What’s Your Goal?

A sneak peek into our questionnaire for prospective clients:

• What are the goals of your business?
• What do you want your website to achieve – quantifiably?

This information should be at the tip of the tongue for anyone running a business – especially someone who is actively looking for a professional to improve the achievements of their business – but it is surprising how many people just… don’t know.

“I’m not sure…”

“I have to think about that…”

“Good questions…”

When you get a degree in education and they teach you how to write a lesson plan, one of the most important elements (in the professor’s opinion) and the most annoying (in the education student’s opinion) is the definition of goals. What should your student be able to do at the end of your lesson?

• The student will recite the times tables backwards.
• The student will identify all the nature metaphors in an unfamiliar poem.
• The student will design an experiment to test the pH of chicken soup.

“Why do I have to define goals? Why can’t I just write the lesson? Why can’t I just teach?” complains the typical education student. Some solve their discomfort and frustration by writing the lesson first and then formulating the goals. Much less annoying, and as this former education student found, much less effective.

Having a goal – a specific goal – focuses you. Knowing exactly what you want to accomplish – quantifiably – increases the accuracy of your foresight and your hindsight. You can plan more effectively before you act and analyze whether your actions were effective after the fact.

The critical connection between goal setting and achievement holds true in any area of life – from the most public to the most personal.

If I have to deliver a speech before the United States Congress, what exactly do I want them to do after I leave the room?

• The Congress will pass a resolution banning the sale of plush pink stuffed elephants.
• When approached individually, the members of Congress will be patient with termite-right-to-life lobbyists.

If I want to improve my marriage, how exactly do I want the improvement to manifest?

• My spouse and I will be able to discuss inviting so-and-so to the family get-together for ten minutes without raising our voices.
• My spouse and I will share our feelings about daily experiences at least twice a week.

Pursuing an elusive “achievement” or “improvement” without a specific goal is like going to the grocery store without a shopping list and vaguely expecting to come back and be able to prepare a gourmet meal. You may surprise yourself and succeed… or you may end up hungry. Either way, you will probably end up more satisfied in less time if you define quantifiable goals.

So don’t be the corner-cutting education student and jump into the water before you’ve charted a course. Before you start your business, before you expand your business, before you call us – or any other consultant – to improve your business, make sure you can give yourself answers:

What exactly do I want to see?

What specifically am I trying to achieve?

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