Business goals need to be actionable.

 Business goals need to be actionable.


An even more common mistake when setting business goals is to choose business goals that are too vague or abstract. Business goals such as “Andy’s Antiques will improve our customer service” sound nice – but if Andy’s Antiques is your business, how are you going to do that?


When you’re setting business goals, be sure that you have developed them from general statements, such as in the example above, to specific actions that can be performed and evaluated. (See Setting Goals Is the First Step to Achievement to learn how.) Goals without action plans are just pretty words.


3) Business goals need to be achievable stretches.


The purpose of business goals is to move our businesses forward and to motivate us. So we have to position the bar very carefully when we’re setting business goals. If the bar is set too high, we set ourselves up for failure and disappointment and many of us, recognizing this in advance, will just stop trying.


On the other hand, if the bar is set too low, and all we have to do is step over it, we might not bother to do it as we won’t get enough satisfaction or recognition from the accomplishment. A goal has to stretch us to be worth doing. Recognize that a business goal has to “feel” worthwhile and set goals that will accomplish the dual purpose.


Follow these three rules when you’re setting business goals and you’ll find that you’re automatically achieving more because you’ll no longer be wasting time setting goals that defeat the purpose of the exercise. 

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