Setting 2026 Goals That Don't Suck (Year-End Leadership Series)

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
People first leadership.
Actionable strategies, realresults.
This is Things Leaders Do withColby Morris.

SPEAKER_01 (00:11):
Okay, so it's mid-December.
You're setting goals for 2026with your team, right?
And you already know what'sgoing to happen.
You'll spend hours writing them.
Your employee will nod, say,sounds good.
And by February, neither of youwill remember what they were.
Why?

(00:31):
Because most goal setting isone-directional.
Corporate priorities pushed downto employees who don't see how
it connects to what theyactually care about.
So they treat goals like thatterms and condition box, like
nobody really reads it, nobodyremembers it.
It's just something you have toget through.

Here's the problem (00:53):
93% of workers say the lack of clarity
on the company's overall goalsprevents them from aligning
their personal goals to achievethe best outcomes.
93%.
That is not a small gap.
That's nearly everyone feelingdisconnected from what they're

(01:16):
supposed to be working toward.
But here's the good news.
As John Doer said, a goalproperly set is halfway reached.
If we can get this right on thefront end, we're already halfway
to success.
Today, we're fixing that.
Hey leaders, this is ColbyMorris, and this is the Things

(01:38):
Leaders Do podcast.
This is week two of our year-inleadership survival guide, which
is four episodes hoping to helpyou finish 2025 strong and set
up 2026 for success.
As usual, each episode is 15 to23 minutes of practical,
actionable tools that you canuse immediately.

(02:01):
No theory, no fluff, just realguidance.
Last week we tackled performancereviews and how to give feedback
that actually sticks.
This week we're talking aboutgoal setting.
And we're doing it with two-waygoal setting, half corporate
goals that ladder up to what thebusiness needs, and half

(02:22):
personal goals that help yourpeople grow into who they want
to become.
When you get this right, goalsaren't something done to your
team, they're something createdwith your team.
So let's dive in.
Okay, so if 93% of employeesfeel disconnected from company

(02:44):
goals, and we know that goalsproperly set are halfway
reached, how do we actually setthem right?
Before we talk about what goalsto set, we need to talk about
how to set them.
And that means SMART goals.
I know, I know, you've heardthis a thousand times.
SMART goals are one of thosethings that sound like corporate

(03:06):
jargon that consultants made upto sell more workshops.

But here's the thing (03:11):
smart goals actually work.
And they work for one veryspecific reason.
They remove ambiguity, they makeit clear.
Think about it.
How many performance reviewconflicts come down to this?
You thought they were supposedto do X, they thought they were

(03:31):
supposed to do Y.
You both are frustrated becauseyou had completely different
interpretations of what successlooked like.
Smart goals fix that.
Because when a goal is doneright, both you and your
employee can look at it onDecember 31st, 2026, and agree
on whether that was achieved ornot.

(03:52):
No subjectivity.
No, well, I thought you meantno, just objective clarity.
Christina Watke nailed it whenshe said, vague goals are the
enemy of progress.
And that's exactly what we'refighting against here.
So let's break down smart.

(04:14):
S is specific.
Okay, that doesn't say be morestrategic.
Okay.
What does that even mean?
Think more, talk in meetingsmore, wear glasses and look
thoughtful.
Okay.
Instead, say something like leadthe Q2 planning process for the

(04:35):
product launch.
Include competitive analysis,timeline development, and
stakeholder alignment.
Now we're getting somewhere.
That is specific.
The ILM is measurable.
You need to be able to trackprogress.
So not improve clientsatisfaction.
That's pretty vague.

(04:57):
Instead, increase our NPS scorefrom 42 to 50 by Q4.
Now you can look at the data andknow exactly where you stand.
The A stands for achievable.
Now, this is where a lot ofmanagers screw up.
Okay, they set goals that aretechnically possible, but

(05:18):
realistically absurd.
I want you to increase revenueby 300% while also reducing cost
by 50%.
Okay, cool.
And while we're at it, let'salso solve world hunger and
teach the team to juggle flamingchainsaws.
Yeah.
Achievable means challenging butrealistic.

(05:42):
Stretch goals are great.
Fantasy goals just demoralizepeople.
The R is for relevant.
Okay, the goal needs to matterto the role and to the business.
So if you're a finance manager,a goal about improving your
public speaking skills might benice, but it's not really

(06:02):
relevant to what the businessneeds from you right now.
So make sure the goal connectsto either corporate priorities
or the person's development intheir current role.
The T stands for time bound.
Okay.
No deadline equals no urgency,which equals no action.

(06:23):
Okay.
So not launch the new producteventually.
Instead, say launch the newproduct by June 30th.
Okay.
Time constraints create focus.
They they force prioritization.
They make it real.
So SMART goals aren't just acorporate acronym.

(06:44):
They're how you createobjectives that both you and
your employee can look at andsay, Yep, we did it.
Or nope, we didn't.
No ambiguity, no arguments, justclarity.
Now, let's talk about what goalsto actually set.
Because here's the thing everygoal your team sets falls into

(07:07):
one of two buckets corporategoals, or what the business
needs, and personal goals, whichis what they want to develop.
So let's start with corporategoals.
Your company has priorities.
Your department has goals, andthose need to cascade down to
your team.

(07:29):
This is the corporate goalspiece, and it's non-negotiable.
The business has to hit itstargets, and your team is part
of making that happen.
So here's what most managers dowrong.
They just copy and paste theirown goals and hand them to the
employees.
Hey, I need to increasedepartment revenue by 20%.

(07:50):
So you need to increase revenueby 20%.
Good luck.
Yeah, that's not goal setting,that's goal dumping.
Here's how to do it right thetrickle-down effect.
Let's say you've got adepartment goal to increase
client retention by 12% thisyear, and you have four managers
reporting up to you.

(08:11):
You don't give each manager thesame 12% goal.
That doesn't make sense.
Instead, you break it down.
Each manager owns 25% of thatgoal.
So each needs to deliver a 3%increase in retention in their
area.
Now, each person has a specific,manageable piece of the bigger

(08:32):
picture.
They know exactly what they'reaccountable for.
And when you add up all fourpieces, well, you hit the
department target.
That's the trickle-down effect.
You're cascading corporatepriorities down in a way that's
specific to each role.

But here's the critical part: don't just assign the number and (08:51):
undefined
walk away.
Okay, you have to communicatethe why behind the goal.
Here's what that sounds likewhen you're meeting with your
employee.
Okay, here's the corporate goalpiece.
The company has focused onclient retention this year
because we're seeing higherchurn in the industry, and it's
five times more expensive toacquire a new client than keep

(09:14):
an existing one.
For our department, that meanswe need to increase retention by
12%.
Your piece of that is a 3%increase in your client base.
That means taking your currentretention rate from 85% to 88%
by the end of Q4.
Here's why this matters for you.

(09:34):
Retained clients are also theones most likely to expand their
contracts.
So if you're successful here,you're not just hitting a
corporate goal, you're settingyourself up for easier revenue
growth next year.
See the difference?
You're not just assigning anumber, you're explaining why
the company cares about this,how their piece fits into that

(09:56):
bigger picture, and what's in itfor them.
That context matters becausewhen people understand the why,
they're way more likely toactually care about the what.
And here's the data to back thatup.
Employees are 3.2 times morelikely to be engaged when their
performance goals are alignedwith the organization's goals.

(10:19):
3.2 times.
That's not a small bump.
That's the difference betweensomeone showing up to collect a
paycheck and someone showing upready to make an impact.
And one more thing, make surethe corporate goal is actually
specific to their role.
Okay.
Don't just copy and paste yourgoals into their goal sheet and
call it done.
If you manage four differentfunctions, you know, sales,

(10:43):
operations, client success, andfinance, their corporate goals
should look different becausetheir roles are different.
Okay.
The sales manager's corporategoal might be revenue focused.
The operations managers might beefficiency focused.
The client success manager mightbe retention focused.

(11:04):
Same corporate priority,different applications.
So that's the corporate half ofgoal setting.
Now let's talk about the otherhalf, the part most managers
completely skip.
This is the part of goal settingthat separates good managers
from great ones.
Personal and development goals.

(11:26):
These are the goals youremployee chooses, not because
the company needs them, butbecause they want them.
And when you get this right, youtap into something that's way
more powerful than corporateaccountability.
You tap into personalmotivation.
There are two types of personalgoals you should be talking
about.

(11:47):
Type one is career advancementgoals.
Okay, these are skills orqualifications that they need
for stepping into that nextrole.
Let's say you have someone onyour team who wants to move into
a senior leadership positionwithin the next two years.
Well, what are the minimum jobqualifications for that role?

(12:08):
Maybe it's you know leadingcross-functional projects or
managing a budget or presentingto executive leadership.
So their developmental goal for2026 might be lead one
cross-functional project frominitiation to completion,
including stakeholder managementand executive presentation.

(12:30):
Now they're building the exactskills they need for the role
they want.
And you're setting them up forsuccess.
And then type two is personaldevelopment goals.
Okay, these are things they wantto learn or accomplish that just
kind of makes them better atwhat they do, even if it's not
directly tied to a promotion.

(12:52):
So maybe they want to get betterat public speaking.
They want to learn a newtechnical skill, they want to
develop their coachingabilities, they want to build
stronger relationships acrossthe various departments.
These goals matter becausethey're intrinsically motivated.
Nobody's making them do this.

(13:13):
They want to do this.

And here's what's cool (13:15):
when people are working on something
they actually care about, theybring way more energy into it.
That energy spills over intoeverything else they do.
Here's the stat that matters.

(13:44):
You want to keep the topperformers?
Simple.
Invest in their personal growth.
It's not rocket science.
People stay where they feel likethey're becoming better versions
of themselves.
So, how do you have thisconversation?
Look, don't overthink it.
Just ask.

(14:05):
Say, we've talked about what thebusiness needs from you in 2026.
Now I want to know what do youwant to be able to do in 2026
that you can't do today?
And then shut up and listen.
They might say, I want to feelmore confident leading meetings
with senior leadership.

(14:26):
Great.
There's your developmental goal.
Present to the executive team atleast twice in 2026 with
preparation support from me.
Or they might say, I want tounderstand our data analytics
tool.
I want to understand it better.
So I'm not always asking people,you know, to pull reports for

(14:48):
me.
Perfect.
There's your goal.
Complete advanced training inthe tableau and build three
custom reports for the team byQ3.
These goals don't have to beearth-shattering.
Okay.
They just have to matter to thatperson.
Here's the truth.

(15:08):
People care about goals theychose, not goals that were
assigned to them.
When you let them own half thegoal setting process, you're not
just building a developmentalplan.
You're you're building buy-in.
All right.

(15:29):
So now that you've got bothpieces, corporate goals, what
the business needs, and personalgoals, what they want to
develop.
The question is, how do youactually bring these together in
a conversation?
This can't be you dictatinggoals to them and them
accepting.

(15:49):
This has to be a two-wayconversation.
And here's how I want you tostructure this with your
employee.
Step one, I want you to startwith corporate needs.
All right, here's what thebusiness needs from your role in
2026.
Here's the corporate goal I needyou to own.
Let me explain why this mattersand how it fits into the bigger

(16:12):
picture.
Lay that out clearly.
Make sure they understand thewhy behind it.
And then step two, ask what theywant.
Now, what do you want to developin 2026?
What skills do you want tobuild?
What do you want to be able todo today that you can't?

(16:33):
And then listen.
Take notes, even ask follow-upquestions.
And then step three, find theoverlap.
This is where the magic happens.
Sometimes, not always, butsometimes, there's beautiful
overlap between the businessneeds and what they want to

(16:54):
develop.
Let's say your corporate goalfor them is to improve
cross-departmentalcollaboration.
And their personal goal is tobuild stronger relationships
across the company.
Well, those aren't the samegoal, but they do support each
other.
So you might say, what if westructure your corporate goal

(17:15):
around leading across-functional initiative?
That would hit the business needfor collaboration, and it would
give you a built-in reason tobuild those relationships you
want.
Now, you've got one goal thatserves two purposes.
They're more motivated becauseit connects to what they care
about.
And you're more likely to hitthe corporate target because

(17:36):
they're genuinely interested.
And again, here's the data.
Employees whose goals align withthe company objectives are 8.9
times more likely to think thattheir jobs are important.
8.9 times.
When people see how theirpersonal growth connects to
company success, they don't justwork harder, they care more.

(18:01):
All right, step four, write themtogether.
Don't go away and write theirgoals for them.
Do it right there in theconversation.
Something like, okay, let's makesure this is a smart goal.
Is it specific?
Is it measurable?
How will we know you achievedit?

(18:22):
As Stephen Covey says, goals arepure fantasy unless you have a
specific plan to achieve them.
So make the plan together, rightthere in real time with the
employee.
When they help write the goal,they own it.
When you write it and hand it tothem, it's just another task.

(18:45):
And then step five, check forbalance.
What does that mean?
Well, before you end theconversation, do a gut check.
Do they have too many goals?
Usually more than that three tofive is too many.
Okay, they won't remember all ofthem.
And then is it balanced betweencorporate and personal?

(19:08):
If you could do 50-50, that'sideal.
It doesn't always work that way.
Can they actually control thesegoals or are they dependent on
things outside their influence?
And then do they seem energizedor defeated when they leave this
conversation?
That last one is the tell.

(19:29):
If they leave excited about2026, you nailed it.
If they live, you know, feelinglike you just piled more work on
them, you missed the mark.
Here's the thing when you dothis right, goals aren't
something your team dreads.
They're something they actuallycare about.
Here's what happens when you getgoal alignment right.

(19:52):
Employees with goals are 3.6times more likely to be
committed to their organization.
They're 6.5 times.
More likely to recommend theirorganization as a great place to
work.
That is the power of two-waygoal setting.
Half the goals are pushing themtoward what the business needs,
and half the goals are pullingthem toward who they want to

(20:16):
become.
That's how you create goalspeople actually remember and
achieve.
So here's your assignment beforeyou set goals with your team.
First, make sure you understandhow your corporate goals trickle
down.
Okay, what's your piece of thecompany's priorities, and how

(20:37):
does that break down across yourteam?
Second, prepare to ask thisquestion What do you want to be
able to do in 2026 that youcan't do today?
And then actually listen to theanswer.
Third, make sure every goalpasses the SMART test.
Is it specific, measurable,achievable, relevant, and

(21:01):
time-bound?
Because your people don't needgoals that sound good in
December and then are forgottenby February.
They need goals that connect towhat the business needs and what
they personally care about.
And when you give them that,you're not just setting goals,
you're setting them up forsuccess.

(21:23):
If your organization needs helpbuilding a culture where they
have goals that actually driveperformance instead of just
sitting in a drawer for 11months, I'd love to help.
I work with leaders and teamsthrough keynote speaking,
executive coaching, andleadership training to build
people-first cultures that drivereal results.

(21:44):
Hey, I'd love for you to connectwith me on LinkedIn.
That is in that link is in theshow notes, or you can visit my
website.
That's also in the show notes.
And if this episode resonatedwith you, would you do me a
favor?
Please subscribe to the showwherever you listen to podcasts
and leave a review.
Love reading those.
And share this episode withanother leader who's about to

(22:06):
set goals for their team andwants to make sure they actually
matter.
That's how we grow thiscommunity.
That's how we get the word outto make a bigger impact on the
workplace.
Because the more leaders who getthis stuff right, the better
workplaces become for everyone.
And remember, keep connectingcorporate goals to what your

(22:27):
people care about.
Keep making goal setting atwo-way conversation.
And keep building goals thatactually motivate your team.
And you know why?
Because those are the thingsthat leaders do.

SPEAKER_00 (22:46):
Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do.
If you're looking for more tipson how to be a better leader, be
sure to subscribe to the podcastand listen to next week's
episode.
Until next time, keep working onbeing a better leader by doing
the things that leaders do.

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