Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T ) goals. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that it's an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants in a group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them. On a personal level, setting goals helps people work towards their own objectives—most commonly with financial or career-based goals. Goal setting features as a major component of personal development literature:
Goal setting theory was developed by Edwin A. Locke in the 1960s. His first article on goal setting theory was “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives” which was published in 1968. This article laid the foundation for goal setting theory and established the positive relationship between clearly identified goals and performance.
It is considered an “open” theory, so as new discoveries are made it is modified. Studies have shown that specific and high goals lead to a higher level of performance than easy or general goals. As long as the individual accepts the goal, has the ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there is a positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and task performance
Goals are a form of motivation that set the standard for self-satisfaction with performance. Achieving the goal one has set for oneself is a measure of success, and being able to meet job challenges is a way one measures success in the workplace. It has been said that "Goal setting capitalize on the human brain's amazing powers: Our brains are problem-solving, goal-achieving machines."
Read more about Goal Setting: Concept, Goal Setting in Business, Goal–performance Relationship, Deriving Goal Setting Using Temporal Motivation Theory, Limitations, Employee Motivation, Developments in Goal Setting Theory, History
Famous quotes containing the words goal and/or setting:
“To achieve the larger goal of teaching her children consideration of others, a mother can tolerate some frustration of her own wishes, she can delay having what she wants, she can be flexible enough to compromise. And this is exactly what her child must also learn: that it is possible to survive frustration, it is possible to wait for what he wants, it is possible to compromise without capitulating.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“We don’t arrive at it by standing on one leg or on the first day of our setting out—but though we may jostle one another on the way that is no reason why we should strike or trample—elbowing’s enough.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)