Setting business goals is often a January activity. All excited after a few weeks of downtime, business owners dream of a positive, profitable year. Goals are set with good intentions and aspirations of success. Many owners are disenchanted by Christmas, clocking up another year of missed opportunities.
Failure to meet goals often results in a blame game of excuses and denial. It is a destructive exercise that rarely achieves future commitment and is more likely to further fracture trust.
One apparent reason goal setting fails is an owner’s inability to set and manage shared goals.
A shared goal is a specific objective collectively agreed upon and pursued by everyone in the business. It represents a common purpose or target that all members are committed to achieving. While this textbook definition sounds excellent, most owners struggle to create shared goals with an aligned purpose.
Take, for instance, the unity of a sports team, like the Kansas City Chiefs, who won this week’s Super Bowl, where the goal of winning the championship is the unequivocal shared objective. Every training session, every game, and every strategy discussion revolves around this pursuit.
Contrast this with many businesses, where individuals and departments often operate in silos, pursuing their targets with scant regard for their impact on the company’s overarching aim. The result? A scattergun approach where energy fizzles out and resources are squandered.
So, right now, I want to put you on the spot and ask, what’s the one shared goal that everyone is involved in and working towards the outcome? I’m not talking about the partners and senior management but the one goal everyone in the business rallies around.
The litmus test for a shared goal is evident in everyday operations: it’s present in every team meeting, shapes every decision, and directs all activity towards triumph. What are we all working towards if such a goal isn’t woven into your business?
A shared goal isn’t merely a milestone; it’s the pulse that keeps business alive and thriving. Without it, individual efforts, no matter how earnest, may never turn into the success that was once dreamed of in the hopeful dawn of January.
