Establishing Clear Goals for Yourself and Regularly Assessing Your Progress Improves Performance in Less Time

To be an expert in anything means to have tried and failed on repeat until progress makes perfect. Each setback is seen as a stepping stone toward mastery. This ultimately leads to a high level of skill while reaching your goal. This process also emphasizes resilience, patience, and the value of learning from setbacks on the path to expertise.
The five ways to establish goals and improve performance are the following:
- Clear goals with direction and focus helps you prioritize tasks that truly matter.
- Regularly assessing your progress boosts motivation and helps you stay accountable.
- To identify and correct mistakes early ensures you stay on track.
- Learning to work smarter, not harder helps to allocate time, energy, and resources effectively.
- Tracking progress allows you to celebrate small wins along the way which builds confidence.
Setting clear goals and consistently tracking your progress boosts performance more efficiently.
Clear goals with direction and focus helps you prioritize tasks that truly matter.
In the journey towards personal or professional success, the importance of setting clear goals is paramount. Whether embarking upon a new project, pursuing a career milestone, or striving for self-improvement, establishing clear objectives provides a roadmap for progress and achievement.
At the beginning of leadership development classes that I teach, I like to set the stage by letting everyone know how profoundly grateful I am to be in the presence of like-minded professionals who are constantly learning, being and doing more. And that I never leave a class without having learned something new.
This reminds me of my favorite revelation from a class: my introduction to the Monk Manual, a daily planning system that helps you achieve your goals.
While delivering a virtual training: ‘Ownership of Your Job,’ a conversation with a participant unfolded on the best practices for time management.
He went on to say how the Monk Manual helped with goal setting on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis in his work. After sticking with the process, it led to a transformational increase in his work productivity.
And, he gushed, it even transcended beyond his career by helping him improve personal relationships with his wife! With this newly found goal-setting process, they were able to map out their future and create an action plan for achieving their long-anticipated retirement goals.
When you prioritize your goals, you will make meaningful progress without wasting time on distractions or less important activities.
“Never take the position that things just happen to you; rather, they happen because of something you did or did not do.”
– Grant Cardone
The best way to track your progress is to set actionable goals. This ensures you are in the right direction, which will inevitably save you time in the long run. Nobody wants to have to start all the way over.
Regularly assessing your progress boosts motivation and helps you stay accountable.
Clarity comes in the form of setting expectations for specific goals. As an Expressive Driver who always has ten tabs open in my brain, a ton of energy to burn, and the idea that I can do it all, even I struggle with prioritizing my timebound goals. This is why I must follow a system, otherwise I’ll get stuck in a hamster wheel of several projects at once that take far longer to accomplish than they actually should.
Having someone help you stay accountable to your goals is the golden egg. This can be an executive coach, mentor or even a colleague or friend whom you can entrust to help keep you on pace.
A couple of years ago while working with my executive coach, I learned the importance of the midway touchpoint.
Over the course of the several week-long coaching process, my VP joined us three times. Once at the beginning to set goals, in the middle to discuss and measure progress, and the end to score my results.
It was during the midpoint discussion that I ascertained what I really needed to focus on and/or prioritize to overcome my greatest weakness in business: being present.
Pinpoint what’s holding you back from achieving your biggest goals
The intent in recognizing my weakness was to pinpoint what was holding me back from using my intrinsic motivator to its advantage. My weakness was identified as needing to be more present in every conversation. Hence the ten tabs always open in my brain!
If you never fully concentrate on one thing at a time, you are never truly giving anything 100% of your attention.
Through my executive coaching process, my intrinsic motivator was discovered as, “To Win!” How can I always win if the prize never has my full attention? So, over the 12-week coaching process, I learned and mastered steps while measuring my progress. This ultimately led me to overcoming my weakness in business.
Now, I am cognizant of how and when I allocate my time, respectful of time being given to me by others and have learned how to be 100 percent vested in every encounter I have and conversation I am privy to.
In addition to prioritizing your goals, be sure to assign a specific timeframe or deadline for completion.
Regularly assessing your progress is like checking a map during a long journey. Each checkpoint reminds you how far you’ve come and keeps you motivated to reach the next milestone. Thus, ensuring you’re still on the right path, helping you stay accountable to your destination.
To identify and correct mistakes early ensures you stay on track.
Over the last several years, QR codes have been the new and improved way of accessing information immediately. It’s effective and saves time especially when seconds really do matter.
One of our most popular outdoor team-building programs is our Camaraderie Quest. It is best suited for downtown areas rich in history and culture. The usage of QR codes is a game-changer for this event and far more productive than the iPads we originally used.
The idea behind the quest is to see which team can get through the scavenger hunt the quickest. Without needing the iPads, participants just scan the QR code on their own device and off they go!
Before we get started though, we have to make sure the QR codes are working properly.
One evening before a large 150-person event, I tested the codes only to find they were malfunctioning. So, albeit a late night, we went back through everything. We fixed the codes to ensure they were set for the next morning.
If you take the time to properly prepare, you will pave the way for your success.
Consider a chef preparing an elaborate multi-course meal for a large event. Early in the prep, she realizes that one of the key ingredients for a sauce was mislabeled. She’d been using the wrong spice! By catching the mistake early in the process, she’s able to adjust the recipe, correct the flavors, and keep everything on track. All without compromising the quality of the final dishes.
If she hadn’t noticed until plating, she’d have been scrambling to fix it under pressure, potentially throwing off the entire meal.
By identifying and correcting the mistake early, she ensured that every course was served perfectly and on time. This kind of proactive approach helps keep things on track. Whether in the kitchen or in any other high stakes setting!
Learning to work smarter, not harder helps to allocate time, energy, and resources effectively.
One of our most popular icebreakers is all about coming together in your small teams to invent a process. Once mastered, they then have to come up with a faster, more effective way to complete the same process in less time.
The team that does this the quickest wins the head start. So, they have to learn to strategize together and think outside the box. All while leveraging each other’s individual strengths in order to be successful.
Once people realize the power behind what their teammates bring to the table, it opens the door for being able to work cohesively within departments or divisions to get the job done better. Recognizing how to effectively delegate tasks to the right person, you will develop a process that has the right people on the right tasks to complete the process in less time.
Recently, I was shocked to learn in a 1:1 touchpoint with a team member that she didn’t really enjoy her role. She went on to explain how she preferred to be behind the scenes and that she really wanted to help create spreadsheets and crunch numbers. This blew my mind!
We needed someone to step in and take this role that none of us really enjoy, and all along we had a team member who wasn’t thriving in her current role wishing that could be her job. Fast forward to our perfectly functioning behind the scenes spreadsheet expert! Everything stays in order, and everyone is happy in their role.
“Work smart. Get things done and know when to take a step back.”
– Jeff Bezos
In business, time is money. Working smarter, not harder, enables you to use your time, energy, and resources more efficiently to increase your bottom line.
Tracking progress allows you to celebrate small wins along the way which builds confidence.
Before my knee totally gave me the choice of lay off or get it replaced, I used to be a competitive distance runner. In fact, when the doctor gave me that bad news, I was in the middle of training to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
Even though I knew it was a long-shot, I knew it was going to be an arduous process of gaining endurance and stamina to be able to qualify for the race. This meant I had to train in intervals, first mastering each distance, and then improving the time needed to move on to the next distance.
Race, finish, look at the stopwatch, and repeat it until I made the time. Then I would repeat the process until I could be sure to finish the entire marathon in 3.5 hours.
It was a grueling, yet exhilarating process that left me exhausted, very sore, nonetheless exceptionally proud of the progress that I had made at each interval. Every win pushed me to master the next longer distance.
I may not have gotten to run that particular race, but I know how it feels to take things one step at a time- total pun intended- crossing each small finish line faster than the one before. When you see your progress on paper and feel it in your bones, your confidence soars, and your momentum picks up.
You Become Unstoppable!
Tracking small wins to boost confidence is like a painter adding strokes to a canvas. Each stroke may seem small, but gradually, a clear picture starts to emerge. Seeing the image take shape inspires the painter to keep going. They know that each addition brings them closer to a beautiful masterpiece.
Monitoring your progress enables you to recognize and celebrate small achievements along the journey. Which, in turns, boosts your confidence as you move forward. With each check off the list, you will feel your energy lifting as you consistently gain momentum toward your ultimate goal.
Establishing Clear Goals for Yourself and Regularly Assessing Your Progress Improves Performance in Less Time
If you want to effectively establish goals and improve performance, make certain to identify clear goals with a focus. Then, regularly assess your progress, identify mistakes early on, learn to work smarter, and celebrate the small wins along the way. Soon, you will be leading by example, radiating positivity, and paving the way for big wins!