Creative Ways to Make Goals Visible
and Compelling
By Kevin Eikenberry
Chief Potential Officer
The Kevin Eikenberry Group
A Companion Learning Tool to this video
KevinEikenberry.com
[email protected]
© 2013 All Rights Reserved
Once you’ve helped a group (or an individual contributor) set some goals, the next thing you
can do as a leader to help them succeed is to help them “see” the goal as already achieved.
Research shows that when we make a goal visible and keep it in front of us, our chances for
achieving that goal increase dramatically.
This Resource outlines eight ideas, stated as single words, that will make your goals (or the
goals of others) more visible and therefore more powerful.
Creating the Vision
First, here are five ways to create the vision and make it real. Give them a shot, even if they
seem strange. The biggest keys to each of them are people having an open mind and providing
a safe environment to try them out.
Clip. Give people newspapers, magazines or catalogs, a glue stick, a piece of flipchart paper or
poster board and a pair of scissors. Ask them to clip out pictures, words, phrases, images –
anything that connects them to the goal or the outcome of the goal. After they have a pile of
clippings, have them create their goal masterpiece as a collage. There are no “right” answers, or
“right” pictures for this exercise. Let people’s minds and thoughts run free.
Draw. Encourage people to draw their thoughts and feelings about the goal and the benefits of
achieving it.
Sculpt. Give people clay and let them create an image, model or symbol of goal success.
Write. Have people write a news story at a predetermined date in the future talking about the
success in reaching the goal. The story should be written in present tense, as if the outcome has
already occurred.
Talk. Have people talk about their feelings, hopes and beliefs about the goal and achieving it.
Capture those thoughts on a tape. If people have trouble doing this alone, have someone
interview them! Note: the interview format could also look more like the “writing a story”
approach above – have the person answer the questions as if the goal has already been wildly
successful.
Note – all of these suggestions are meant to give you options. Each of these approaches leads to
the same goal of clarifying the goal and making it more visible. So let people pick the approach
that they are drawn to.
KevinEikenberry.com
[email protected]
© 2013 All Rights Reserved
Cementing the Vision
Once people have thought about the goal in the creative ways above, here are three next steps.
Share. If you did this exercise for an individual goal, this step may not be necessary. But if you
engaged a team or group of people in creating the vision, now is the time to have people share
what they created. Capture ideas, images and messages that seem to resonate across the group
to build a combined vision. (If you did this as an individual, it will also be powerful to share your
vision with someone else. It will give you a little accountability for your vision since someone
else knows you are working toward it.)
Plan. Once the goal is visualized, continue your goal planning. Include a plan for keeping the
goal visible, which is the next tip.
Post. Once your words, images, photos, and/or artwork is finalized, find ways to keep it visible
for everyone. Post the individual work on a website or bulletin board. Have people post their
personal work in their workspace. Create screen savers or pocket cards. You get the idea – the
goal is to create visual reminders for everyone involved in reaching the goal.
Use all of these visibility ideas as a starting point for your own creativity!
Some of these ideas may seem a bit crazy or risky. That really doesn’t matter. What matters is
that when we find ways to keep our goals more visual, we improve our likelihood of success.
Take a chance – give these ideas a try.
You’ve got nothing to lose, and only your goals to gain.
Your Now Steps
1. Take a personal goal that you now realize could be clearer and apply the first five
techniques.
2. Resolve to help your team do the same thing during your next planning cycle.
KevinEikenberry.com
[email protected]
© 2013 All Rights Reserved
Additional Resources
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For some additional thoughts and writing on all things related to goal setting, check out
this list of articles from my blog.
For a more strategies for improving Goal achievement for yourself and your teams,
check out our Leadership Goal Achievement Pack 2-CD set here.
If you want a powerful set of tools for your Personal Goal Setting, check out our
multimedia achievement package, Start Today – Make Your Next Twelve Months Your
Best 12 Months. Use promo code 20DAYS for either of these products and receive a 20%
discount!
KevinEikenberry.com
[email protected]
© 2013 All Rights Reserved
About Kevin
Kevin Eikenberry is a world renowned leadership expert, a twotime bestselling author, speaker, consultant, trainer, coach,
leader, learner, husband and father (not necessarily in that
order).
Kevin is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry
Group, a leadership and learning consulting company that has
been helping organizations, teams and individuals reach their
potential since 1993. Kevin’s specialties include leadership,
teams and teamwork, organizational culture, facilitating change,
organizational learning and more.
Kevin also is the creator and content developer of The
Remarkable Leadership Learning System, a continual leadership
development process based on his bestselling book, Remarkable
Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a
Time, and focused on developing the 13 competencies of remarkable leaders with virtually
delivered content to leaders worldwide. He is also the developer of the Remarkable Leadership
Workshop, the Coaching Training Camp and the co-developer of the Bud to Boss and Ultimate
Communicator Workshops – all offered in both public and in-house versions across North
America.
KevinEikenberry.com
[email protected]
© 2013 All Rights Reserved