Yesterday, we gave you 7 tips for setting better goals in 2007. Today in part 2, the Leader’s Studio team gives you 8 more.

Robert Ginnett’s tips:

• Leaders, don’t set a goal by yourself as if you are going to wait and see if your team notices the change. Improving your behavior (performance) should not be a surprise you spring on those around you. Rather, make it a collaborative effort. Let the team know what your goal is in terms of behavioral change.
• Get your team to remind you. Give team members approval and set the expectation that if and when you are not behaving according to the goal, they may remind you. Let them know that you will not shoot the messenger. If the goal is important enough to work toward, it is important enough to be monitored and corrected. Not only will you appreciate their reminders but you will expect their reminders. Let them practice positively rewarding your behavioral changes. Not only will that be good for you, but it will be good practice for them with their subordinates.

Jodi Taylor’s tips:

• Make the goal achievable. While ‘solving world hunger’ is a very noble pursuit, the simple truth is that it isn’t realistically achievable in a year. While it should be a bit of a stretch, make sure you set goals that you can achieve. If solving world hunger is your concern, you might set a goal to ‘volunteer monthly at the local food bank’ or to ‘raise $1000 for your neighborhood soup kitchen’.
• Be clear about what you are trying to do. To be successful at achieving you goals, you need to be very clear about what you are trying to do. Understand what success will really look like. What specific steps do you need to take to achieve your goal and what resources or support might you need? Once you are clear about what steps you need to take, put the actions necessary to achieve you goals in your calendar on a weekly basis. You will build in the steps to success into your calendar and your daily life.
• Changing behavior is hard and requires commitment. You are busy, going full blast and already have a very full plate. Reaching a goals takes both physical energy and mind share. It is likely your job and your life absorbs all you have already. When you set a goal, rate your commitment and the importance of the goal on a 10 point scale. How much do you really want to achieve this goal? If you can’t rate your commitment a 9 or 10 on a 10 point scale, drop this goal. You won’t have the motivation to reach it. I had a colleague once who set a goal of stopping smoking. When I asked him why, he said because his wife insisted that he stop smoking. Not surprisingly, he did not succeed. The goal was not important enough to him.
• Once your goals are clear, create a plan for measuring your progress. Try to set goals that are achievable in about 6 months and then set up smaller milestones along the way. Six months is a long enough time to do something significant and a short enough time that you can really measure progress. Remember, reaching your goals is not always a smooth transition. You will slip back into old behaviors. You will not achieve your goals every time. So it is important for you to have a plan to measure how you are doing. Most importantly, seek feedback from these you trust about how you are dong. Enlist them in your journey.

Shirley Grill’s tips:

• Work towards aligning personal and business goals. For instance, if this is a year of big goals at work (BHAG’s) then it might not be the year for a complete transformation of one’s private life. In the quest for balance between our work and personal lives, how we set our goals and determine our priorities in all parts of our life is one technique for enhancing our personal effectiveness. Easing up on some goals so as to focus on others becomes the important decision point.
• Use the ‘What if’ test. Certain goals are predetermined—by personal or work factors that are not negotiable; for those goals that are discretionary, the What If test can be applied: What if I did this—what impact would it have on the rest of my work/life goals; What if I didn’t do this—what impact would it have on the rest of my work/life goals. Goals with outcomes that support one’s overall sense of purpose, direction and priorities stay—the others should go on the deferred list for another time!

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