Are you a Goal Seeker?

Students want to be successful however in the absence of a clear roadmap, they keep on moving on the path which is visible and is in their comfort zone. A lot of students also want to grow fast in life. They pursue management program with a thought that it will fulfil all their needs. Some students take it as one more educational degree and do not seriously plan their goals.

The need for every management student is to address following questions to have more clarity about their professional development:

1.What is a goal?
2.Why set goals?
3.Why is it important to recognize importance of goal setting?
4.What do they mean to an individual?
5.Why are they so important to an individual’s success?
6.Who is responsible for goal setting?
7.What can they accomplish?
8.Where to locate opportunities for useful goals?
9.How to connect all the small goals to create a big goal?
10.How to create action plan?

Goal setting is a well-defined process which is aligned with the need identified, it motivates and guides toward attainment of goals. It is one of the most important components of personal and professional development.

Not many MBA students realize importance of goal setting. In the absence of a goal, there is no correlation between direction and commitment resulting in average performance and hence there is no solid reason to stay motivated.

According to the theory of goal setting and task performance (1990),
Dr. Locke, Gary Latham) in order to motivate employees, goals must have following elements:

a)Clarity
b)Challenge
c)Commitment
d)Feedback
e)Task Complexity

To stay motivated, it is important for a management student to have well defined, challenging yet achievable goals. Only few management institutes have been helping their students to set their goals.

Vague goals do not have built in motivation and therefore they are unable to drive an individual.

Usually, management institutes choose to support students who determine goal seeking behaviour. This include students who are confident, action – oriented and love winning. These students also habitually select activities where they have a chance of winning.

It is often observed that most of the students worry more about the ways and means of reaching their destination without first identifying or determining as to where they wish to go.

Students passing out of MBA institutes get placements and these students focus on earning money with a hope that job and money will help them to attain goals which are worthwhile. They realise later that they have not spent enough time setting meaningful goals.

According to Charles L. Hughes ‘a goal is an end, a result, not just a task or a function to be performed. It is a place in space and time that describe the condition we want to achieve. It is a standard of achievement, a criterion of success, something tangible, measurable and valuable that we are motivated towards.’ It is concrete and explicit, definite, desirable and predetermined. It should drive our actions and help us achieve our plans.

Students can have both long term and short term goals. Long term mission will help them to create short term goals.

We, as individuals, are responsible for what we are and what we want to become. Life gives us choices. There is no one to decide everything for us.

Points to be remembered for goals setting:

1.Establish specific goals;
2.Determine importance of these goals;
3.Make action plans;
4.Have performance measurement criteria;
5.Anticipate problem which may occur in the journey;
6.Specify the resources required to carry out the action plan; and
7.Measure the planned versus achieved

It can be difficult for management students to set truly meaningful goals which can motivate and drive them. They should learn step by step process of setting their goals and BRIMS could be a right place for anybody who is struggling to set goals.