Set Goals for 2013 You Can Achieve

You have big goals next year. Make sure you set out to achieve them in a way that works for your brain.

 

If you’re a left-brained thinker who behaves in a calm, focused manner, read another article. You already think rationally, schedule fastidiously, document your objectives clearly, and check them off your list. So stop reading this already.

For the rest of you–the right-brainers, the multi-modal people, who are known to be gregarious and abstract thinkers–pay attention.

You need to set big goals in 2013. You already know that. The challenge for you is to turn those big goals into action, keep yourself accountable, and do what you say you’re going to do.

You have the ability to do this, but, the truth is, when it comes to setting goals, especially in business, it’s a left-brained and logical, process-oriented, structured world.

Your challenge is that you’re not going about goal setting and goal attainment in a way that aligns with the way your brain works.

You’ve been coached on goals the old way:

1. Write down your goals.

The stats even back up how important this is. People who write down goals are 33% more likely to achieve them!

2. Cull a detailed, organized list.

Tie your goals to specific dates with smaller deliverables every step along the way.

3. Make each goal SMART.

SMART goals are specific, meaningful, achievable, relevant, and timely.

These steps are useful–for left-brainers. They won’t work for you. You probably wrote down a careful list of SMART goals, but how many times did you look at it? Are you still even working on the same goals you wrote at the beginning of the year (or even the day)? I doubt it.

The key for you–an outgoing right-brainer–is to look deeper at what your goals are about. Give yourself manageable and actionable deliverables that will result in productivity. And tap into your brain.

Here’s how:

If you’re a social thinker, record your goals on paper, but also in conversations and interactions with other people. Have others keep you on task. It’s amazing how well this works and you’ll actually enjoy it!

If you’re conceptual, writing down goals probably seems pointless. Instead, dream big and trick your brain by thinking of your goals as a vision for the future. Draw a metaphor of your goals and revisit those images frequently.

If you tend to think in a multi-faceted way, you’ll find many different goal-setting models helpful. Don’t be constrained to one; instead experiment with many to find the best (or a few strong) fits.

In addition to how you think, know your natural behavior propensity, and set goals that match it, to help you succeed at your goals.

If you’re quiet, you’re probably perfectly comfortable writing down your list and personally checking it. But if you’re more on the gregarious end of the spectrum, you should use that fact to your advantage–get others involved with your goals, and ask for their help. Be loud about what you want to achieve.

If, however, you have a competitive and driving personality, try not to push objectives purely for the sake of it. Or if you’re more of an amiable person, create goals that will make a difference, and commit to doing them even if you rock the boat.

When it comes to flexibility, if you prefer clearly-defined situations, you probably already know that goal setting comes naturally–just make sure you revisit goals frequently to know if and when you need to change something to achieve them. If, on the other hand, you’re comfortable with flux and welcome change, goal-setting probably seems tough. Use your adaptability as a strength; since you’re open to new things, try out different goal-setting styles to hone in on the right path.

Goals are made to propel you to be successful. Use your brain to achieve big things in 2013!

Geil Browning is founder of Emergenetics International, an organizational development firm in the U.S., Singapore, and the Netherlands. She co-created the Emergenetics Profile, a psychometric thinking and behavioral workplace assessment. @Emergenetics_

Your Business is Not Your Baby, by Chris Heivly

Great start-up entrepreneurs are self-absorbed, heavy-ego machines. For some serious period of time, they have sat either by themselves or with one or two similarly focused co-founders in their office (read: bedroom), a Starbucks, or a borrowed corner of some other entrepreneurs’ office (perhaps not a bedroom), where they have done nothing but think about their idea. At this point in their company’s evolution, it’s a me-me-me proposition.

As it should be. At this stage, an entrepreneurs’ motivation has to be about self. There is nothing else. No money. No customers. No partnerships. All of the validation has to come from within you and/or your fellow team members. How else do you get through those early days?

But then comes the shift. Pay attention–this is really important. And I am always surprised when start-up founders miss it.

The shift happens when you meet a particular milestone–you acquire a critical mass of customers, or establish an early key partnership, or take investment dollars from your first non-friends-and-family investors.

And the shift itself? It’s the switch from “It’s All About Me” to “It’s All About the Company.” If you can’t make this change in attitude, it’s unlikely your company will mature. Investors invest in an entity made up of people. Customers pay to use the product or service of a company. The contract says so.

Founders sometimes miss this, the fact that they are now working for the company. They now exist as employees and thus to serve the company. The company has become more important than them. After X months of staring at one another and juicing one another’s egos, they now need to subjugate those feelings.

That can be difficult. Before you hit that milestone, that marker, it was all about your idea, your product, your sales ability, etc. I sold this to you. I convinced you to invest your money. I am the company. You just told me that, didn’t you?

We did. But things have changed.

One way this manifests is in the distribution of stock options. Most early-stage investors require founders to vest the stock they already own as a means of protecting against potential executive changes, be they naturally occurring or forced. (How this works: the founders return their shares to the company, and get them back over the course of three or four years.) In the Triangle Startup Factory program, we have at least one long, drawn-out conversation per season with a founder trying to convince us that this is not necessary.

That founder has not made the shift. The company does not know if you will be involved in the future. Your owning a significant equity position in the company you left two years ago does not work.

Now, some of you don’t expect to need outside investment. That’s great. But you still need to make the shift. Your company is not you. It is definitely not your “baby.” It’s an investment you’ve made. Are you going to take care of that investment?

Chris Heivly is the co-founder and managing director of the Triangle Startup Factory, a three-year-old software accelerator in the Raleigh/Durham area. Modeled after similar national programs, this seed investment program is yielding 14 new start-ups per year.