Whether you’re self-employed or a contracted employee, we all have goals at work. But have you set those goals and then spectacularly failed? It can be a slump in motivation and productivity when we realize we’ve been unable. 

The truth is meeting our goals takes a combination of tenacity, hard work, and determination. But in addition to those traits, there’s something else we can all do to have a huge impact on whether or not we meet our goals. 

Your Secret, Goal-Hitting Weapon

Ready to know the stupidly simple thing that can make a difference in hitting your work goals? 

Talking about them.

Yup—that’s it. Recent research from Hypercontext found setting aside time either weekly or biweekly to discuss goals can increase your likelihood of hitting them by almost 3X.  

Additional research from The American Society of Training and Development supports these findings.

They found if you commit your goal to someone, your chances of meeting that goal increase by 65 percent. That’s impressive. Especially compared to the chances of success when you have an idea of your goal. But, then, your chances of successfully hitting that goal are a measly 10 percent.  

Does the frequency of goal discussion matter, though? For example, is the effect the same if you discuss your goals monthly or quarterly? 

Well, no. 

Regarding employees’ confidence in their and their company’s ability to hit their goals, 41 percent of employees who discussed their goals weekly or bi-weekly thought they would meet their goals. Compared to 16 percent of employees who discussed their goals monthly, 15 percent of employees discussed their goals quarterly. Clearly, talking about goals more often increases an employee’s confidence.   

You can also take some extra steps to improve your chances even more. 

Make an accountability appointment with someone else to discuss your progress—and those odds increase to a whopping 95 percent. The more you discuss, commit, and plan to meet those goals—the more likely you will hit them.

Employees who don’t know what their goals are less likely to be productive—because they don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing. Lacking a clear sense of direction is the quickest way to decrease motivation and productivity. But this is a situation that can easily be remedied by scheduling time each week to outline each employee’s goals and how to meet them.  

Putting Accountability into Action

Accountability in action helps employees reach their goals more often.

Depending on your type of work, what this accountability can look like can vary. 

But some popular options include:

• Peer-to-peer networks
• Mentors
• Team meetings

Let’s take a closer look at each of those options. 

Peer-to-Peer Networks 

For entrepreneurs, peer-to-peer networks offer an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded people at a similar stage of their business journey. These networks can be small and established by individuals or larger, more structured offerings that include access to virtual courses, webinars, etc. But, again, the key is finding a network that prioritizes goal-setting and discussing how to meet those goals.  

Mentors 

Mentors can have a huge impact in the workplace, helping employees reach higher levels of job satisfaction and driving a sense of purpose. With careful management of mentoring sessions, employees have a great place to discuss their goals. However, mentoring sessions can easily move towards superficial chat territory without structure. 

Effective and productive mentoring sessions rely on:

• Alignment of expectations. Before mentoring sessions start, both the meteor and the mentee should outline their expectations. For example, should the session be structured or more informal? Will there be any preparation required for each meeting? How often will you meet, and for how long?  
• Setting topics for discussion. Even a relatively unstructured mentoring session should include a prior agreement of which topics you’ll cover and what goals you want to discuss.  
• Creating an agenda. An agenda helps guide each mentoring session and provides a rough framework for your conversations. Agendas are a great starting point to make sure what you’re discussing stays on topic. 
• Cultivating empathy. Mentoring is not counseling, but even so, empathy from both parties helps steer these sessions in a meaningful way. For example, if a mentee is struggling or coming up against roadblocks, the compassion of a mentor can go a long way to reassuring them as you both work towards finding solutions.  

Regular Meetings  

Regular meetings offer the perfect opportunity to discuss individual goals in an office-based setting. All seniority levels consistently rate one-to-one meetings as the most valuable. 

These meetings are the ideal opportunity to discuss goals and expectations for each team member.    

Extra Strategies to Increase Your Chances of Success 

Now you’re talking regularly about your goals; there are some other strategies you can start to implement to increase your odds of success even more.  

Write Your Goals Down

Research has shown you’re 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write down your goals. This practice could form part of your preparation for mentoring or peer networking sessions or simply something you do when you first sit down at your desk each day. 

Schedule Time to Take Action   

Another key strategy for meeting your goals is scheduling time to work towards them. Scheduling time to focus on your goals increases your chances for success by up to 3X. So plan ahead when (and where) you’ll take action at the start of each week. 

If you want to dial it up a notch, consider adding contingency time for potential setbacks.   

Work Smarter Not Harder   

So, now you know one of the best ways to achieve those workplace goals is simply to talk about them. Then write them down and schedule a time to work towards them.

But, you can still give your goals a little helping hand with some other tools and strategies to help you stay productive and accountable as you work smarter, not harder. Here are some of our favorite options. 

Use an App 

If you thrive on competition, then leaderboard apps can provide additional motivation. Some apps match you with a coach; others allow you to get a visual representation of how close you are to meeting your goal.

Use Productivity Tools 

Once your goal is out in the open, using productivity tools is a great way to keep on track, set milestones, and allow you to see your progress in real-time. There are plenty to choose from, so take the time to find one that suits you and your work style. Remember, while we may think having tools will always boost productivity, which increases output and helps us hit our goals, it can sometimes be as simple as talking about the goals we’re trying to achieve.  

Automate to Save Time

While it’s technically true we have the same 24 hours in a day, if time-consuming tasks take up these hours, everyone will have less time to work on their goals.

The good news is that there are plenty of ways to automate specific business processes. Doing so helps streamline your work and free up more time for working on those goals you’ve been discussing.

Some examples of processes you can automate relatively easily include:

• Customer support 
• Data reporting 
• Applicant screening 
• Invoice processing 
• Employee on-boarding 
• Sales and CRM processes
• Social media management 
• Expense tracking 
• Accounting reconciliation

As we’ve already discovered, while technology can help us do more or be more effective, the output doesn’t always equal the outcome, so you should still combine these tools with the strategies discussed above.   

Add in Some Remote Support 

With the recent rise in remote work, many employees feel isolated from the traditional office environment. While there can be huge advantages to remote work for both employers and employees—there can be challenges. For example, accessing IT support, knowing where to find key documents, and communicating with other team members can become stumbling blocks that take time to solve. 

Making sure remote employees have access to self-service support can improve productivity simply by streamlining the day-to-day administrative tasks that cost valuable time if you leave employees to solve these issues independently. 

That means they’ll have more time to discuss and achieve their goals.