Evaluación del estado funcional

What are the key essentials of setting effective goals? I have deliberately used the term ‘effective goals’ to emphasise that not all goals are effective and can actually be dysfunctional. There is a fine dividing line between setting goals that are just about achievable, but with a level of uncer- tainty that sustains your motivation, focus and effort, and those goals that are unattainable and actually add to the already intense pressure performers may find themselves under. Such goals are ultimately demo- tivating and counterproductive.

INSPIRED Goals

I refer to effective goals as ‘inspired’ goals since they satisfy a number of important criteria that can be identified under the acronym INSPIRED. The key elements of INSPIRED goals are that they should be:

G

I

nternalised G

N

urturing G

S

pecific G

P

lanned G

I

n your control G

R

eviewed regularly G

E

nergising G

D

ocumented

Some pointers for developing INSPIRED goals are as follows:

Internalised

No matter who has set your goals for you, it is important that you own and commit to them if they are to be effective. If your goals have been set by others, then you should internalise and integrate them so that they become meaningful and worthwhile, thus resulting in a greater sense of self-determination over your behaviour. When goals are accepted and internalised, performance generally increases as goals become more diffi- cult. Conversely, when goals are rejected performance drops off as they become more difficult.

Nurturing

Effective goals are those where the process is not merely about delivering against targets; they also provide an opportunity for learning and further development. This means that goals should include a developmental ele- ment so that significant learning occurs in addition to targets being achieved. This helps you satisfy current goals as well as ensuring contin- ual progress towards even higher levels of performance.

Specific

Effective goals are clear and unambiguous so that it is obvious when they have been achieved. This does not necessarily mean that they have to be quantifiable. Effective goals can be set around things like confidence or focus, areas that are very difficult to attach numbers to. But such goals can be specific in the sense that certain thoughts and actions can be aimed for.

Planned

There are two aspects of breaking down and planning goals that are important; time frame, and ensuring that different types of goals are aligned with more overriding goals that drive your motivation. I will deal with aligning different goal types in the following section because this lies at the very core of motivation and delivering sustained high per- formance. In the context of time frame, short-term goals plus long-term goals leads to higher performance than long-term goals alone. The importance of building short-term or sub-goals into the ‘goal achieve- ment plan’ is that they provide immediate incentives and feedback and the attainment of sub-goals provides evidence of competence, thus resulting in enhanced confidence.

In your control

For goals to be highly motivating on a sustainable basis, the achievement of them should be attainable through your own efforts. This does not mean that you should not have goals that focus on coming out ahead of your comepetitors, whose performance you cannot control; indeed, these are the very things that underpin many goal setting strategies. Being in control refers, instead, to the fact that effective goals should not be at the mercy of extraneous factors such as market forces or the weather that really are uncontrollable.

Reviewed regularly

Effective goals form part of the longer-term continued development and growth of high achievers. Because of the sometimes prolonged nature of this process, regular reviews of progress towards longer-term goals should be included in the planning process. Also, key sources and methods of obtain- ing feedback should be identified and built into the goal setting plan.

Energising

Goals should excite and energise you, and they should produce a great sense of achievement when they are attained. For goals to satisfy these cri- teria, they must be challenging in that they are just about achievable, but with a level of uncertainty that sustains your motivation, focus and effort.

Documented

Having got all the other elements of effective goal setting right, it would be a shame if it all fell down because this final element was ignored. Documenting the goals in some form and recording progress towards them provides a continual reminder of commitments that can be impor- tant when things are tough. It helps you to step outside any pressure and remind yourself why you are doing it and why it is all worthwhile. Ideally, your goals should be constantly visible, perhaps carried around in your organiser or wallet. Some sport performers I have worked with have put them on their bedroom wall, ensuring that they wake each morning with a meaningful focus for the day.

Ensuring different goal types are aligned: outcome, performance and process goals

A key factor in planning goals is to ensure that different types of goal are aligned towards the same ends. There are three different types of goals that form the basis of motivation: outcome, performance and process goals. G Outcome goalsfocus on the outcomes of particular events and usually

involve interpersonal comparison of some kind; for example, winning a 400 metre hurdles race.

G Performance goalsspecify an end product of performance that will be achieved by the performer independently of other performers; for example, running the 400 metre hurdle race in a certain time.

G Process goalsfocus on processes that are important during the per- formance; for example, maintaining a good lead leg technique over

Adrian explains below how breaking his performance down in this way was a crucial part of his success.

Over to Adrian . . .

Breaking my performance down into these three components enabled me to win my Gold Medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. My performance would first of all clearly be measured against whether I achieved my desired outcome – the Gold Medal. This provided me with a specific time frame and a dream that formed the core of my passion, inspiration and the desire that drove me, particularly when things were not going my way. This outcome goal involved an interpersonal, competitive element in that I had to beat seven opponents in the Olympic final to win the Gold Medal.

I was not completely in control of this goal, of course, since I could have swum brilliantly but still have been beaten by other

swimmers who had swum even more brilliantly. Therefore, I set a performance goal that I could totally control. I reckoned that a time of 62 seconds or better would be good enough to win the Gold Medal. All of my training and practice was geared towards swimming this time. My performance goals during the four years prior to the Olympics were mapped out in terms of the various times, or milestones, that were required at various points along the journey. These goals provided me with a sense of achievement, self-belief and sustained motivation as I monitored my progress towards the ultimate performance goal of 62 seconds.

In order to achieve this performance I focused on specific

underlying process goals, such as improving my turning technique at the end of each length and my reaction to the starting gun. Process goals like these formed the very foundation of achieving my performance goal of 62 seconds. The numerous processes practised over and over again on a daily basis in training drove my continual dedication, commitment, focus and sheer effort at times when you were probably tucked up in your warm, comfortable beds. The process goals were subject to continual monitoring and review, with detailed contingency plans that could be implemented when progress strayed off course.

One process I particularly focused on was ‘holding my technique’ during the last ten metres of a race. The 100 metre breaststroke is essentially a sprint event in which swimmers become fatigued and lose their technique as the race nears its end. I focused on keeping my stroke technique smooth during those last few metres. As events transpired, coming into the last few metres of the race in fourth place, I finished with technique intact and passed my three opponents to win by a fingernail.

What Adrian had done was to plan his success by aligning outcome, per- formance and process goals in the fashion shown in Figure 6.2. Goals planned in this meticulous and aligned fashion provide performers with a crucial tool for maintaining psychological control when the pressure of competing is at its most ferocious. They also serve as a much needed ref- erence that helps performers cope with the daily grind and monotony of training. There are numerous other similar stories of how sport perform- ers have achieved great things by breaking performance down into outcome, performance and process goals, and the principles apply equally well in the business environment.

A sales executive I worked with defined a successful outcome goal as win- ning the prestigious Salesperson of the Year award. She was obviously in competition with her 120 colleagues and thus not in control of this out- come, no matter how good her sales figures were for the year. What she

was in control over was her level of personal performance and, following

careful consideration, she concentrated her efforts on achieving figures that bettered her previous year’s numbers by 15 per cent. She identified some key processes underpinning this improvement, the most important of which was to modify her philosophy on the selling process. She wanted to become someone who a customer ‘bought from’ rather than was ‘sold to’. This determined her approach to the customer experience and she achieved a 17 per cent improvement on the previous year’s figures. She came second to a colleague who had had an even more impressive year, but she felt good about what she had achieved and how she had done it, and entered the following year both confident and motivated.

Knowing how to plan different types of goals that are aligned to out- comes is therefore key to achieving high performance that is sustainable. Figure 6.3 provides a detailed example of how linking process, perform- ance and outcome goals enabled a manager to plan his career

Figure 6.2 Aligning outcome, performance and process goals.

OUTCOME

PERFORMANCE

PROCESS PROCESS PROCESS

development. The outcome goal he identified was to achieve a senior leadership role within three years. He then identified performance goals in eight areas (being visionary, an influencer, decisive, a team builder, credible, having presence, being confident and achieving a good work- life balance) that would ensure his progress towards the outcome goal, and also that he could totally control. The next stage was to identify process goals that underpinned the delivery of each performance goal. These process goals provided his day-to-day focus, and we built in a measurement and regular review process that enabled him to monitor his progress towards his performance goals.

The important things to remember are that performance should be planned in a top-down fashion, identifying the desired outcome, associ- ated performances and the key underlying processes that will enable them to be achieved. When it comes to carrying out the plan on a day-to- day basis, then a bottom-up approach is required, focusing on processes first. It is the continual focus on getting the processes right that will even- tually deliver the performances and outcomes.

Figure 6.3 Aligning outcome, performance and process goals: an example.

CREDIBILITY • Knowledge • Skills PRESENCE • Channelled energy • In control CONFIDENCE • Mindset WORK-LIFE BALANCE • Discipline • Time management TEAM BUILDER • Leadership/ mentoring/ facilitating • Goal setting • People orientated DECISIVE • Analytical • In control • Focus INFLUENCE • Negotiation skills • Participate in discussions VISIONARY • Provide context • Provide personal meaning – empathy • Courage

Now that you know about INSPIRED goals and the importance of achieving outcome goals via aligned performance and process goals, apply these frameworks in Time-Out 6.3 below to help you plan the achievement of your own career aspirations.

In document UNIVERSIDAD DE COSTA RICA SISTEMA DE ESTUDIOS DE POSGRADO PROGRAMA DE POSGRADO EN ESPECIALIDADES MÉDICAS (página 67-71)