Why are goals particularly important to everyone?
Goals are important because they take us where we want to be. The best way to accomplish anything is to ensure that we write it down. Writing down the goal is half the work done. Goal setting is an important exercise for everyone but unfortunately very few achieve their goals.
A goal helps us visualize where we want to be and breaks it down into action plans to achieve it. without goals, organisations will become have no objective to focus towards. Most companies have figured this out and started the habit of goal setting that help to achieve the milestones set by an individual or a department.
Google figure this out early and they set practices and processes that help achieve the goal. They follow a goal-setting framework called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). They strongly believed in settings stretch goals for greater accomplishments. goal setting can be classified into aspirational and committed goals
What are aspirational goals?
Operational goals are strong and stretch goals that allow a person or an organisation to aspire something bigger to them. Aspirational goals help you to think out of the box and get you out of your comfort zone.
Aspirational goals are different from committed goals because they are audacious. A committed goal has the planned resources and budget in place. Whereas an aspirational goal starts from nowhere and tries to achieve something bigger and larger goals than what they had currently done. An aspirational can be a tool to create something big or become big.
How does aspirational goal-setting work for your organization?
Goal-setting exercise is a very crucial skill, and most individuals and managers struggle in setting goals for themselves and their team. Goal setting starts with the organisational goal and then cascades to the team and the individuals. It is important to start the exercise by understanding the why.
Get started with the exercise of why you would want to set the goals and what your expected outcomes are. If you are a CEO, you might have various strategies that you want to succeed in.
For example, if this year plans to launch in North America, then we need to set objectives that will help us get there. Writing down your plan indicates that you have already reached halfway
Setting short-term objectives.
While we all have the larger agenda set, it is important to have it broken down into shorter timelines to make sure that the focus is on that objective. Short-term objectives are the stepping stone to achieving the goal. These objectives are time bound and measurable in nature. Also setting an ambitious yet achievable objective helps us stay motivated.
Regular Review
Once the objectives have been set it is key to review that at regular intervals. Doing retrospectives after a quarter or mid-year is not a helpful practice. The lost time and effort will not be justified if the objective is off track, and you also have challenges in completing it. A weekly review of our progress will give a clear indication if you need to course-correct the plan or is looks good to keep going.
Aspirational goals vs smart goals: what are the differences?
SMART goals
SMART goals have been around for a while and most organizations use the framework. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Using SMART goals has its advantages and they help in achieving goals that are timebound and realistic. This can measure regular KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) (Key Performance Indicator) that are business as usual and indicates the status quo
Aspirational Goals
As the name suggests these goals help you to set an audacious goal and that is a stretch for individuals. Aspirational goals are magical and help people aspire to something hard to achieve.
- We may not know what is next
- The goal is constant and how we achieve that becomes experiential and agile
- Short-term key results help in setting the course right
Importance of aspirational goal setting
How are they different from the committed goals and what is the importance of the aspirational goal? I get these questions often in the seminars and workshops we attend.
Aspirational Goals help organizations achieve what is impossible and stretch beyond one’s limits. But is still important for the organization to perform or to understand the challenges in achieving the goal.
Aspirations provide purpose and meaning to an organization and individual. And mostly sometimes it looks like a dream, yet it is achievable. Though an Aspirational goal can be incredible it is inevitable too. If an organization must scale 20x in a year, dreams must come true in the form of goals.
Key benefits of aspirational goals
The benefits of Aspirational goals provide greater direction and focus and increase the productivity of the team.
Aspirational goals
- Help you set the realistic goals
- Setting the expectations right
- Breaks the mindset and lets one plan
- The clarity in decision making
Examples of Aspirational goals
Personal Aspirational Goals
As a highly motivated individual, one might aspire to increase wealth.
Personal Aspirational Goal Setting
Objective: Increase my Net worth by X millions
The key results include:
- Increase personal income by 40%
- Increase the savings by 10%
- Invest in the right channels to get an ROI of 30%
Organisational Aspirational Goal.
The leadership team from every organization will their own to ensure that the entire team stays motivated and aspire high.
Few Key Results will look like
- Achieve customer conversion of 20%
- Plan Leadership team hiring internally
- Decrease the customer churn by 5%
Where to get started with aspirational Goal
Let us see how we can create and measure the goals while we are setting goals for an organisation.
Keep it Ambitious yet achievable
While everyone wants to set ambitious goals, they end up setting ambitious goals but not achievable. So, it is important to break it down to ensure that it is achievable. For example, if you want to become a market leader, the goals must be broken down into key results that ensure that you achieve the goals.
Define specific Key Results
If the Key results are very quantitative and subjective it becomes difficult to achieve them. So, once you have your specific objective, work backward, and break it down into key results. While the Key Results are short-term, they would help in understanding the progress of the planned objective and that will determine our journey toward the goal. These are the important steps to take to make your dream achievable.
Keep it Agile
Staying agile and flexible will help to make adjustments that require to achieve the goal. While working towards an aspirational objective it is important to correct often with the learning experience
Stay flexible. Check in on your progress at regular intervals and be prepared to adjust your plan. Working towards audacious objectives is always going to be a learning experience we get at the right time.
Conclusion:
Datalligence OKR (Objectives & Key Results) software helps you in creating and achieving your aspirational goals. Talk to our OKRs coaches to get started with the Aspirational goals. We help organisations to create and track their goals.
