Latest / Daily Influence / 647. Why Goals Fail Without Milestones

Transcript

647. Why Goals Fail Without Milestones · Daily Influence

0:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
0:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
0:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
0:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IE Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
0:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Be sure to follow, subscribe, and share Daily Influence with someone who could use a little extra positivity today.
0:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And make us part of your Daily routine, whether it's during your commute on a walk or an quiet moment just for you, because you're influenced matters.
0:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, Brian Smith here with the IM team series and your daily influence in today.
0:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to take us into 2026 and my first podcast talking about why goals can fail and mostly do fail without.
1:05
[SPEAKER_01]: having clear set milestones, which, you know, themselves are objectives.
1:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, most goals don't fail because people don't care about them.
1:15
[SPEAKER_01]: We set those goals because we do care.
1:18
[SPEAKER_01]: We care about whatever it is that goal has been established for.
1:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, New Year's is a good time for this because we have New Year's resolutions.
1:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you've heard us talk over the past many years about why resolutions fail,
1:32
[SPEAKER_01]: This is one of the biggest reasons, no milestones.
1:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So what does that mean?
1:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It's because goals are a declaration.
1:39
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a place that are way down the road.
1:43
[SPEAKER_01]: But then they're left unmanaged.
1:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We fall back into this day-to-day grind that we live in.
1:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not that we want to do that.
1:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But life can be difficult.
1:53
[SPEAKER_01]: It's coming at us from so many different places.
1:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And life is speeding up.
1:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not slowing down.
1:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It most of us feel that way.
2:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Where did last year go?
2:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It's already January.
2:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it doesn't have.
2:07
[SPEAKER_01]: a natural inclination to slow down.
2:10
[SPEAKER_01]: When we set milestones, we force ourselves to slow down.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to talk about why milestones, not motivation, are what actually turn goals into outcomes.
2:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Goals without milestones, they drift and they create drift by the way.
2:27
[SPEAKER_01]: They offer digression, they offer chaos, they offer interruptions.
2:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So it doesn't have reference points and we need
2:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very important that if you don't know if you're ahead behind or off track you can't get a gauge where you're at you're more likely to walk away from a goal or walk away from what's needed to achieve that goal and then they only know if they failed or succeed or we only know if we've failed or succeeded.
2:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we're not setting ourselves up or our teams up with proper goal objective and milestones, then it's like a ship without a router.
3:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It can go anywhere the wind blows.
3:09
[SPEAKER_01]: When a disruption comes, it moves us in that direction, in that direction.
3:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And before you know it, you've ended up someplace you had no intention of being or you're not where you want to be.
3:21
[SPEAKER_01]: milestones will give us, give ourselves, give our leadership, give our teams that orientation they need to stay on course.
3:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not pressure, they replace the hope of getting that goal with some clarity.
3:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, clarity is really important in reaching our goals.
3:41
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing that milestones do is overcome one of the most difficult aspects of leadership.
3:48
[SPEAKER_01]: and also self-management, which is they make accountability natural.
3:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Accountability fails when expectations are vague.
3:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to be accountable for not reaching a goal if the goal is so far away.
4:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You have nothing to measure that path or that journey too.
4:08
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you mean how the
4:13
[SPEAKER_01]: on yourselves or on anybody else if you haven't set the attainment of that goal up properly.
4:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So milestones define what good can look like along the way gives you an opportunity to hold people accountable to smaller
4:30
[SPEAKER_01]: milestones to smaller segments that are required to reach the bigger picture.
4:36
[SPEAKER_01]: They can make conversations more factual instead of emotional.
4:40
[SPEAKER_01]: They can keep you focused on that milestone as a small gore a small place on the way.
4:47
[SPEAKER_01]: When milestones are clear accountability becomes a shared discipline and it's not just a demand or this place where we might end up if we're lucky enough to get there.
4:59
[SPEAKER_01]: finally, milestones turn ambition into managed progress.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that even mean?
5:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, look, ambition sets the direction, right?
5:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to be somewhere, I want to get to a certain point.
5:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes us ambition to even think about what it might be like to reach that goal.
5:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Milestones help us manage that execution, which is so critical to actually goal achievement.
5:25
[SPEAKER_01]: abstract goals into observable progress that builds confidence and momentum.
5:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Each time you hit a milestone, you can get some more momentum.
5:35
[SPEAKER_01]: You can get more excited.
5:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see.
5:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You can measure what it's like to be on that path and to be moving towards something that now actually feels attainable.
5:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you get closer and understand each milestone as you reach it,
5:52
[SPEAKER_01]: The momentum and excitement about getting to the end becomes more infectious.
5:57
[SPEAKER_01]: You can get more people involved, they can start to see the reality of it, and it becomes a really smart place for you to end up.
6:05
[SPEAKER_01]: This is how teams can stay engaged.
6:08
[SPEAKER_01]: This is how progress can be seen, measured, and adjusted.
6:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just assumed.
6:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So look, if you have set goals for 2026, and you want better results,
6:22
[SPEAKER_01]: get there.
6:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Go look at those goals.
6:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't just write a better goal if you think you're going to be all tracked, but build better or any milestones.
6:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Break it up into smaller pieces.
6:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Huddle with your team, understand the milestones, understand the path, make it smart, be specific, add those measurements between milestones that are important to reach in them.
6:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Time, whatever measurement is involved, make them attainable and challenge yourself to that attainability, make sure they're relevant, and then make sure you're starting them at the right time because progress that's visible can be managed and progress that's managed gets achieved.
7:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So, look, I hope that you will take a step back, think about your goals in a more structured way, add some milestones, add some objectives.
7:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you do, I think you will start to see progress moving forward.
7:18
[SPEAKER_01]: You will start to see continuous improvement, which is what we like to see here at the iM team series.
7:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you have a great day and we look forward to seeing you again soon on another episode.