8 Actionable Steps for Goal Setting

Here are 8 actionable steps from this conversation to guide you in setting and achieving your goals.

Step 1: Envision the Big Picture

Begin by defining the big picture. What are you trying to achieve? Consider your long-term aspirations and how they relate to your career, personal development, and relationships. This lays the foundation for your goal-setting journey.

Action Tip: Start with a word or vision of what you want to accomplish over a specific timeframe.

Step 2: Set Individual Goals

Now consider how this big picture translates into individual goals and break down these goals into manageable tasks. For example, if you aim to enhance your executive presence, identify the smaller steps that contribute to this overarching goal. Breaking it down makes the process less overwhelming and more achievable.

As you identify your goals, it’s helpful to think about what they mean to you and why these goals matter. Ensuring your goals are rooted in meaning and purpose will help set you up for success and a greater chance of achieving them.

Action Tip: Create a list of actionable steps for each individual goal, making progress measurable and feasible.

Step 3: Apply SMART Criteria

Ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). This strategic approach enhances clarity and provides a structured framework for goal accomplishment.

Action Tip: Refine your goals using the SMART criteria, making them tangible and achievable.

Step 4: Prioritize Your Goals

We often set more goals that we can feasibly achieve at any given point in time. It’s important to evaluate and prioritize your goals based on their significance and impact on your overall vision. This step ensures your efforts align with your overarching objectives.

Action Tip: Create a priority list, concentrating on the most impactful goals first and those with the greatest meaning for you right now.

Step 5: Set Clear Timelines

Establish specific timelines for each goal to create a sense of urgency and accountability. Clearly defined deadlines provide structure and help you stay on track.

Action Tip: Assign realistic deadlines to individual tasks and milestones, fostering momentum and a sense of accomplishment. It may be helpful to take your long-term goals and consider what steps you need to take on a quarterly/monthly basis to reach successful completion.

Step 6: Monitor and Adjust

Regularly monitor your progress and be open to making necessary adjustments. Recognize potential obstacles and proactively address them, ensuring your plan remains realistic and adaptable.

Action Tip: Schedule regular check-ins to assess progress, allowing for flexibility and adaptability.

Step 7: Seek Support and Accountability

Share your goals with trusted individuals—friends, family, or mentors—to create a support system. External encouragement and accountability play a vital role in staying motivated.

Action Tip: Communicate your goals to someone you trust, benefitting from their insights and encouragement. Ask them to check-in and hold you accountable if that is helpful for you.

Step 8: Celebrate Milestones

You don’t need to wait until you’ve achieved a goal to celebrate. Acknowledge and celebrate small victories along the way. Reinforce positive behavior by creating a reward system for achieving milestones and maintaining motivation throughout the journey.

Action Tip: Establish a reward system for yourself, boosting morale and creating a positive reinforcement loop.

As you begin your goal-setting journey, remember that goals are personal, success is measured by you, and it may look different for everyone. What’s important is that you have clear goals that align to what you value, hope to achieve and involves a systematic process with clarity, adaptability, and consistent effort. These 8 actionable steps from the Menttium Matters podcast conversation with Deb Herrera, provide a roadmap to turn your aspirations into tangible achievements. Commit to the process, embrace flexibility, and celebrate the small victories on your path to success.

About Deb Herrera

As an Executive Coach and former CFO, Deb is passionate about helping others realize their fullest potential, at the organization, team and individual level.  Deb’s passion is fueled by her own experience as a coaching client and the transformative effect it had on her life and her work.  A recognized cross-functional leader and strategic business partner, Deb is adept at working across all levels and with all functions in an organization, particularly C-suite leaders, Board of Directors, Sales, Operations, IT, Marketing, Finance, and HR.

Deb fuses her extensive business, leadership and financial experience from General Mills, Best Buy, Honeywell, Thompson Reuters and Schwan’s Food Company with a whole-hearted approach to coaching to facilitate transformational change with her clients.  Deb’s experience spans small entrepreneurial firms to high-performing Fortune 500 companies where she has had the opportunity to work with individuals and teams in more than 20 countries and industries that include retail, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, financial services, healthcare, med device, pharma, and professional services. and her passion for helping individuals reach their fullest potential make her insights invaluable. Deb is a Menttium mentee alumna and has been a Menttium Mentor since 2014.

Deb’s Expertise

Deb is known as a fearless leader and communicator, believing you must make a positive impact on people to have a sustainable impact on business.  She attributes her success to her ability to inspire and motivate leaders and teams to think differently, stretch beyond comfort zones, and believe that they can succeed.

Deb is a PCC level ICF Certified Executive Coach through the University of St Thomas and serves as faculty in the Executive Coaching Program for the Center for Coaching in Organizations.  She is certified in numerous assessments and methodologies including Hogan assessments and the Shift Positive feedback method, and has completed advanced studies in Narrative Coaching, Inner Team Dialogue, Trauma Recovery, and Positive Intelligence.

Key Focus Areas:

• Developing greater impact and influence
• Transforming teams for high performance
• Leading through change
• Engaging and focusing high potential leaders

Representative Engagements:

• Experience with new C-Suite leaders seeking to find their footing in senior leadership roles and build relationships with key stakeholders including Board of Directors and external partners.
• Partnered with COO of Fortune 500 company facing regulatory non-compliance. Conducted stakeholder interviews and developed breakthrough session leading to transformation of the leadership team, ensuring commitment to a new culture and elevated level of accountability, clarity of goals, vision and mission.
• Worked with Executive and high performing teams striving to get to the next level of performance, as well as teams struggling to find their identity and helping them to define how they work together.
• Coached senior operations leader seeking to re-establish his personal brand, rebuild relationships, and lead in new and more impactful ways within a new and changing corporate culture.
• Coached senior legal partner through personal and professional transition, identifying purpose and passion in the next phase of her career and in her life.