Picture this. It’s the regular weekly team catch-up and one of your colleagues is proudly reporting achievement of (what is to them!) meaningful progress. Then, only to be met with scorn and derision by your dismayed and disappointed team leader – and much to the complete bemusement of your colleague.

It’s a common occurrence. And perhaps like me, you’ve had the perspective-expanding experience of sitting in the chair of all 3 primary actors: the bemused team member; the disappointed team leader; and the embarrassed colleague who witnesses the whole thing.

Why does this happen? Why such a disconnect? A key culprit: LESSER GOALS.

The diligent pursuit of lesser goals

“We are kept from our goals not by obstacles, but by a clear path to lesser goals.”

At any given moment, you and your team are pursuing goals. They may not be consciously set; they may not be the “big” strategic goals the team is in place for; they may simply be low-level tasks. But every activity throughout the day has a goal behind it.

Some of those goals are lesser goals: something once highly-prized, but now …not so much.

And that’s just the natural way of things. Business priorities frequently change. New goals enter the team’s purview. Urgency and importance fluctuate with the passing of time. And so, many primary goals get an automatic demotion to Lesser Goal status.

The challenge for leaders and their teams is Lesser Goals hide in plain sight. They’re difficult to let go of (or rather, easy to hang on to). And their auto-demotion from Primary to Lesser Goal is rarely-if-ever accompanied with a clarifying conversation and conscious decision.

As creatures of habit, those (now-lesser) goals stay on our list and continue to get precious time, attention and energy. And that split-focus is always going to be a problem for team efficacy and achievement.

Add to that, that whilst it’s relatively easy to spot – and manage – team members who have drifted into non-goal work (distraction, procrastination, hesitation, indecision, lack of key knowledge and so on), the pursuit of lesser goals – from a distance, at least – looks and sounds a lot like the diligent pursuit of primary goals.

The issue goes unchecked … right up until that embarrassing meeting moment.

Quite clear vs. crystal clear

As anyone who (like me) wears prescription glasses will know, there’s a world of difference between “quite clear” and “crystal clear”. My first leadership coaching challenge for you is:

Exactly how clear are you and the team on your Primary Goals?

Don’t skip past this important piece. Take time to notice if you and the team are absolutely clear – or just quite clear. Notice where, in the team’s week, there is opportunity to do more to promote crystal-like clarity on Primary Goals. (And where there’s opportunity – perhaps frequently taken! – to miscommunicate Primary vs. Lesser Goals.)

What changes are needed? Talk to the team and install them ASAP.

What else is on your list?

Needless to say (a wonderfully ironic phrase that always brings a wry smile to my face): if we’re going to be clear on what IS a primary goal, we’ll need to be clear on what isn’t.

How explicit are you and the team about what else is on the list?

Don’t be afraid to bring into the open all the other things that are being worked on. Don’t shy away from conversations that make the workload apparent, nor highlight the difficulty of much-needed tough decisions. Better to have decisions now, than drama later.

Make it a new habit to be explicit about what Lesser Goals we’ll be dropping to create focus for the Primary Goals. Talk also about the consequences of demoting goals. And make it safe and acceptable for the team to put those to one side.

Action #1: agreeing commitment

“Yes” is only the beginning of a commitment. To support another person in keeping to their commitment, talk to them about the next step. We’re far more committed to specific actions we ourselves have publicised to others, than to a simple agreement to someone else’s request.

What’s the very next action on the Primary Goal?

And what’s the very next action to de-prioritise the Lesser Goal. Create a clear and frictionless path (Action #1) to achieving the Primary Goal. We don’t want the path to our (now) Lesser Goals to be the path of least resistance that’s in everyone’s mind. Place the focus on the Primary Goal and its next action.

2 ingredients to support primary goal pursuit

There are 2 things people universally want from their work, often more than anything else: achievement and recognition. You can use these to support pursuit of the team’s primary goals.

How will you recognise and reward Primary Goal achievement?

Quick wins are motivating: give the next stepping-stone achievement of your primary goals time and attention. Explicitly recognise not just those achievements, but the professional discipline (and it is a discipline) of re-prioritising the focus away from what are now Lesser Goals.

Thanks for reading!

I really appreciate your readership. And if you’d like to receive new articles, as they become available and direct to your inbox, you can do that in the form below or you can subscribe here.