Do You Have Personal Goals?

Regardless of their age or occupation, everyone at some time has personal goals and aspirations. These goals may take on many forms but like 1 on 1s, that they should all be focused around the individual team member. Even small gestures such as the recognition of your goal, or even investments in your career by you can have a huge impact on the attitude and morale of your team members. Recognition of this type, whether it is a pat on the back for a job well done, a hard work incentive, or something as simple as an additional study day at work, can be extremely valuable to your company and team members alike. So how do you get others to feel this way about you?


One of the first steps in this direction is to remind your team members about you and your accomplishments. It's amazing how often people forget that they are working toward personal goals for themselves and become overly focused on their roles within the company or with a particular task or project. While it's important to keep the focus on individual achievements, you also need to remind the older team members about your long term goals for the business. This will help to solidify your role as the leader, instead of becoming overbearing with praise or criticism for every little thing that goes right or wrong.

As you let these personal goals sink in, make sure that you give your team members' positive feedback about their efforts. You don't have to give them accolades for every little success, but acknowledging their efforts and showing support will show them that they are making progress and that their boss is backing them. In addition, you want to let the team members know that they can trust you in their roles. If you are able to delegate certain tasks or move them to someone else, do it. By delegating responsibilities and meeting your deadlines, you show that you are responsible enough to meet any challenge that may come your way.

Another way to reinforce your belief in your short-term and long-term goals is to remind yourself about these goals on a regular basis. Set aside sometime each day or night to think about how you are accomplishing your personal and professional goals. This not only helps you focus on the tasks at hand, but it helps you make a plan to achieve your goals. This plan becomes your road map to reach your goals. When you create plans, you are exercising your brainpower, which is very beneficial in the workplace.

When you are in the field of development, you know that you are constantly improving upon yourself and your ability to better your job, but sometimes you need to brush up on the things you already know. A great way to do that is to read motivational books and articles. Reading up on other people's success stories can help you to apply their learning techniques to your own situation, and to take your job and your career to the next level.

Learning is one of the best ways to keep yourself motivated, and when you are working with your team members, being able to learn new things is one of the best ways to motivate them as well. When you are trying to motivate individual members of your team, sometimes just learning a new skill that can benefit your own performance can be enough to get them motivated. When you are building a team, you need to use every member's skills to make your goals happen, so taking the time to learn new skills will pay off for you down the road.

Motivation doesn't just come to an individual; it also comes from the group, so you want to make sure you're involved in the process from the beginning. Get to know your team. Find out what makes each person tick, and find out what types of activities they enjoy doing. This will help you build a better team if you participate in their interests along the way, so make sure you get involved early and often.


Remember that personal and professional goals are essential for success, so make sure that you stay on track with your plans. Stay motivated. Talk to your team members about what you're going to accomplish and then do it. Make sure you are able to communicate the goals to everyone on your team, so that they know exactly what the plan is, and then stick to it. You might even inspire a few new ideas along the way!