By Doug Bennett aka The Goals Guy® with special guest Teresa Rand

As a leader, how much time do you spend thinking about your employees’ goals?

It’s difficult to pay attention to someone else’s aspirations when you’re already juggling yours. However, unless you have a motivated, goal-driven team behind you, you’ll likely find yourself drifting further and further away from your Business goals.

I recently chatted to public speaker and coach, Teresa Rand, on the Goals Do Come True podcast (click here to listen). Teresa is the former CEO of the YMCA and founder of Teresa Rand Consulting. Having spent so many years at the top of the corporate ladder, Teresa is an expert at aligning personal goals with organisational ones to build successful teams.

In this blog, I’ll be sharing some of her insights on goal setting within the corporate world and how to ensure that you have an engaged, motivated team.

Mapping out your own career goals

Regardless of the rung you occupy on the organisational ladder, it’s easy to get caught up in the company’s mission and overarching goal. For instance, if the business’ goal is to generate a certain amount of revenue, your mission might be to generate X amount of leads to bring the business one step closer to the ultimate goal.

However, Teresa stressed the importance of ensuring that you have your own career goals, rather than simply working on someone else’s.

Here’s why:

Teresa: “ I would say you need to have your own goals as it relates to your career. Early on, when I worked for the YMCA, I knew that I wanted to move up the ranks and become a CEO or an executive director of the YMCA. There were also things I had to do in my own life that had absolutely nothing to do with my day job. For starters, I didn’t have a college degree and I was 35 years old. So I had to put myself back through college with small kids. Generally, I always had simultaneous goals – goals in my career and then goals that would help me in my career.”

Embrace your team members’ personal goals

I was intrigued by Teresa’s determination to put herself through college at an age when most people would have probably let that dream go up in flames. However, what struck me the most was the fact that many people are unable to do the same because their bosses simply don’t care – a common occurrence within the corporate circle.

As a business owner, you’ve probably laid out external targets and goals for the business. But not everyone within the organisation will buy into those targets in their entirety. At the end of the day, each team member has their own individual goals – some of which may be tied to the business itself.

It’s how you support and propel them to achieve these goals that makes a huge difference.

It’s a two-way street

Inasmuch as business owners need to support their team members’ ambition, it’s also important for employees to share those ambitions with their supervisors/bosses. You’ll be relieved to find out that your boss can provide an astonishing level of support!

Teresa: “In my experience, I think most of your supervisors are interested in what you’re working on. But you also have to share it. So often, we think they don’t care so we don’t share. But your evaluation time is a perfect time to say ‘I’d like to just take a minute and tell you what else I’m working on as it relates to my career or my family.’ And you’ll find that for the most part, they’re very open to the conversation. It’s a two-way street: we both have to ask and speak up.”

Give yourself grace

When it comes to goal setting (within the corporate world and in every other context), Teresa pointed out that it’s important to be open to changing your goals when necessary. And I completely agree!

Teresa: “I think we have to give ourselves grace to adapt or change our goals based on what’s happening in our lives. I had a goal to write a book this year. And it’s still on my vision board but for a variety of reasons, it’s not going to be finished this year. So instead of completely giving up on it, I’ve just moved it further down the list. It’s still there but something else took a higher priority based on where I currently am in life. And what actually took priority was a different, less intensive book with a partner. When I set my goals in January, I had no idea I would be writing a book with someone else. But now, that has all changed.”

There may be times when our life circumstances and priorities change, either for the better or worse. Maybe it’s losing a loved one. Or maybe your fiscal situation suddenly took a turn for the worse. In moments like this, it’s important to hold on to your goals and simply move them around, rather than chucking the baby out with the bath water.

Once you’re able to give yourself the grace to switch up your goals, you’ll make far greater progress in life and in your career.

I hope this blog has given you much to think about when it comes to aligning personal and corporate goals and ensuring that everyone (including yourself) stays motivated.

If you’d love my professional support and advice around goal setting, why not drop me a line at [email protected] or book a free discovery call? And if you’re interested in transforming your mindset and gaining further clarity about your goals, join The Wealth Tribe today.

The post How To Align Personal And Corporate Goals For A Motivated Team first appeared on Doug Bennett.