker, speak. If you are a writer, write. If you are a leader, lead.
See yourself acting in the context of a larger vision and integrate your actions as part of your regular life, not something extra you do on the side.
When was the last time you were with a group of people that needed to make a decision, where people tossed out ideas and at least one suggestion was totally ignored? If you’re like most of us, it was probably within the last few weeks, whether in a business meeting or a social setting.
Did you realize that the group actually did make a decision? The decision was “no” – it just wasn’t acknowledged. Teams are constantly making decisions, often without first being clear about how the decision will be made.
When teams are not clear on how their decision will be made, they often don’t make the best decisions.
For instance, we often assume that silence means consent—if you don’t say anything you are in favor of the proposal. Yet this assumption is frequently wrong. Have you ever been in a meeting where someone said, “Alright, it’s agreed we will do it” and then after the meeting ended, members shared reservations and questions? Unfortunately, the implementation of these decisions then falls on those who did not support or understand the decision.
Once a team decision is made, it is extremely difficult to undo.
Six Ways Teams Make Decisions
There’s a big pay-off to deciding ahead of time which decision-making method your team will use. Next time your team is facing a decision, consider these six possible decision methods. With the exception of the first method, there is no one best way—there’s an upside and a downside to each.
Decision by lack of response (“decision by plop”). This is the most common and least visible team decision-making method. Someone proposes an idea and before anyone responds, someone else suggests another idea and the conversation moves on. Because no one acknowledged that a decision had been proposed, the suggestion “plops.” It might have been a good idea that didn’t get to be explored. And even if it wasn’t, because it was not acknowledged, the person who made the suggestion also feels unacknowledged, which can affect their willingness to contribute in the future.
Decision by authority. This is where the team leader makes the final decision. The team leader might announce to the team that a decision has been made or might invite the team to offer ideas and hold a discussion. It’s important that the team understand upfront that they are simply offering input. If they think this is a team decision and then their ideas are ignored, they will feel resentful.
Decision by minority. Sometimes it makes sense for those with the most information and closest to the situation to make the final decision. However, other times this decision-making method can be undermining. One of the commonest complaints of team members is that they “feel railroaded.” This happens when two or more members come to a quick, strong, verbal agreement on a course of action, ask quickly, “Does anyone object?” and if no one raises his voice in two seconds, proceed with “Let’s go ahead, then.” The trap in this situation is the assumption that silence means consent.
Decision by majority. Majority rule is usually obtained by voting or polling. Majority rule is often assumed to be appropriate for all team situations because it reflects democratic political systems. However, it does not ensure the decision will be supported and smoothly implemented. This method works best with larger groups. In smaller groups, if you do resort to voting, it is often best to set the majority at 75% or greater, rather than using a simple majority.
Decision by consensus. One of the most effective but also time-consuming methods of team decision-making is to seek consensus. Consensus is where every member of the team can say, “I believe everyone understands my initial point of view. I clearly understand the viewpoint of the decision we have made and am prepared to support it, even if it doesn’t reflect my original view.” Consensus takes longer to achieve, but implementation is faster because the decision is understood and supported by all. Make sure you have true consensus and not just lip-service and don’t assume that silence means consensus.
Decision by unanimous consent. This is where everyone truly agrees on the course of action. It’s easiest for simple decisions like, “should we break for lunch right now?” or urgent decisions like “I see smoke. Let’s get out of the building.” For complex, important decisions, this is the logically perfect but least attainable kind of decision, and consensus may be enough, if it is real consensus.
Questions to Consider
How effective is your team at decision-making?
What type of decision-making method does your team tend to use?
Are you clear before you make a decision, how the decision will be made?
In this guest post, Thabo Hermanus, owner of a recruitment firm in South Africa, offers sage advice that is helpful for people at all stages of their career, not just those actively seeking a new job.
Your life is one big interview!
People tend to think that the chance to shine is limited to when they sit in the formal job interview going through the motions of a Q&A session.
Every interaction you have with another person is an interview. Whether you are simply having a conversation, asking someone to do something for you, or doing something for someone who has asked you, you are on show. The nature of your everyday engagement creates the content for the discussions in your one-hour or less hiring interviews.
Before you sit before your next prospective employer, take some time to do your own self evaluation:
Your personality:
Do you bring energy to the people you come into contact with or do you suck their energy levels dry?
Look at the conversations you have had in the last week and honestly answer – when you left, were people feeling happy about life or happy at the sight of your back as you walked away?
Do people want to spend time with you? This is not about being the centre of attention, but about how you make people feel.
What do you think:
Are you conscious of what you think and how your thoughts determine your actions?
Do you just go through the motions and hope not to “rock the boat” as you go with the flow? (I recently read somewhere that “even a dead fish can go with the flow.”)
If I asked different people that know you about your point of view on a particular topic, are they going to give me a fairly consistent answer?
Your job history:
Where have you worked, what did you do and why did you leave? The past is a good base from which to predict the future if I am trying to understand your behaviour.
Some people are drawn to something and chase what they see as an opportunity. Some people are never satisfied with what they have and are constantly running away from something (ex. always leaving a job because it is not good enough). What is your motivation for seeking a new job?
Your work style:
How effective are you at getting the things done that you are supposed to do?
Do you only care about the results? Do you believe the ends justify the means? Some people work through people; others work with people and some plain simply don’t work with people.
The series of moments in your life create a story that answers these questions in no uncertain terms. It is difficult to pack this all into a one-on-one or panel interview. You have to be fully engaged during your interview and make sure that you are filling in the gaps for your prospective employer. Your charming smile is not going to get you hired, nor is being a nice guy. Giving relevant information about youself to the hiring manager will help make their decision as to whether they want you as part of their team.
If you are conscious of your daily behaviour, it makes your story easy to tell during that one hour interview.
Having integrity and being truthful about your performance over a period will make your story consistent and you all the more attractive and believable. Make your everyday style of engagement a remarkable one!
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ABOUT THABO HERMANUS: I am inspired by working with people who have a purpose and enjoy being the vessel in connecting them with their goals. Through recruitment, coaching for development and consultancy we help businesses attract and retain talented people. As co-founder of Find Inspired Talent, we provide recruitment services that consistently benefit both the client and the candidate. Our Executive Coaching offering to our clients is through our partnership with Metamorphosis Life Design.
Leadership is about going somewhere. Whether you are facing challenges as a result of changes in the economy, new opportunities because of advances in technology, or already have a good idea you want to implement, these five lessons can make the difference between a successful outcome and a false start. The good news is: you already learned them in kindergarten. All you need to do is remember to use them.
The lesson of Alice and the Cheshire Cat: If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter what path you take.
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to Alice: I don’t much care where. The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go. Alice: …so long as I get somewhere. The Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.
“Where are you going? What is your vision?” These are the first questions to ask before you begin any initiative, whether it is planning a large change effort or just a simple project.
In organizations where people share a common vision, daily activities have meaning and people are able to make decisions based on where they want to be in the future.
When you focus on the path instead of where you’re going, you react only to the most pressing problems and are likely to end up “somewhere.”
The lesson of the Tortoise and the Hare: Sometimes you have to go slow in order to go fast.
Taking time to plan right in the beginning will speed up your implementation. When you’re excited to get going, it can be hard to take time out to bring everyone onboard. But there’s a price to pay if you don’t – having to redo work and wearing people out. It’s costly and demotivating.
Not only is it important to make sure everyone understands and agrees with the vision and goals, but also that they have identified the strategies and processes to achieve it.
There will always be a dynamic tension between the “just do it” crowd and those who want more time to think things through. These two groups need each other in order to take intelligent action. You don’t want to plan forever.
But taking the time in the beginning to charter the course and “Set Up Your Team for Success” will get you to the finish line faster.
The lesson of Stone Soup: You can’t make soup without the key ingredients. People are the key ingredient to business results.
Hungry strangers told the villagers they could make soup from stones. They boiled the water and added stones as the villagers watched curiously. The stranger said it would taste a bit better with some vegetables, and a villager brought some. The other stranger said it would be even better with a pinch of salt, and they were given some. In the end, the soup was delicious.
Too often companies identify their business strategies without considering whether the people are prepared to implement them or whether the culture is aligned. Business strategies are the water and stones. People are the carrots, onions and salt that make things work. You can’t implement your plans without people.
Strategies for people and the business must be part of the same plan – or your soup will consist of only stones.
Dorothy’s Lesson in Oz:The journey is as important as the destination.
The lessons learned in Dorothy’s journey through Oz were what allowed her to achieve her goal to return home.
Pay attention to the process. The process by which decisions are made influences the quality of the decisions as well as the likelihood of support and successful implementation.
You may have made the right decision, but if others involved don’t feel good about the means used to arrive at it, it may never be implemented.
If people feel their concerns are unheard or not valued, they are unlikely to fully support any decision, even when it’s a perfectly good solution.
The journey creates the opportunity for the necessary dialogue that results in common understanding, appreciation and commitment. It is important to pay attention to the process along the way.
The lesson of the Little Red Hen:Those who create it, support it.
No one helped her bake the cake, and in the end, she ate it alone.
This is the case for “involvement.” Unless you intend to eat your cake alone, you must actively seek involvement of others right from the beginning.
Through involvement, people develop deeper understanding and commitment. They need an opportunity to “muck around.” It rarely works to just announce what needs to be done and expect people to follow through.
Unless people really understand the “essence” of the initiative, they may make decisions that pull in the wrong direction. And even when they do understand, if they don’t believe its important, they will not act strongly and consistently in ways to support it.
It’s important for key stakeholders to be involved early on. Remember the adage: Tell me and I will forget; Show me and I may remember; Involve me, and then I will care.
* The stories I’ve used are from North America and Europe. If you know stories from other countries that illustrate these lessons, please share them.
“Vision is knowing who you are, where you’re going, and what will guide the journey.” - Ken Blanchard and Jesse Lyn Stoner
A much earlier definition I wrote is quoted by Zig Ziglar in Over the Top:
“A vision is a clearly-articulated, results-oriented picture of a future you intend to create. It is a dream with direction.” - Jesse Stoner-Zemel
Both definitions are accurate, but to more fully explain the characteristics of an effective vision – a vision that drives commitment and direction – I use the acronym DRIVING. It helps avoid ending up with something that is so vague or lofty, it has no meaning. Use this to evaluate your current vision or to help in creating one.
D – Demanding purpose. The invitation and opportunity to achieve greatness excites and enlivens us. A noble purpose that challenges us to rise to our potential is inspiring and appeals to our natural human instincts. It helps us understand the importance of our work and gives meaning to our daily activities.
R– Results-oriented. A vision describes a clear picture of what the future will look like – something you can actually see in your imagination. It is a picture of the end-result – what it looks like when you are fulfilling your purpose. It does not include the process to get there. The vision is the target. The effectiveness of the strategies and goals you set will be tested by how well they move you toward your vision, and often requires adjustment.
I – Illuminating values. It is easier to stay focused and motivated when the vision connects with what we care deeply about – our values. And when the vision has been taken into the minds and hearts of the people, it endures beyond the tenure of the leader who articulated it. Values are implicit in driving visions. (eg. The values in Martin Luther King, Jrs “Dream” are clearly implied: brotherhood, freedom, and dignity.) And the values are fundamentally connected with the organization’s purpose. We would expect a vision of a financial services organization to describe accuracy, reliability and dependability and a vision for an amusement park to describe fun and safety. It’s impossible to create an inspiring vision that does not illuminate underlying values.
V –Vibrant. Creating a vision about what you want, a proactive vision, is what makes it vibrant and energizing. A reactive vision based on negativity and what you want to get rid of is short-lived because it does not take you anywhere. And a vision that excludes or does harm to its environment is not sustainable because the organization it part of its environment and ultimately is doing harm to itself.
I – Identifiable. It should be clear exactly what the company it is about and easily explainable in plain language. It should show what is unique about the organization and what differentiates it. Here’s an example of a generic statement from a real company. “Our vision is to provide aggressive strategic marketing with quality products and services at competitive prices to provide the best value for consumers.” These kinds of statements mean nothing and even worse make people lose confidence in the leadership of their company.
N– Never-ending. A vision should not be about beating the competition. Where do you go after the race is over? It’s about being the best you can be. It’s not about “being number one,” because again, that defines you in terms of your competition instead of where you are going. In fact, the closer you get to your vision, the clearer the magnitude and meaning of the vision becomes and it enlarges. There is no such thing as a five-year vision, only a five-year goal. The vision is what answers, “what’s next?” after that goal is achieved.
G– Guiding. A vision provides guidance for daily decisions and actions. Because each person can see where they fit and how their actions contribute, they can be trusted to make decisions. Empowerment only makes sense in the context of a shared vision. But when the organization is guided by a shared vision, the role of leadership naturally shifts from controlling and managing to supporting and enabling.
Last year in surveys of over 500 people, less than 10% said their team or organization had a driving vision. Here is a link to a similar questionnaire, if you would like to check out your own team and get instant results: Vision Test – Is Your Team’s Vision 20/20?
Leaders who want to make their team more effective often ask me for help with teambuilding, training in team skills or advice on restructuring.
My first question is always, “What do you want to accomplish? What will be different as a result?”
I ask that question because I want to make sure that what they are requesting will get them where they want to go – to avoid delivering the wrong solution.
My next question is “What is the purpose of your team?”
I ask because I want to know if the leader really has a team. —No point in trying to improve something that doesn’t exist.
A team is a group of people who need each other in order to accomplish their work.
Just because everyone reports to the same boss doesn’t automatically make them a team. Teams are organized around real work, not who the individuals report to.
If you want to know if the people who report to you are a team, ask them these 3 questions:
Shared Purpose: Is there a common purpose that ties us together?
Interdependence: To what extent and how do we need each other in order to accomplish our work
Access: Do we have the access to each other that we need to share information and communicate?
This is usually an interesting conversation. Sometimes people assume they have distinct responsibilities but during the course of the conversation discover a larger and important purpose they had missed – like a shared responsibility to ensure the success of the entire department or to use each other as resources — something that creates a big picture view and takes them out of a silo mentality. This changes their ideas of what they need to be communicating with each other.
Or sometimes they might already agree they have a shared purpose, but during the course of the conversation develop a deeper understanding of what it really means. They get energized and naturally begin to identify better ways of working together.
But that’s not always the case. In today’s complex organizations, you may find that you have several distinct teams reporting you. Or it might be that the real team is a cross-functional team where direct reporting relationships are with both you and another leader.
Not every collection of individuals should be a team.
What’s important is to recognize the real teams so you know where to focus your attention and resources for team development.
“Do you really want a team?” This is a third question I sometimes ask, depending on what I observe. To support your team in reaching its potential, you need to provide structure and direction early on, but at some point, you need to start stepping back and letting go of control, or they will never become a high performing team. For some leaders, letting go of control feels like a huge risk. I have worked with leaders who intellectually understand letting go of control is the best thing they can to do for their team, but it runs counter to all of their patterns and instincts. I have the deepest respect when these leaders choose to develop a real team, for they are the bravest leaders I have met.
My friend Susan wrote, “Although I am ashamed to admit it….I don’t think I have any goals right now. At least there are none that have crystallized for me. I am a goal-setter, always have been, and have achieved almost all that I have set….
What I am trying to do is feel comfortable being in the moment of my life, my career, my health…I know all too well that none of those important ‘issues’ are unchanging. Tomorrow I may lose my job, my health or even my life. I am unsure of my role in my current job, but at the moment I am enjoying it. So…is it a problem to feel goal-less in my life and career? Am I being less productive than I could be? How is being goal-less affecting my work…?
Susan’s questions touch on many important issues.
What exactly is a goal and why are goals important?
According to the dictionary, a goal is: the object of a person’s ambition – an aim – toward which effort is directed. We set goals for things we want to be different in the future, not for what we are currently satisfied with. By their very nature, goals are future-oriented.
A myriad of research studies[i] have demonstrated that goals are important because they help us get what we want, keep us from drifting aimlessly, and that people with clear goals are more satisfied.
But goals are not what’s most important.
Goals are actually guideposts, milestones that mark the way. They help us navigate the road that fulfills our needs and connects us with our hopes and desires. When we are clear about what we truly desire, goals can help us get there.
Although we can never really control our future, if we understand our priorities, our values and what’s most important, we can adapt our goals to help get us where we really want to go. [ii]
What kinds of goals do you tend to set?
Usually we set goals to help fill a need – something we want in the future that we don’t have now. The kinds of goals we set depend on what needs and desires are most pressing. Abraham Maslow, a seminal contributor to understanding motivation described a hierarchy of needs, implying they are developmental in nature.[iii] But as Susan has quite articulately described, our needs can change. Health can become an issue unexpectedly, and what Maslow considered a lower level need suddenly becomes a primary need.
Current research has focused on two types of goal-orientation – performance (achievement) and learning (mastery). Some people gravitate more toward one type or the other, although it’s also thought that one could be motivated by both. [iv] And when we set goals, most people focus on these.
Six Goal Genres
It might be more helpful to consider your goals from the perspective of six genres. They are not linear, hierarchical or developmental. None is more important than another. At various points in your life, depending on your circumstances, any one of the six genres of goals might emerge as most pressing.
What do you do when your habitual Goal Genres no longer serve your needs and desires?
It’s likely that Susan is used to focusing on certain genres of goals that are no longer necessary for her, given her current level of accomplishment and competence. This is not an uncommon experience for highly accomplished men and women who are in the throws of mid-life.[v]
I’ve observed that as we grow older, the things we held as goals, whether we accomplished them or not, are not as compelling.
Presence: The Missing Goal Genre
Susan wants “to feel comfortable being in the moment of my life.” And here’s where her confusion comes in. Without an understanding of this Goal Genre, she believes she is goalless.
Most of us have had an experience, a moment when you know you HAVE everything you need, …where you know you ARE everything you need to be …and that there is NOTHING you need to do.
It might be at the birth of your child or when making love with someone you deeply love, or just simply a moment while floating on a raft in a pond on a warm, sunny summer day, or sitting on a porch and watching the sunset until the sky fades from dark purple to black, …and you realize I could die at this moment and I wouldn’t regret a thing. You feel alive and vibrant and it is enough.
The interesting thing about these moments is they don’t require you to climb a mountain, parachute from a plane, or go on an African safari. They occur when we deeply connect with our present experience, whatever it is.
Usually these moments are fleeting, but for some very lucky people, these moments can last for a long time.
When we reside in the moments of perfection, our typical future-oriented goals seem absurd. You have no goals because each moment is perfect. You have arrived.
HOWEVER… When you are not residing in that state of perfection, and when it is what you most deeply desire, you do have a goal – to recapture that state of Being.
The Challenge of the Presence Goal Genre
Ironically, you can’t approach goals in the Presence Genre in the same way you have learned to do so successfully in the other genres. Nature plays a trick on us. Paradoxically, using our future-oriented goal-setting skills that work so well in the other genres to return to the state of Presence can have a reverse effect.
These special moments exist exactly because we are not future-oriented. Instead of trying to control or achieve, we are accepting and appreciating.
But there is good news. It doesn’t mean you can’t have goals for this genre. They just need to be a little different.
You can have a goal to live your life to its fullest - to be present to each experience as it unfolds, whether it is happiness or pain, joy or loss.
You can have a goal to be true to your nature.
You can have a goal to love yourself and to be as kind to yourself as you are to others, which means forgiving yourself when you have been judgmental, unkind, unloving or disconnected.
And you can have a goal that when you do fall off the path, to recognize it as soon as possible so you can return.
You can have a goal to learn to meditate so you can learn to discipline your thinking.
You can have a goal to participate in experiences that help you lead from within.
You can have a goal to connect with people who understand and share these goals.
Caveat – take these goals seriously but treat them lightly. Do not turn Presence into a project, because you will be approaching it from the Mastery or Achievement genre and as they say, “you can’t get there from here.”
References:
[i] Hsieh, P. H., Sullivan, J. R., & Guerra, N. S. (2007). A closer look at college students: Self-efficacy and goal orientation. Journal of Advanced Academics, 92, 33-40 Goal orientation has been linked to self-efficacy and it has been found that low-learning/low-performance individuals have the lowest level of self-efficacy.
Locke, E. A., Cartledge, N., & Knerr, C. S. Studies of the relationship between satisfaction, goal setting, and performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1970, 5, 135-158.
[ii] The Goal Setting Theory was developed by Locke in 1968, in order to explain human actions in specific work situations. The theory argues that goals and intentions are cognitive and willful, and that they serve as mediators of human actions and that our needs and our goals are mediated by our values, which determine what is beneficial for us.
[iii]Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, all of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans.
[iv]Carol Dweck Carol Dweck (1986) originally proposed two types of goal orientation: learning orientation and performance orientation. Dweck, C.S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41, 1040-1048.
In 1999 I decided to re-prioritize my life. My children were five- and ten-years old, and my career was approaching a peak. I travelled two to three days a week and worked an additional 30 hours a week in my home office. I squeezed work into every crack – joining a conference call while preparing breakfast, responding to email while my children played, and preparing program materials after they went to sleep.
January of that year, I wrote several challenging goals. I taped them on the wall next to my computer so they were in plain sight. What’s more, anyone who came into my home office could see them as well.
In the area of work, I decided to make a bold move – to do 90% of my work within a two-hour drive of my home. There were a lot of potential clients in Boston and New York, but it meant finding new clients and giving up current ones – which took a leap of faith. Still, I felt so strongly about it, it almost wasn’t a choice. My boys were growing up fast, and I didn’t want to lose out on these precious years.
That year, I turned down all work that didn’t fit my new parameters and began seeking new clients. It was a little scary to create that space when there was nothing to fill it, but by the end of the year, I had landed a major long-term contract with a great company in the Boston area.
Another goal I set was to write a book. This had been on my mind for years, but I had never written it as a goal. I felt ambivalent about it. I had written many articles and developed numerous materials, but it was always driven by client needs. I wasn’t clear about why I wanted to write a book, and I didn’t take any specific actions.
The following January, as I reviewed my goals, I was astounded to realize I had achieved every single goal except writing a book. I was so proud I decided to leave my goals on the wall as a reminder.
Although I didn’t include “write a book” in my 2000 or 2001 goals, it was still on the wall embedded in my 1999 goals. Glancing at it occasionally, I had a sense that someday I’d come back to that one.
In late 2001, something amazing happened. I got a call from my friend and colleague Ken Blanchard inviting me to write a book with him on vision (my area of expertise). Now writing a book made sense, and everything about it began to flow smoothly. A year later Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision was published. Writing it was one of the most fun experiences of my life, and it’s been incredibly gratifying to know it has made a difference for so many people. It has sold over a quarter million copies, has been translated into 21 languages, and last year Berrett-Koehler, our publisher, invited us to expand and revise it for a second edition.
My 1999 goals are still taped on the wall. They remind me of what can I can accomplish when I get really clear about my priorities. Here’s what I learned about goals:
Write your goals down.
The act of writing goals is important. It’s not enough to just keep them in mind.
Put your goals somewhere visible, where you’ll see them everyday.
Goals that are filed in a drawer are likely to be forgotten. You don’t have to study them each day. If they are somewhere visible, you eyes will glance over them regularly, giving you a gentle subliminal reminder.
Don’t keep your goals a secret.
Let your goals be visible. If you share them with others, they might point out opportunities you’re not aware of, provide advice on how to proceed and offer support to help you stay committed.
You have to really want it.
There’s an old joke about how many therapists it takes to change a light bulb. The answer is “Just one. But the light bulb has to really want to change.” The same is true for goals. You have to really want it. Before you set goals, check your motivation. In 1999, I was just interested in writing a book, but didn’t really want it in the way I wanted to spend more time with my children.
Goals need to be connected to a larger purpose that shows why they are important, and helps answer the question “What’s next” once they are achieved.
Why do you want to accomplish that goal? If it is to please someone else or if it’s because you think it’s something you “should” do, it will be difficult to stay committed and you are likely to not be very satisfied even if you do achieve it.
Carry your goals over to the next year to create a sense of flow.
When goal setting, keep your previous goals in mind. Don’t just start over anew each year. For goals that have been accomplished, identify the next step. If you didn’t achieve the goal and it’s important, bring it forward. Consider whether it needs to be made more crisp or tweaked in some way.
Goal setting is not always a logical process.
Usually I recommend writing SMART goals –specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. HOWEVER, sometimes it can make a difference to just hold the intention of something you really want to do, even if you don’t have any idea of how you will achieve it—like my goal of writing a book. If I had written a SMART goal in 1999, I would have given up on it by the end of the year, deciding it wasn’t realistic. But because I kept the goal visible and held the intention, when the opportunity did presented itself, I was able to respond quickly.
The events before, during and after the January 13 tragedy aboard the Costa Concordia point to a true failure of leadership at every level, from the captain who ran the luxury liner aground during a drive by “salute” off the island of Isola del Giglio to the chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi who denies any responsibility. Two days ago Foschi told a newspaper they were unaware of this practice.
Why didn’t they know?
What was operating in the culture of the company that would give rise to these dangerous practices and where senior leaders were disconnected? Curious what company values were driving these behaviors, I searched the Costa Cruises website.
Passion for our Guests (a spontaneous sense of service attitude)
Costa Human Resources (competence, diligence, loyalty, morality, friendliness and enthusiasm)
Team work
Innovation and creativity
Financial performance
Ethics
Where is safety? Even reading the definitions carefully, safety is not mentioned. On the other hand, if these values were being lived consistently, it is possible safety might be assumed.
Fun Before Safety?
Is it possible that the real values driving behavior are a misinterpretation of what customer service means? Pleasing the customer and providing fun experiences are not customer service if you are putting the customer in jeopardy.
A quick visit to the Carnival website (owners of Costa Cruises) gives a strong message that it’s “fun for all and all for fun.” If you search hard enough, you can find a safety policy, but it is not easy to find.
A Case For Infusing Values
I decided to check out another cruise line also known for being fun. On the Disney website safety jumps out – it is listed in the sidebar menu.
Of course ultimately, the issue isn’t what is displayed on their website, but what is lived. However, we can make a good guess at the culture by how they portray themselves.
Values Make Cents
It appears the Costa owners think they will save money by not taking responsibility for the culture that gave rise to these dangerous practices. They are making a big mistake. In the long run, having clear company values and using them for critical decisions makes sense financially, as Johnson & Johnson proved 30 years ago during the famous Tylenol tampering incident.
When values are not infused throughout a company, people are left to use their own judgment. It’s the reason I fired my lawn service last spring. And in the case of the Costa Concordia, not ensuring that company values guide decision-making has been more than costly, it’s deadly.
Mistake #1: Thinking it’s the team leader’s responsibility to pull the team together and waiting passively for that to happen.
Mistake #2: Accepting mediocrity because they assume there is nothing they can do.
Ultimately a team’s success depends on the team members, not the team leader. In fact, over-dependence on the team leader can prevent a team from reaching its full potential.
What you can do as a team member to support your team on its journey to high performance.
Teams move through predictable stages of development, but how quickly and easily they progress depends on whether the needs of the team are being met during each stage. And sometimes teams can get stuck. Here’s what you can do, depending on what stage your team is in:
Stage 1: Setting the Foundation
Before jumping into the work, teams need to first lay the foundation by creating a common understanding of the team’s purpose and how they will accomplish the work. They need clarify how they will make decisions, share information, and approach the work.
If they don’t understand the importance of laying the foundation, or if they are impatient with process, or if they are too eager to begin, they will jump into the work prematurely. Ultimately they will need to clarify all these things. It’s much easier to do it on the front-end instead of making mistakes and having to backtrack.
What you can do:
Don’t assume it is up to the leader to ensure you team is successful.
Be aware of what teams need to clarify during this stage. See “Setup Your Team for Success” for more information.
Ask for a discussion to gain agreement and clarity if your team does not have a common understanding of their purpose and how they will work together to achieve it.
Stage 2: Dealing With What’s Under the Table
As work gets underway, tension arises as the discrepancy between initial hopes and the realities surface. There is a growing sense of dissatisfaction or impatience, which might be directed toward the goals, leadership or other team members.
This is an important stage. It is where trust develops because by successfully resolving conflict, the team members develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for each other. And it is where collectively the team calibrates to develop a believable shared vision of what they will accomplish and how they will work together to achieve it. Think of it as the grain of sand in the oyster that creates the pearl.
Denying and avoiding dealing with the issues during this stage lengthens this stage. And some teams get stuck here and never move on.
What you can do:
Put it on the table: identify the issues and what you see happening in a descriptive, non-judgmental way.
Look at what is happening from a group perspective. If a few people are active (ex. engaged in conflict or pushing their agenda) and others are silent, the group is out of balance. Ask those who are silent to weigh in.
Describe what you personally are experiencing and how it affects you.
Suggest that the team review its purpose and operating values.
A sense of cohesion arises once the team has developed a collective mindset and has learned to successfully manage conflict. There is a real sense of team identity and a “we” mentality.
But the newly formed trust is fragile, and sometimes team members will avoid conflict because they don’t want to rock the boat. The fact is that avoiding conflict will actually send the team right back to the previous stage.
One of the biggest dangers for the team during this stage is getting into “group think,” where people withhold opinions that are different from the majority.
What you can do:
Don’t hold back. Present your point of view when it is different from others’.
Observe how the team functions in areas such as communications, decision making, and problem solving.
Don’t participate in decision making until the topic has been thoroughly discussed and all viewpoints are on the table.
When the team makes a mistake, ask, “What can we learn?”
Stage 4: Achieving
At this point, the team has learned to work together, appreciating and utilizing the talents of each team member, and flexibly adapting to circumstances to achieve its goals. Leadership can arise from anywhere depending on what’s needed.
The danger for the team at this point is in resting on its laurels and getting bored or sloppy. The team needs new challenges.
What you can do:
Be an active participant.
Set challenging goals.
Maintain a big picture perspective.
Model and monitor the team values. Don’t ignore mistakes.
Recognize others’ contributions and the team’s success.
As a business consultant, author and executive, I have worked closely with leaders for 25 years helping create engaged workplaces that make positive impact on the world. I hope my blog is helpful for those who want to make a contribution, as a leader at work, in your community, in your family, or in your own life.
If your vision is only about yourself, you are too narrowly focused.
When was the last time you were with a group of people that needed to make a decision, where people tossed out ideas and at least one suggestion was totally ignored? If you’re like most of us, it was probably within the last few weeks, whether in a business meeting or a social setting.
ABOUT THABO HERMANUS: I am inspired by working with people who have a purpose and enjoy being the vessel in connecting them with their goals. Through recruitment, coaching for development and consultancy we help businesses attract and retain talented people. As co-founder of 
In 
Leaders who want to make their team more effective often ask me for help with teambuilding, training in team skills or advice on restructuring.
My friend Susan wrote, “Although I am ashamed to admit it….I don’t think I have any goals right now. At least there are none that have crystallized for me. I am a goal-setter, always have been, and have achieved almost all that I have set….
In 1999 I decided to re-prioritize my life.
The events before, during and after the January 13 tragedy aboard the Costa Concordia point to a true failure of leadership at every level, from the captain who ran the luxury liner aground during a drive by “salute” off the island of Isola del Giglio to the chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi who denies any responsibility. Two days ago Foschi told a newspaper 
Team members make two common mistakes: