60-Minute CEO: Mastering Leadership an Hour at a Time

Chapter 21

Bad Goals

Lots of people miss their goals. I’ve been one of them. Often. But we keep playing the game, bowing to the ritual. The “setters” of the goals attempt to place our targets just beyond what they think we’d accomplish on our own. The “accepters” of these goals walk away with a resigned shrug.

Goals are supposed to motivate us. In many instances, however, they achieve just the opposite. Even when the exercise allows us to set our own yardstick and then negotiate the outcomes, some of us don’t feel compelled by these artificially constructed targets. There’s something contrived about the whole process. Despite all the books that ...