How To Set Goals For Experienced Leaders

Navigating challenges with goals and accountability.

Oct 26, 2023

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Goal setting may seem like a straightforward task for an experienced leader.

However, a recurring theme in my coaching sessions is the opportunity to harness leadership goal setting in a more deliberate and effective way.

One founder/CEO client, of a small remote-first tech business, recently confided in me that in the past, he felt that setting clear goals for his executive team was unnecessary. They were technically and functionally experienced, they knew their domain better than he did, and they were clear on the direction they had agreed upon as a Board.

Yet, as his leadership team began to grow he started to notice slight deviations from the agreed plan. And he started to realise that that perhaps he and his direct reports hadn't been as aligned as they needed to be regarding what really needed to be delivered and the leadership required.

The situation is not uncommon. At a senior level, there's often an unspoken assumption that senior leaders shouldn’t need direction or management.

Whilst partially true, but just as micromanaging can be detrimental to performance, under-management can be a significant problem. This issue becomes even more pronounced at a leadership level.

You want to trust those you lead, knowing they are capable of doing the job, and you shouldn't need to be overly involved. You don't want to patronise them, insult them or risk undermining their personal credibility.

But you do need to lead them and hold them to account.

And that means setting clear expectations and clear goals.

“In life, as in football, you won’t go far unless you know where the goal posts are”

Arnold H. Glasgow

Goals setting at a leadership level naturally isn’t going to be the same as for other team members.

Goals likely won’t need to be highly detailed or tactical.

But they do need to be clear and specific.

Research by Edwin Locke, one of the leading theorists in goal setting, tells us that specific goals inspire higher performance levels than broad aims or a "give it your best" approach.

And goals should be sufficiently concrete whilst clearly aligning with your long term vision and future state.

The challenging part is that unclear goals often go unnoticed until it's too late.

The ‘set and forget’ approach is a big contributor here.

And in the real world, when there’s a lot to be done and that changes every week, when overarching goals aren’t kept front and centre, they can naturally be overlooked.

But setting expectations upfront and establishing clear goals for your leaders is one of the most effective tools available to you to drive performance. And it doesn't need to feel condescending or overwhelming.

Below are six exercises to help explore how you can hone your goal setting technique and ensure everyone is heading in the right direction.

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Reflect: How you focus on goals and hold yourself accountable will set the tone for the rest of your business and your leaders. Perhaps your natural leadership style leads you to favour quick, efficient results or maybe you focus on infusing energy and optimism to motivate the team. Ask yourself:

How does your natural style influence your approach to setting goals?
What techniques do you default to in order to hold yourself to account?
When goals aren’t being achieved what is your prevailing feeling? What happens as a result?

Delegate: To drive ownership, delegate the task of goal creation. Ask those you lead to prepare what they believe their goals should be, how you’ll know they’ve been delivered and how they’ll be tracked - and importantly how achieving them will compound over time to achieve your long term vision.

This doesn’t just save you work; there’s a real difference in how we perform when we’re told to do something versus when we’ve thought of the idea ourselves and want to do it.

Discuss and consider their proposals, give feedback and agree a final set.

If you don’t have an established framework, share these six questions to guide their preparation:

What are your functions 3-5 priority goals?
How do they align with the company’s strategic plan?
What needs to pause/stop/change to ensure deliver of the above?
What key results or metrics are most important?
How will you track progress and measure success?
What’s the best way for us together to check in on progress?

Get Personal. Business goals often focus on just that; what needs to be delivered in the business. But changes in business require changes in leadership. Spend time exploring what these new demands will require from each individual leader.

Reflect together on these questions and use them as the foundation of a leadership goal.

Who will you need to be as a leader to inspire, enable and drive delivery of these goals?
What shifts and stretch will be required? What will be the real challenge for you?
Would be 1 or 2 leadership goals to capture that?
How will you hold yourself accountable?
How can I help?

Lead: If you want to role model effective use and achievement of goals, your executive team is the place to start.

What collective goals do you currently have for your executive team performance?
What are the biggest shifts that you will need to make as a collective in the next six months?
What one or two specific goals would capture this well and could be communicated out to your business?

Discuss: To draw out insight in how your individual leadership shapes your company’s approach to goal setting, use these questions as discussion topics to delve beneath the surface:

What differences exist in how you each approach goals with your function?
How does your individual approach shape how you collectively lead?
What common strengths and blind spots are opportunities to build on?

Refresh: If specific goals inspire a higher level of performance there are models that can help. The irony is that whilst all leaders are familiar with the most common of those models - SMART goals - goals rarely meet the brief. When they do, often end up unintentionally overcomplicated. But it needn’t be that way.

This is a super short 2.53 minute video by the Khan Academy simplifies the art of writing a smart goal, whether it be a KPI, OKR or BHAG. Even for kids.