There are many different types of teams in a variety of different industries — sports, businesses, clubs, etc. The one common thread across all teams is that they all have big goals that they are striving to achieve. As a leader it is your duty to help your team establish tactical and measurable goals and put systems in place that will help the team WIN. 

One of the best systems for goal setting comes from The One Thing by Gary Keller. He explains that to achieve big or long-term goals, we must break them down into smaller goals that can be achieved at different stages or over a period of time — he refers to this as “goal setting to the now”. 

The best way to do this is to break your goals into four stages. First, work with your team to outline a long-term goal. Get really clear on what it is you are looking to achieve in the next 10 or 20 years – where do you want to be? Where do you want the business to be? This goal should be tangible, yet stretch your team to get out of their comfort zone. Remember 10 to 20 years is a long ways away, anything can be possible, so think BIG.

Next, break the goal down a little further — try breaking the goal in half. If you previously outlined a 20 year goal, then at this step you would break it down into 10 years. In a perfect world, where do you need to be in 10 years in order to achieve that 20 year goal? What does the team look like? How many new products have been created? Has the company expanded into new markets or territories? What do the company financials or investments look like?

The third step will be to break the goal down even more. This time we want to look at an annual goal; what do you need to achieve in the next 365 days? If we continue with the example above, outline what needs to be accomplished in the next year for the company to be on track to hit the 10 year goal.

The final step requires establishing monthly and weekly goals that will help you reach your yearly goal. What needs to be achieved each month to ensure that the team hit that yearly goal? From there, what does the team, and each individual, need to accomplish each week to achieve the monthly goal?

You can continue to break this down even further if you wish. By looking at goals from this point of view, you and your team will feel less overwhelmed by the magnitude of your goals and more confident in achieving them. Additionally, it is inevitable that life will happen and industries and markets with shift. In this case, you and your team can revisit your long-term goals and rework the four stages accordingly.

Here is an example:

1. Long term goal in 10 years – $5mm in Gross Commission Income

2. Where do I need to be in 5 years to reach this goal?  $2mm in GCI

3. What goals do I need to reach within the next year?

• Replace 50% my personal production (have agents supplement what it is that I produce)
• Hire 3 agents
• Close 80 transactions

4. Monthly

• Design training plan for agent to take a portion of my production
• Meet with 10 “recruits”
• Honor team dialing standard 80% of all days in the month