Know about different types of goals to achieve yours effectively
Have you ever thought about whether the goals you have are working well together or against each other? Or whether different goals working on different times scales might be making your efforts to reach either of them more difficult?
Welcome to the world of goal types - a discovery that revolutionised the way I think about setting and achieving my own goals, personal and professional. Anthony Grant, in 2013, wrote about this in detail.
Performance is not static – tied strongly to motivation, it can be guided to keep us engaged and feeling good about the work we do every day through having a clear focus on what we find interesting, challenging, and relevant.
Goals are an intention around what we would like to achieve and involve content that breaks down into specificity (how precise, clear, and measurable the goal is) and level or difficulty as perceived individually. Effective goals are challenging and specific, accompanied by commitment (determination to achieve the goal) and feedback (how to assess progress against the goal). Through this, they can direct and maintain attention on our intended outcomes, creating motivation, and helping us to sustain our efforts individually and collaboratively.
Grant detailed several types of goals:
Outcome goals - what we tend to think of when we think of ‘SMART’ goals, i.e. there is a specific outcome that we can measure, and therefore it’s important for it to be achievable, realistic, and have a timeline associated so we know when it is done or not.
Distal and proximal goals - some goals are longer-term or broader in nature, which are distal goals (such as ticking off all of the items on your bucket list), and others are much more short-term, which are proximal goals (such as ticking off a single item on your bucket list, like going skydiving).
Approach and avoidance goals - approach goals are heading towards something (like achieving a specific weight loss target weight), while avoidance goals are moving away from something (like quitting smoking)
Performance and learning - performance goals are about learning, or proving competence (such as gaining project management skills). This compares to mastery goals, which are about development, or improving competence (such as building upon existing skills on running meetings effectively by building skills on running inclusive meetings).
Higher and Lower order - higher order goals tend to be more abstract in nature (such as getting more fit), compared to lower order goals which are more specific in nature (such as beating your PB in a 5K run).
Identifying your goal type/s is just the first step, however. There are also a range of other factors to consider when working with goals, which are often forgotten or not thought about.
Considering whether your goals are complimentary or competing can hep you understand goal friction. Sometimes, your goals work to support each other (for example, if you are working towards feeling healthier, losing weight and waking up early to exercise). There are other times, however, when they might insidiously be competing against each other, making it difficult for you to achieve any of them (for example, if you are working towards running meetings with more authority, but also at being perceived as likable and agreeable).
Another dimension on goals is whether your stated goals might be only part of the picture - unconscious goals often emerge which might add a complimentary or competing element to your performance. For example, if you have decided that you would like to run meetings with greater authority, but you subconsciously really want to be liked and perceived as agreeable by your colleagues, you may find your efforts towards embracing authority difficult until you face into this conflict.
All of us have core values and beliefs which tend to (largely unconsciously, but also consciously) guide the choices we make, the way we behave in relationships, and the ways that we spend our time. It is important to consider whether your goals are self-concordant, that is, whether they align with your values and interests, or not. If your goals are self-concordant, you will find it feels easier to work towards them and to harness motivation to stay on track with them in difficult times. If your goals do not align with your values, you might find it very challenging to work on them. For example, if you value autonomy but your goal is to work well as part of your team, you might need to lean into how you can reconcile the need for independence alongside the goal of supporting others and also being supported by others. Alternatively, if you value collaboration and have a goal of working well within a team, you will likely find this much easier to achieve.
Goal heirarchies also exist, wherein it is unlikely that you will ever have a single goal in isolation. You likely will have larger goals (such as building a career in a particular industry), which contain smaller goals (such as getting a particular job at a particular organisation within that industry), and even sub-goals within these (such as completing a particular training course to attain evidence of your skills so you can work towards getting that job). These goal heirarchies will likely contain a range of distant and proximal goals, outcome goals, approach and avoidance goals, performance and learning goals, and higher and lower order goals. Sometimes there might be unconscious goals within this mix, and there will likely be areas of self-concordance and lack of self-concordance. This is all entirely normal - nobody has it all figured out, and as our situations change, so do our perspectives on what we value, what we want and where we want to go.
At times, parts of our sub-goals might be avoided or neglected as a result of where our priorities might lie at that particular time. In these instances, we call this goal neglect. Within a heirarchy of what we want to do, we will often focus on particular goal areas at particular times, meaning that other areas fall to the wayside. Doing this consciously is idea - but often this happens unconsciously.
Alongside this, we should consider self-efficacy, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, and locus of control. Self-efficacy is our level of belief in ourselves that we are able to achieve a particular goal, and it may vary over time depending upon life circumstances. For example, if we are experiencing mental health challenges or a period of depression, our self-efficacy will drop as we feel we are significantly less able to achieve what we want to in life. This isn’t permanent, however, and as we come out of this period, we will build back our self-efficacy. Similarly, motivation can be intrinsic (from within) or extrinsic (from outside sources) - and so we might feel particularly intrinsically motivated to achieve certain goals when they become proximal rather than distal and feel more achievable, such as a useful coaching or mentoring session that provides us with clarity on the pathways towards achieving the goal. Or, we might feel extrinsic motivation when there is a reward offered to achieve them, such as a bonus at work for recognised performance. This relates to locus of control, which is our feeling of whether something is within our control or not, and can also be intrinsic or extrinsic.
Finally, one of the most important influences on our ability to reach a goal is dependant upon how we get feedback on progress towards this goal. Often we think of feedback as something we gain from others (i.e. extrinsic), however, working out intrinsic feedback measures is usually possible. Feedback on a goal may be changes in how we feel, changes that we create in the world around us, or changes that other people are able to see and reflect back to us. When working with goals, considering how you will tell that you are making progress can be one of the most useful things you can do to determine success. This will increase your ability to engage with motivation across the journey, even when times get tough, as well as your ability to feel in control of achieving your goal, and being able to pivot the goal if needed over time.
Working with goals isn’t always as simple as it seems - but neither does it need to be overwhelming. With some clarity around the different dimensions of goal setting, it can be an extremely motivating, empowering and energising process that creates tangible, positive and productive changes in your life.