Avoid The First Mistake In Goal Setting. Banish The "Soft" Goal
Posted: Saturday, July 11, 2009
by Shmaya David
ecoachingsuccess.com
"Soft" goals are the first and worst mistake of goal setting. "Soft" is often used as opposed to hard, cold, measurable facts. Often a coaching client may feel that what he is setting to achieve can not be expressed in numbers. It can not be tied up to specific bounding time-frames. It can not be defined in a clear understood-by-all terms. Therefore, he may try and define a "soft" goal.
If your client defined a "Soft" goal, he indicated a wish for this result, but he didn't really set a goal. In all probability, your client is not deliberately trying to avoid accountability. He probably doesn't know how to do it correctly. Surprisingly, executive coaching clients are often just as bad at setting goals as any other coaching clients. The good part is that they can be taught how to do it, and so improve their results.
When your client comes up with a goal, spend some time with her on refining her goal to fit the following:
The goal should be defined as an output, a result, and not as a process or an action.
The goal should be measurable. Try not to give way on this, but if there is no way to do it, at least assure that the goal may be assessed in a consistent manner, and that the rules for making this assessment are defined clearly.
The goal should be time bound. You client needs to commit to a specific date.
If the result your client came with can not be measured, try to identify an alternative result that is directly linked to the first, and will give the same indication in a measurable way. Look for measurable characteristics or attributes of the original results. Those are often good candidates to replace it.
If you wish to learn more about setting goals, download my free ebook "How to Set Effective Goals - coaching your client to success" at http://www.eoachingsuccess.com
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