HARD Goals, Not SMART Goals, Are The Key To Career Development

What's The Purpose?

To ensure you're creating goals that are genuinely right for you, ask yourself, “What is the purpose
behind my goal? Is it a goal I want to pursue or feel like I have to pursue?” If you feel that you have to
pursue the goal, then get rid of it. If it’s a goal you want to pursue, continue to remind yourself why it's
important to you. What value in your life is this goal honoring? - Rosie Guagliardo, InnerBrilliance
Coaching

2. What Does A Successful Outcome Look And Feel Like?

Start with the end in mind and imagine you have already reached your desired outcome fully and
completely. What are the major milestones that helped you get there? By asking these questions, you
can identify the big rocks that will lead to your ultimate outcome rather than get stuck in the quicksand
of minutiae. - Michela Quilici, MQ Consulting and Business Training Inc.

What Would My Life Look Like If I Achieved My Goals?

This one question will lead to additional questions as you try to get clarity about where you really want
to go. Do the goals align with your values? Is the goal something you really want, or are you trying to live
someone else’s dream? The more questions you ask yourself, the closer you will get to an answer. -
Daisy Wright, The Wright Career Solution

4. What's My Greatest Superpower?

The art of the self-question is one of the most incredible superpowers we have. Unfortunately, many of
us don't use this power consciously. Heading in the best direction requires you to understand what's
best for you. "Who am I?" (emphasis on the "I") is one powerful way to illuminate this. Spend a lot of
time exploring this question, and choosing the right goals and directions will be easy. - Derrick Bass,
Clarity Provoked

5. Why Is This My Goal?

Why will this goal change your life, business, dreams and finances? If you ask why about everything
you're doing in your life, you will better gauge what is really going to help you succeed. Once you know
why you're doing something, you'll be able to be less vague. If you're vague in your goals, you'll be vague
in your results. This will make you feel as though you've failed. - Stephynie Malik, ChiqueSpeak

Studies found that the question about SMART goals (i.e. “We use SMART Goals as our goal setting
process.”) had no meaningful correlation with employees achieving great things.

By contrast, HARD Goals are Heartfelt, Animated, Required and Difficult. Unlike achievable and realistic
goals that leave you stuck in the status-quo, HARD Goals light up the brain and encourage great
performance. A truly effective goal should push and challenge you to achieve great things.
Unfortunately, on the online quiz “Do you set SMART Goals or HARD Goals?” we’ve discovered that only
40% of respondents say they pursue goals that others describe as difficult or audacious.

Fortunately, career-focused HARD Goals can be worked right into employee career-mapping
conversations to get your people energized and focused on self-development.
There are four questions that need to be asked, and they hit all four facets of HARD Goals: Heartfelt,
Animated, Required, Difficult. Note as the questions progress that I’ve put Animated in front of
Heartfelt, and Difficult in front of Required, to more easily show the logical flow of the questions.

Question #1: Animated. “Think about where you want your career to be, and describe to me exactly
what you’re doing (what kind of work you’re doing, who you’re working with, what your days look like,
etc.) one year, three years, and five years from now.”

Question #2: Heartfelt. “Describe at least three reasons why you want this goal (note: the reasons can
be intrinsic, personal, and/or extrinsic).”

Question #3: Difficult. “What are the three to five most important skills you’ll need to develop to achieve
this goal? How will you develop those skills?”

Question #4: Required. “What do you need to have accomplished by the end of the next six months to
keep on track toward achieving this goal? What about by the end of the next 90 days? The next 30 days?
What’s one thing you can accomplish today?”

Notice how the Heartfelt, Animated, Required, and Difficult elements breathe new life into a usually dry
career-mapping conversation? The Animated question asks employees to develop a crystal-clear picture
of where they are headed. You won’t get standard stock answers such as “I’d like to get ahead.” People
will really have to think about where they want to go.

The Heartfelt question checks to see if that animated picture is grounded in deep desire. Consider, for
example, an employee whose future picture involves aspirations to be a manager. If you ask, “Why?”
and the employee says, “Because I want more autonomy and the freedom to work more
independently,” you’ve just discovered a critical disconnect. Anyone with management experience
knows that if autonomy and independence are your big drivers, being a manager, where everyone in the
world is coming to you with questions and orders, isn’t going to fulfill those needs. Armed with this
information, you can now have a deeper conversation with the employee to envision a career map that
will actually meet their underlying needs and ensure a future that brings ongoing fulfillment and high
engagement.

The Difficult question ensures the employee will grow and develop, introducing a level of challenge that
drives motivation. It also critically analyzes the gap between the employee’s current skills and any new
skills needed to achieve this career goal. The Difficult question also eliminates any notions of
entitlement that employees may have in which the only requirement to getting ahead is staying
employed. It strongly reinforces the idea that we all have to keep growing and developing if we want to
succeed.

The Required question makes clear how even long-term goals have urgent steps we must work on
today. This prevents the phenomenon where employees procrastinate pursuing their goals and

wait until the last minute to take action.

HARD Goals make people stronger, more courageous, and more confident to go after bigger and better
things. And our research shows that employees who have HARD Goals are significantly more engaged
than employees who have other kinds of goals. Among our study findings are these:
• People who answered Always (or Almost Always) to the question “I can vividly picture how great it will
feel when I achieve my goals” had 49% higher employee engagement than people who answered Never
(or Almost Never).

• People who answered Always (or Almost Always) to the question “I have access to any formal training
that I will need to accomplish my goals” had 57% higher employee engagement than people who
answered Never (or Almost Never).

• People who answered Always (or Almost Always) to the question “My goals for this year will push me
out of my comfort zone” had 29% higher employee engagement than people who answered Never (or
Almost Never).

• People who answered Always (or Almost Always) to the statement “My goals are aligned with the
organization’s top priorities for this year” had 75% higher employee engagement than people who
answered Never (or Almost Never).

References:

[Link]
career-development/

[Link]
identify-the-right-goal/