I have always been a keen, if not terribly gifted, long distance runner. Of course one of the ultimate challenges for any runner is to complete a marathon. But, ask some runners and you soon learn that just completing a marathon isn’t enough.
12 years ago, I was told that the difference between a runner and a jogger was that a runner had broken the magical three hour mark for the marathon.
So 12 years ago I began my quest to become a real runner. There I was, in my prime of life in my late 20s, it shouldn’t be too difficult ...
I was running four or five days a week, playing and coaching in a soccer team, working on the personal staff of the Admiral in charge of our Navy, and participating in a pretty active social life. My previous best marathon time had been 3 hours 18 minutes or so run just a couple of years before. I now had my three hour goal. So I just had to go out and achieve it.
Does this sound familiar? Well, maybe not the marathoning bit, but what what about having a goal set and then achieving it?
I got close, don’t get me wrong - within four minutes of my goal in Sydney in 1996. That’s nearly good enough isn’t it? But the bloke that told me about the runner/jogger diarchy, simply raised one eyebrow, told me I’d done okay, but that I was still a jogger.
So what has my jogging (yep, still haven’t broken the three hour mark) got to do with leading, managing or teamwork?
My view is that goal-setting and management by objective are immensely powerful ways to lead teams, organisations and businesses - but, like lots of other things, it needs to be done properly.
There’s been plenty written and said about goal-setting, and of course the SMART acronym is a useful way to approach the setting of any goals. They must be (or have):
* Specific
* Measurable
* Attractive
* Realistic
* Timeframe
My three hour marathon goal met all those requirements, but I still fell agonisingly short. So what went wrong?
It took me a few years to realise it, and it wasn’t until I was the Commanding Officer of a large military unit and preparing some background information for my team for a discussion we were having during an annual planning session. In this context, many of our goals had been set by the General we all worked for back in Melbourne, but we obviously also had some other goals that we were setting ourselves. Some of the goals were very ambitious, and some were really quite long-term. How could I clearly articulate what we needed to do today to help achieve a goal that perhaps wouldn’t be realised for five or ten years?
Of course, part of the solution was to break each of the bigger, more ambitious or long term goals down into sub-goals or objectives that could be comprehended (and achieved) much more easily and in a more timely fashion.
Interestingly enough, just two weeks ago I bumped into one of my team from those days, and one of the first things he mentioned was how I had used a story about Tatiana Grigorieva (a very talented and glamorous Australian pole vaulter {http://www.tatiana.com.au/}) to explain how our Unit might structure our goals.
Back then I had suggested that it wasn't enough that Tatiana knew what the world pole vault record was. Breaking the world record might be her ultimate goal, but what were all the interim steps she needed to take? What were all the targets along the way she needed to hit? Perhaps some of them had to do with her weight training, her diet, what lead up competitions she would enter, etc.
12 years ago, I was told that the difference between a runner and a jogger was that a runner had broken the magical three hour mark for the marathon.
So 12 years ago I began my quest to become a real runner. There I was, in my prime of life in my late 20s, it shouldn’t be too difficult ...
I was running four or five days a week, playing and coaching in a soccer team, working on the personal staff of the Admiral in charge of our Navy, and participating in a pretty active social life. My previous best marathon time had been 3 hours 18 minutes or so run just a couple of years before. I now had my three hour goal. So I just had to go out and achieve it.
Does this sound familiar? Well, maybe not the marathoning bit, but what what about having a goal set and then achieving it?
I got close, don’t get me wrong - within four minutes of my goal in Sydney in 1996. That’s nearly good enough isn’t it? But the bloke that told me about the runner/jogger diarchy, simply raised one eyebrow, told me I’d done okay, but that I was still a jogger.
So what has my jogging (yep, still haven’t broken the three hour mark) got to do with leading, managing or teamwork?
My view is that goal-setting and management by objective are immensely powerful ways to lead teams, organisations and businesses - but, like lots of other things, it needs to be done properly.
There’s been plenty written and said about goal-setting, and of course the SMART acronym is a useful way to approach the setting of any goals. They must be (or have):
* Specific
* Measurable
* Attractive
* Realistic
* Timeframe
My three hour marathon goal met all those requirements, but I still fell agonisingly short. So what went wrong?
It took me a few years to realise it, and it wasn’t until I was the Commanding Officer of a large military unit and preparing some background information for my team for a discussion we were having during an annual planning session. In this context, many of our goals had been set by the General we all worked for back in Melbourne, but we obviously also had some other goals that we were setting ourselves. Some of the goals were very ambitious, and some were really quite long-term. How could I clearly articulate what we needed to do today to help achieve a goal that perhaps wouldn’t be realised for five or ten years?
Of course, part of the solution was to break each of the bigger, more ambitious or long term goals down into sub-goals or objectives that could be comprehended (and achieved) much more easily and in a more timely fashion.
Interestingly enough, just two weeks ago I bumped into one of my team from those days, and one of the first things he mentioned was how I had used a story about Tatiana Grigorieva (a very talented and glamorous Australian pole vaulter {http://www.tatiana.com.au/}) to explain how our Unit might structure our goals.
Back then I had suggested that it wasn't enough that Tatiana knew what the world pole vault record was. Breaking the world record might be her ultimate goal, but what were all the interim steps she needed to take? What were all the targets along the way she needed to hit? Perhaps some of them had to do with her weight training, her diet, what lead up competitions she would enter, etc.
This then became a very productive discussion on what our immediate goals (monthly) would be, what the 1, 2 and 5 year targets were, and most productively of all, it led us into developing a series of actions that we needed to take or develop in order to meet the ultimate goal.
So goal setting by itself is not enough. We need to develop a series of interim goals - signposts that mark the pathway we need to follow to reach our destination.
So goal setting by itself is not enough. We need to develop a series of interim goals - signposts that mark the pathway we need to follow to reach our destination.
Oh, and I'm still chasing that elusive three hour marathon time. But my training plan for this year has a bunch of lead-up races, and training sessions that I am following. As of 20 May 2007 I'm on track after running 1 hour 26 minutes for the half marathon on the Great Ocean Road. Bring on the Gold Coast Marathon on 1 July 2007!
No comments:
Post a Comment