{"id":35482,"date":"2017-02-15T04:45:34","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T10:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=35482"},"modified":"2017-02-15T04:45:34","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T10:45:34","slug":"sandbagging-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/sandbagging-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sandbagging Your Goals Kills Your Productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a fairly conservative person but <em>not<\/em> when it comes to setting new goals for myself or for my business. We may think setting conservative goals is wise, but it actually makes us and our teams less productive.<\/p>\n\n<p>Too many leaders believe they\u2019ll accomplish more if they lower the bar and set goals they can easily hit. We call that sandbagging. It might seem smart, but it\u2019s a recipe for underperformance.<!--more--><\/p>\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what sandbagging sounds like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWe\u2019re shooting for 4 percent growth. We can blow that out of the water.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cLet\u2019s only acquire three new clients this quarter. We\u2019re already close to closing two.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI\u2019m just committing us to two new initiatives this year. We can definitely make that happen with what we\u2019ve already got in place.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are goals in what I call the Comfort Zone. They don\u2019t demand much in the way of performance because we already know exactly how we\u2019re going to accomplish them.<\/p>\n<h3>Why Sandbagging Is Tempting<\/h3>\n<p>There might be good reasons to slow walk your businesses growth\u2014but ease probably shouldn\u2019t be one. Still, setting goals inside your Comfort Zone is a real temptation for us.<\/p>\n<p>Why? First, we all want to crush our goals, and it\u2019s exciting to surpass expectations, even our own. Second, none of us wants to fail, even if it\u2019s a game we set up. Finally, we don\u2019t want to demoralize our teams with impossible demands.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re hesitant to set risky goals. The best bet seems like a comfortable goal we\u2019re sure we can reach. But that strategy has risks of its own.<\/p>\n<h3>Why Sandbagging Lets Us Down<\/h3>\n<p>When we sandbag our goals, we tell ourselves it will lead to greater productivity. After all, big crazy goals can sometimes provoke discouragement and disengagement. But that\u2019s not the full picture.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00AYILGKG\/mhyatt-20\">Steve Kerr and Douglas LePelley of Chancellor University<\/a> when goals are fixed \u201ctoo low, people often achieve them, but subsequent motivation and energy levels typically flag, and the goals are usually not exceeded by very much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sandbagged goals actually do what they\u2019re formulated to avoid: They undercut productivity because we ultimately find them boring and demotivating. They require little and inspire even less.<\/p>\n<h3>6 Steps to a Better Strategy<\/h3>\n<p>If we want our organizations to succeed, we have to set goals outside the Comfort Zone. But we also have to avoid what I call the Delusional Zone. Those are truly unreachable targets where nobody wins.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, we have to set goals in the Discomfort Zone. These are challenging enough to inspire breakthrough thinking, but not so challenging they break our morale.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders can use daring goals to inspire peak productivity without demoralizing their teams using these six steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Solicit input.<\/strong> Let\u2019s say you have a goal in mind. The best way to stay outside the Delusional Zone is to get more than one perspective on it. Who better than your team?\n<p>Take the temperature of your key leaders or primary stakeholders. <em>But don\u2019t go first.<\/em> You don\u2019t want your statement to skew the results. At the most, offer a suggested range or a few options to start a conversation going.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Set the goal.<\/strong> Now, factoring what you learned from the team, finalize the goal. You can do this together with the key leaders or by yourself. Either way, it should feel risky enough to spark your thinking as you imagine ways to make it a reality. You won\u2019t be entirely certain how you\u2019re going to pull it off.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Cast the vision.<\/strong> Once you\u2019ve set the goal, it\u2019s your job as the leader to go back and sell it\u2014first to the key stakeholders, then to the wider organization.<\/p>\n<p>The key is to connect the accomplishment to the interests of the team. What will it mean for them to reach the goal? What\u2019s at stake for the business, for them personally?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Ask for alignment.<\/strong> You can\u2019t coerce alignment, especially around a challenging goal. Instead, you must <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/how-to-create-the-kind-of-team-unity-that-drives-results.html\">ask for it and enroll people<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For example, I cast the vision and then ask the stakeholders, \u201cCan you align with this decision?\u201d It is important that the stakeholders feel they have a choice and voluntarily align. Buy-in is critical.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Resource the team.<\/strong> If the goal is outside your Comfort Zone, you probably won\u2019t have all the resources you need at the moment you set the goal. Those will show up as you work toward the target.<\/p>\n<p>But you\u2019ll want to equip your team with the resources you do have: dollars, time, technology, training, and whatever else you can leverage. The more momentum you build, the more resources will come into view.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Measure the gains.<\/strong> I learned this from Dan Sullivan, and it\u2019s a core discipline of high-achievers. When we set goals in the Discomfort Zone, it\u2019s easy to measure the gap\u2014how far off the target still is. But if that\u2019s too daunting, it can take the wind out of our sails.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to also measure the gains. Jack Welch created a high achievement culture at GE. Here\u2019s how he described measuring the gain: \u201c[E]ven when we don't quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done [without a challenging goal].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\t\t<aside class=\"tweetable tweetalign_center\" style=\"width:100%\">\n\t\t\t<blockquote>\n\t\t\t\tWe may think setting conservative goals is wise, but it actually makes us less productive.<cite>Michael Hyatt<\/cite>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\t\t\t<ul class=\"actions\">\n\t\t\t\t<li class=\"icon-arrow\"><a class=\"icon-twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?source=tweetbutton&text=We%20may%20think%20setting%20conservative%20goals%20is%20wise%2C%20but%20it%20actually%20makes%20us%20less%20productive.%20https%3A%2F%2Ffullfocus.co%2F%3Fp%3D35482&via=michaelhyatt\" title=\"Share Quote on Twitter\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet<span> Quote<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/aside>\n<p>Sandbagging our goals seems sensible, but it actually cheats ourselves and our teams of our best performance. But when we set goals in our Discomfort Zone, we can reach new levels of productivity, both as individuals and as organizations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"reminder\">What\u2019s the most inspiring organizational goal you\u2019ve ever pursued?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a fairly conservative person but not when it comes to setting new goals for myself or for my business. We may think setting conservative goals is wise, but it actually makes us and our teams less productive. Too many leaders believe they\u2019ll accomplish more if they lower the bar and set goals they can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":35486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[71,20,30],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Sandbagging Your Goals Kills Your Productivity | Full Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/sandbagging-goals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Sandbagging Your Goals Kills Your Productivity | Full Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m a fairly conservative person but not when it comes to setting new goals for myself or for my business. 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