50
Part 1 • Self-Awareness
Visualize. If you visualize what it will be like to have achieved your goal, you will be more motivated to stay focused and work hard. Developing a vision is a part of most organizations’ mission statements. It should be part of yours also. Develop a Support Group. Associate with people who can and will support you in achieving your goals. These can be friends, family, coworkers, or anyone with the resources that you need to be successful. Reward Small Wins. When you achieve incremental progress toward your goals, reward yourself. This will help maintain your commitment and motivation. Continually Evaluate and Make Adjustments. You need to adapt to changing circumstances and setbacks in a realistic fashion. When things do not work out as planned, be honest with yourself about why. You may encounter unforeseen obstacles, lack of resources, or even changes in your own desires. Goal setting is an ongoing process and changing direction is desirable when appropriate. Planning for Implementation Planning involves defining a strategy for achieving goals. It is concerned with what, how, and when things need to be done. The eight-step planning process is illustrated in Figure 3.1. It consists of the following activities: identifying your mission and vision, analyzing the environment for opportunities and threats, assessing your strengths and weaknesses, formulating specific operational objectives, deciding on strategies to implement the plan, and determining how to evaluate results. Planning begins by identifying your overall purpose, or mission statement. This is the foundation of all operational goals, planning activities, and criteria against which actual accomplishments are measured. Once you know your overall purpose in life, you can perform a SWOT analysis: examine the fit between your personal Strengths and Weaknesses and environmental Opportunities and Threats. This analysis will reveal the operational objectives, or short-term accomplishments, that you need to achieve to arrive at your vision. Next, you should formulate specific strategies for achieving your goals by capitalizing on your strengths and identifying niches that you can excel in because you have distinctive competencies. No matter how effective your strategies are, they cannot succeed if they aren’t implemented properly. 2 Analyze the environment
1 Identify overall goals: mission statement
3 Identify opportunities and threats
SWOT analysis [steps 2–5]
4 Analyze the organization’s resources
6 Identify operational objectives
5 Identify strengths and weaknessess
FIGURE 3.1 The Planning Process.
7 Formulate strategies
8 Implement results
9 Evaluate results
