All Goals Are Not Created Equal

My View

When it comes to curating a portrait of leadership, the importance of goal setting is central to the narrative. In education, we write goals on our school site plans, add goals to our performance evaluations, develop goals for our strategic plans and require goals from our students. We are awash in goals.

So if goals are so transformational, why aren’t we realizing the results we want to see? Are goals as essential as we think they are?

Having served at all levels of education, my opinion of goals could best be described as neutral. My neutrality is not in the value of goals. My indifference comes from years of seeing goal setting as the beginning and the end of the conversation.

Educators typically have the right intentions. They set lofty goals and work hard to achieve them. Due to the reality of the demands of our jobs, goal setting typically becomes a box we check, rather than the beginning of an important journey involving planning, execution, reflection and iteration.