Beyond SMART: How W.I.S.E. goals transform your work & life
Goals with soul let you live your vision of wonder now.
Recently, I’ve been talking with hard-working leaders and professionals about goals and goal-setting. It's clear that this new world of work requires a reboot on the subject.
One client said that these days, for the first time in several months, she’s ready to clarify her business’s annual vision and map quarterly goals. She has the energy, clarity, team capacity, and hope to do so.
But there’s a catch. She doesn’t want to return to the pre-2020 “hard work” ethos that nearly drove her to burn out even before the pandemic and global social unrest.
I spoke with an account manager for a company that went through a major re-org for two months. He was putting out fires on about 60 accounts as a result. The re-org was for the better and well-being for all. When I asked him how was he assured that everyone on the team would be enjoying the work, he had clear responses.
One, team members would have more say in choosing projects aligned with their talents and their interests. A check for the Genius Match.
Two, every team project would have clearly defined time-bound goals and assigned tasks that everyone was informed of. A check for Transparency and Project Flow.
And three, every team member would define professional goals tied to their own growth within the company. Bingo.
I work with mission-centered entrepreneurs and leaders to make their ideas happen and to make the most of their ideas in business, brands, books, and beyond. I also work with teams to foster work cultures of curiosity and collaboration. In both roles, I’ve learned that the science as well as the stories I’ve gathered are consistent and clear. Goal-setting as an abstract exercise doesn’t work.
But setting the right kind of goals and doing so through a meaningful process could keep you buoyant in challenging times, move you toward your desired fulfilling ends, and instill a sense of agency in your life and work.
Let’s break it down.
The Limits of SMART Goals
You likely know of and have been a proponent of SMART Goals. I have been. I used to every member of our yearlong Inner Circle MasterMinds to make them, share them, and track them week by week.
SMART is an acronym that usually stands for
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-Based
I have no qualms with those 5 elements. I’ve seen them when applied well completely change how founders, teams, and business owners grow.
Our times, though, call for a variation that accounts for a process of setting SMART goals that boost the likelihood of you and your team “sticking with it."
Enter W.I.S.E. Goals
What about W.I.S.E. Goals? After all, I hope from these past few years we each have gained more wisdom.
Who wants to be Mr. or Ms. SMARTy Pants with no wisdom for grounding?
Your wisdom whether as a leader, manager, worker, or entrepreneur comes from your ability to take knowledge and derive
your perspective on our times and the big picture of a situation,
your discernment of priorities and timelines and tactics, and
your attunement to what’s most meaningful and impactful.
Enter W.I.S.E. Goals. W.I.S.E. embeds a set of skills, tools, and processes to derive your SMART Goals.
Try this on:
WISE Goals are
Wonder-inducing (Wonder after all is the singular emotional advantage that allows fulfilled innovators to complete complex endeavors.)
The goal comes in part from your capacity to deliberately daydream a meaningful near-future.
When you envision achieving this goal, you feel cracked open to more possibility and meaning.
It’s the kind of goal worth standing up for or at least getting up for even when you think you don’t feel like getting up.
Integrity-based
The goal comes in part from knowing who you are, who your brand is, what your genius talents are, and what your character strengths are (and are not).
The goal comes out of knowing the core values that drive you or your organization.
Simple + specific
The goal is stated in such clear language that you can repeat the goal to yourself or to someone else in a way that makes crystal-clear sense.
The goal is SMART in that it is time-bound even if that timeline shifts.
The goal is stated in specific language so that that minuscule part of your brain devoted to focusing will know what it’s supposed to do for you. (Really, it's only about 4% of your brain's volume that's devoted to your focusing. So, help a brain out.)
Effectual
The goal can be broken down into actionable tasks that can be acted on each week.
You share the goal and your progress toward it with peers, colleagues, or teammates. (Science of goal-setting points here!)
The Resistances!
What about in chaotic or turbulent times when you sometimes privately feel like your only goal is to hunker down with a good novel or Ted Lasso and cozy up next to the fire?
I get it. I’ve felt it. I seek stories of Hope - the rainbow facet of wonder. In my review on the literature of hope in the book TRACKING WONDER, people who embody hope are resilient, flexible-minded, and able to take small steps toward their aims. I draw inspiration from these beacons of hope in realizing that it is W.I.S.E. to stretch ourselves toward meaningful action in times of crisis and rampant change:
the musician Nick Cave navigating incomprehensible grief through wonder, creativity, and community following his 15-year-old son’s tragic death
a writer who got a strange neurological disease who kept curiosity and hope by engaging a snail and
Lee Rankin whose extraordinary journey as a single mom 20 years ago has led her to be a foremost influential voice in agritourism in the state of North Carolina.
All of them benefited from tiny, wise goals even if they didn’t have this framework I’m giving to you.
I hope something here resonates or provokes. If so, let me know.
Your Turn to Wonder
»> Share one of your W.I.S.E. Goals here and let me know if you want advise (or not!) on restating it to include all 4 elements. Sharing a W.I.S.E. Goal with a pack of people who care is one way to help it happen.
Thanks for running with me,
Jeffrey