Goals, why?
This might be for you if…
You feel kind of lost and not sure where you are headed in your career (note: very complicated feeling with a multifaceted solution)
You feel like your work does not impact your company or does not have an overall purpose
Your mentee does not feel what they do matters and you want to create a sense of organizational belonging
Storytime
I never thought much about leadership until I came across a great leader. Her name was Jen and she was a short, fiery, woman of discernment. I joined her team because I had a good feeling about her, it was that simple. She seemed as if she would take care of me and since I came from an environment where the theme was “prove to me why I should hire you”, this approach was intriguing and scary. I joined her team and after a few one-on-one meetings later, I started to thaw.
Jen: “What are your goals for the year?”
Me: ***trying to not let my thoughts show on my face*** I strongly dislike this question. I never understood why they (the company) asked me this. The only goals they really care about are the formal powerpoint slides sent out on company emails that are informing us “this is what will impact your bonus because this is what we really care about”.
Me: ***with a sigh*** “What goals should I have?”
Jen: ***Confused look that settles into a slight smile*** “What kind of work do you want to do this year?”
There was a bit of conversation on this where it was mostly me prattling off what I thought she wanted to hear and her asking variations of the same question, “What else interests you?”
We eventually got down to what I really wanted, to be an offensive engineer. When we identified that she declared, “That’s your goal!” I was confused, goals had to do with company metrics distributed on powerpoint slides. “They do”, was her response.
Seeing my confusion she explained, real goals are a combination of personal goals and company goals. As an employee, we need to know the work we are doing makes a difference for the company, that’s where the company's goals come in. As an individual, I need to know I am growing in the direction I want to grow, which is where the personal goals come in. These should be combined rather than separated.
I was a software developer on her team, yet I wanted to grow into an entirely different role. I remembered experiences of previous leaders, they would be immediately looking for my replacement with someone more loyal. There were no slots for an offensive engineer on her team and we both know it.
Me: Aren’t you mad that I am looking to leave your team? You just hired me and now I’m telling you this is what I don’t want to do.
Jen: She nodded solemnly, “no one stays forever. If you are still with the company, it’s still a win. However, it’s not like you can just jump to another team. You do not have the skill sets for that role yet. If becoming an offensive engineer is really your goal, you have to work towards it while being successful on my team. We can tailor the work to help reinforce skills you will need for that role but at the end of the day, I need you to do your job. By doing your job well, you’ll get a good reputation and we can move you onto that team easier in the future.”
All at once I felt heard and seen. She was willing to invest in me with no obligation to stay. Going forward I knew the work I would do would satisfy one of two needs, build my skill sets or build my reputation.
Jen: “Now that I know what you want, here is what I need to accomplish with this team. Let’s figure out where you fit in…”
Our discussion had an entirely different tone after that. I was invested, involved, and fully engaged. We discussed the problems the team was trying to solve, my current abilities, and benchmarks the team needed to fulfill throughout the year. She sent me home with homework to take what we had discussed and prioritize what I would be the most interested in accomplishing. For example, Designing the webpage for our product, managing the backend database, creating algorithms, etc.
Later that month we came together as a team and discussed our personal goals together. We were shocked that all of our goals highlighted individual skills we wanted to develop while moving the overall project forward. I found out later she had this same meeting with each person on our team. During this meeting, we created our team goals together. This was the product we pushed up to leadership that eventually was translated into the powerpoint slide sent to the rest of the company.
Leader: “What are your goals for this year?”
I used to dread this question…until I realized what I really dreaded was the answer. Or more accurately, lack of an answer. Once I figured out what people meant when they asked for goals, this question invoked less dread and more positive anticipation. What do I want to accomplish next?!
Looking back, this was not an effortless process for Jen. She practiced transparency and revealed how growth is sometimes painful. She called out goals that were self-centered and steered us towards goals that would benefit the entire team. Since leaving her team I have implemented her leadership practices and merged them with other practices from strong leaders I aspire to resemble. The below process is my way to “pay it forward” for Jen’s investment in me as I grew in my career.
Series Overview
This series of posts is a walkthrough of the Goals process and based on my experience, take what works for you and disregard the rest. I am a fan of the try it once method. Let me know what I can add or explain better as you work through this.
Why Goals - Level setting why this is important & what you will need
Personal Brand - The way in which you accomplish your goals. (More seasoned professionals, do personal brand first. N00bs do the personal brand with writing goals.)
Writing Goals - Blending your organizational goals with your personal goals
Feedback Loops - Cultivating transparent, accountable, & kind conversations
Inventories - Practices of discernment
Tracking Goals - Paying attention over time & telling a story
Personal Assessments - Pulling together all of the tools throughout the year and celebrating growth
Before you start
What do you mean by “goals”?
Simply put, goals are what you want to accomplish in a given amount of time. It’s easy to confuse goals with ideas, “become a good developer by the end of the year”, “Lead the highest performing team” or “get skinny by summer.” These are not goals, these are ideas. More on this later.
Why do we set goals?
Most companies need to know what work they are paying for. Harsh but true. This is an opportunity to have a transparent conversation on what leadership thinks is important and where that intersects with the work you actually want to be doing.
Step 0: Seek out the following…
Organizational goals - <image>gold star</image> if you can get the goals for every echelon of departments above yours. Snowballs<poop emoji> rolls downhill.
An idea of where you want to go in your future
A sounding board AKA friend that knows you (even better if they know your organization). Sometimes this is a mentor in the company.
A place for this information to live that you and leadership can access easily. Some like google docs, I use confluence, others might use fancy office tools with trackers. Doesn’t matter so long as you use it.
Once you have acquired the breadcrumbs your organization has left you, we can begin this process.
Next step (step 1) is writing your goals or (for seasoned professionals) writing your personal brand.
