New Year’s Resolutions

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New Year’s Resolutions

by Matt Driver - Management Futures' Head of Leadership Development and author of Coaching Positively

With the New Year come new resolutions and I notice also a fresh influx of interest in coaching.

Like many people I have always been cynical about New Years’ Resolutions.  I've made many, but achieved hardly any of them.  And yet it's quite clear that most people's resolutions are very positive.  The desire to lose weight, to get fitter, to manage oneself better, to find a better job are all laudable.  And for most people they are also achievable.  So how come so few of them are actually seen through?

Interestingly enough, setting goals (ie good New Years’ Resolutions) is one of the most researched areas of coaching and development.  When I began to write my book 'Coaching Positively', I wanted to find out what recent psychology research has to say about setting goals and about why, at least for the many of us, they are often not achieved. I found that, in fact, it is not so difficult to transform a well-intentioned resolution into a goal that gives focus and motivation and is therefore far more likely to lead to success.

A very basic problem is that for many of us our aims are too vague and too general.  If I think about myself, many Januarys have brought a new wish to 'lose weight' but, certainly in the past, I never really thought through what I meant by that.  How would I know I had 'lost weight'?  And indeed, what benefits would losing weight bring?  It seems obvious now that I am very unlikely to make useful progress if I don't know what I mean by 'losing weight', nor why I am doing it.

An additional limitation to aspirations such as losing weight, drinking less alcohol or establishing a better work-home life balance is that they are all things we know we are 'supposed to do'.  So there is a big danger that they do not work as useful goals because we do not truly own them ourselves, we have not thought through what is in it for us and how we would recognise success.

Looking more widely, I have come across countless organisational examples of poor goal-setting, particularly as part of incompetently conducted appraisals.  A manager reviews performance with one of their staff, gives the nod to the areas in which the person is performing well and then spends the bulk of the time focusing on how the person can address their weaker areas.  Following the conversation the lucky person leaves with a set of so-called 'SMART' objectives all of which focus on areas in which they perform less well and are very likely less motivated.

Positive psychologists such as Alex Linley, have shown that there is far more to be achieved by setting goals in areas of strength rather than in areas of weakness.  At best weaknesses need to be brought up to a good enough level but having goals in areas of weakness is not motivating and therefore does not focus attention and energy on building performance.

So, to sum up, when addressing your own new years resolutions or those of your coaching clients here are some key things to pay attention to:

1. Goals need to have a positively stated outcome
2. This outcome needs to be of value to the person having the goal
3. Goals need to be specific
4. They need to be clear
5. They need to be set primarily in areas of strength

References:
Coaching Positively by Matt Driver, McGraw Hill/Open University Press, 2011
Average to A+ Realising Strengths in Yourself and Others by Alex Linley, CAPP, 2009