Goals for 2007
I was a salesman and manager for General Electric for eight years. Yearly plans were always a big part of our activity in December and January. Goals and objectives defined the plans. I don’t remember which was the objective and which the goal. In the dictionary they are definitions for each other.
The distinguishing factor in GE’s lexicon was that one had specific dates and was highly measurable such as “I will sell $10 million dollars in computer services in calendar year 1982.” The other was fuzzier such as “I will improve my financial skills by taking classes offered by the company.” Regardless of how you define the terms, both approaches turned out to be very helpful and amazingly accurate.
Initially the plans got very detailed. Every goal and objective had to have associated tasks with resource requirements, strategies, tactics and dates. After a few iterations the plans got smaller and more flexible.
You put the plan in your desk and once a quarter you reviewed it. Basically you marked up the document with various colored pens to make it look like you consulted the thing daily. A few coffee stains and dirt never hurt. Impressed the hell out of Vice-Presidents.
Now comes the Voodoo. If you had anything on the ball you hit the goals and objectives. The way you hit them usually didn’t have a thing to do with what you’d written at the beginning of the year. The big project you identified to make your target was canceled in June, but something larger came up out of left field in September and you made the projection you guest at back in January.
You did it with relationships, yours and your company’s. Your clients trusted that you and your organization could do a job, any job, for them and they brought things to you. And, of course you had to perform, but that was how you did it.
So, goals are good. They help keep your eye on the ball while you do what it takes to reach them.
My business goals for the year are simple and ambitious. First, sell my 79,000 word mystery manuscript. Second, complete the overhaul of the Sarbanes-Oxley audit program in the IT shop where I work. Third, become a more effective blogger for b5.
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