I believe that goal setting is absolutely crucial for growing your career and your business. The problem is that most goals become semantics. You know the situation where you write out a goal and end up putting it in either a file in your computer or a hard copy in your drawer and don’t pull it out until the date you said you would get it done by has passed.

What I want to give you right now is a formula for creating outstanding goals that are followed. I also think this is an important time of year because we just started July and it’s crucial for setting the next six-month goals.

Specifically, a goal is an action-oriented statement. So let’s create an action-oriented statement that encapsulates all of the key elements.

Here are the five key elements I recommend:

1. Align 
Your goal must be aligned with the overarching context of your department and organisation. What I mean by that is the specific goal you set must be in alignment with the overarching focus of your department. For example, if the overarching focus is on growth, create a goal that heads towards growth in a specific area.

2. Involve 
It’s so crucial to be involved in the goal creation process. Involvement creates ownership, and when you’re able to write your own goal or at least give feedback on the goal, it creates engagement.

3. Sharpen
All of your goals must be specific enough that you know exactly what is required. What I mean by that is — who’s going to do it, when is it going to be done by, what are you doing and what measurable aspect are you going to use? Sharpening is kind of like the SMART goal process: it is making sure that it’s specific enough to understand what you’re doing, it has a measurable element and it has a timeframe.

4. Controllable 
I think it’s crucial that your goal is able to be controlled. What I mean by that is that it is within your sphere of influence. Many times, we create goals that are a “flow in effect” but really, we need to focus on what is controllable. For example, something that is controllable is how many phone calls we make, where what isn’t controllable is the number of sales we get. Focusing more on things that are controllable gives us more empowerment.

5. Meaningful
A goal must have meaning. Before results come, there must be reasons. Focus on getting clear reasons for why you want to achieve your goal and you’ll increase the probability of achieving them.

Below is a model of the 5 core drivers: