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My goal — run a sub-four minute mile!

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I was on the treadmill this morning thinking about goals (personal, organizational, political, etc) and I decided that I should set a goal of running a sub-four mile by the end of the summer. But wait a minute! I’m going to be 63 in a couple of weeks and I weigh “about” 200 pounds. Good goal? Nope – dumb goal.

Organizational leaders often declare “stretch goals” for their team / business / whatever. However, I suspect that they don’t always situate the goals in reality. Tough, achievable goals are usually good. Dumb goals usually hurt the organization.

Question for you: what goals have you set for yourself, or your team, or your business? Are they good goals (tough but achievable) or are you setting everyone up for failure?

Date: March 12th, 2009 @ 07:05

Author: Bill Welter

Categories: Prepared Mind

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Brad ShorrNo Gravatar

in March 12th, 2009 @ 12:08

Good question, Bill. As I grow older I find myself favoring smaller, incremental goals rather than pursuing the sub four-minute mile, grand vision type of goal. Sometimes I feel as though I’m not stretching myself enough, though. How do you distinguish between tough/achievable and tough/unachievable?

Bill WelterNo Gravatar

in March 12th, 2009 @ 15:32

Brad, it seems to me that this is one of those grey areas that may need readjusting after an ininitial try. It also seems to me that this is a time to have a “trusted advisor” who knows you and sees you as you really are. Finally, this the time to engage in honest project planning. Consider the goal and work backwards. What would have to take place for the goal to be achieved and what assumptions have to remain valid. In the corporate world we often see a boss “assuming” that underlings can spend full time working on a tough project — the only problem is that they “have a day job” to also accomplish. In summary,
1) work and readjust at reasonable milestones
2) solicit trusted opinions and actually listen to them
3) spend the time to actually plan beforeyou accept the goal.

Brad ShorrNo Gravatar

in March 13th, 2009 @ 06:46

Thanks, Bill. I could definitely use help with the planning and evaluation. Could be another trip to Panera is in our future.

Brad Shorr’s last blog post..Why I Love Working with Consultants

AndrewNo Gravatar

in March 13th, 2009 @ 08:13

Bill,

About six years ago, I became president of a struggling Toastmasters club (public speaking club), which was located in a semi-rural area and, with only six members, was close to extinction and did not really represent much of a ‘public’ speaking club at all.

Very early on, the club committee (basically, every other member of the club) and had a serious talk about goal setting and about the direction of the club. All committee members were in agreement that talk of having a membership size of twenty to thirty (the number generally considered to be ideal for a Toastmasters club), was not on our immediate radar, and that in order to rebuild the club to a viable membership position, we needed membership related goals which all of us could believe that we could achieve.

Toward that end, we set a goal of having a membership of twleve by the end of the Toastmasters year, which at that time was seven months away.

This goal was powerful. With a membership of twelve, the club (whilst still small) would at least be on the track toward becoming viable again. Better yet, all we needed was a net gain of one new member every month – a challenging goal, but one which we all believed that we could achieve with a little consistent effort.

In the end, the club did achieve its goal, and over the years we were able to revive it into being a small but fully viable public speaking club.

Best of luck with your four minute mile. Being young, I am not in a position to understand the fitness related challenges of people approaching their senior years. Then again, in Korea, I do see guys (and women) in their sixties hiking to the top of one of the local mountains near my home (about 1,033m above sea level), so I guess that anything is possible!

Andrew’s last blog post..Should nightclubs pay for cops?

Bill WelterNo Gravatar

in March 13th, 2009 @ 08:44

Brad,
You know that coffee and conversation is one of my favorite things. It’s always enjoyable and mentally profitable.

Bill WelterNo Gravatar

in March 13th, 2009 @ 08:48

Andrew,
Thanks for the story of using incremental goal setting. Too many executives have fallen in love with BHAG (big, hairy, aducious goals) idea; they need to get real lik eyour Toastmasters group did.