Supporting Goal Achievement

Every person will have an annual performance review. One aspect of this review is having you identify specific goals you want to achieve. Achieving these goals can be tough because there is no regular review of your progress. Basically you are on your own. A mentor can be very helpful in helping you maintain goal discipline.

Here’s how you can help your advisee set/achieve goals.

1. Work with your advisee to ensure the goals that are set are appropriate. Here are some general guidelines.
   • Goals should be realistic but also a stretch. You want others to see your goals as being something that are meaningful but requiring serious effort.
   • Goals should focus on outcomes, not inputs. Efforts rarely get rated very highly if there isn’t an identifiable result.
2. Discuss how you can help your advisee make progress in meeting the goal. Generally this will involve regularly scheduled goal progress meetings.
3. Work with your advisee to identify challenges that can be anticipated. Then give guidance on how to meet these challenges.
4. Help your advisee develop a yardstick to validate the achievement of goals. In some cases these yardsticks can be quantitative, but in some cases yard sticks can take the form of “stories” where the goal achievement is evident.

In many cases, the goal support can be reciprocal. While you are supporting your advisee, it’s only natural to be simultaneously thinking about your own goals.