In fact, many are so driven to succeed that they cannot fathom the idea of having a single failure.

In his book, Originals, Adam Grant says:

“When achievement motivation goes sky-high, it can crowd out originality: The more you value achievement, the more you come to dread failure.”

It’s not that you should love failure.  No one “loves” to fail.

The question becomes, do you follow your passion and set a high goal – knowing that the chances of failing are significant?  Or do you sell out what you want in your heart, to be “successful” at accomplishing a much smaller goal?

The difficulty is that many people focus on goal attainment versus actual results.  If you want continuing improvement in results – over time – then set big goals, try innovative ideas, and be true to your passion.  You will absolutely fail many times.  But over time, your results will be better and you know will know in your heart that you followed your passion.

Nelson Mandela once said: “Your playing small does not serve the world.”

Play Big!  And if you fall short, get up the next day and play big again.  That will serve the world and your passion.

Here is a way that you can reboot your work-related Resolutions and move your career forward.

The following three-step exercise was taken from an article in Harvard Business Review.  The Press Pause, Play It Back, and Fast-Forward framework provides a way to turn your past experiences into future progress.

1. Press Pause.  Slowing down is often what helps us eventually speed up; zooming out provides the perspective necessary to propel us forward. By identifying successes, you can stretch your strengths; by spotting mistakes, you learn rather than repeat them.  Action: Quiet Questions. Find a quiet environment where you won’t be interrupted. Set a five-minute timer for each of the following questions to think deeply and avoid recency bias:

• When have I learned the most this year?
• What do I feel most proud of?
• Who has helped me at my best?
• How have my strengths helped me succeed?
• What is the one thing I wish I had done differently?

2. Play It Back.  Reflection is most effective when it includes others. Peers often spot insights we miss, and sharing thoughts aloud creates a level of clarity that is otherwise difficult to achieve.  Action: Peer Playback Prompts. Choose a trusted colleague to be your playback partner. Schedule time to answer these prompts together, listening to and learning from each other’s experiences:

• What three words describe your last year?
• What have you found to be most fulfilling and most frustrating?
• When were you at your best this year?
• What “confidence gremlins” (limiting beliefs) got in your way?

3. Fast-Forward.  The final priority is turning awareness into specific action. Instead of creating unrealistic, demotivating to-do lists, be pragmatic about what is possible.  Action: Focus Finder. Complete these definitive “I will” statements and save them somewhere you will see them frequently:

• One learning goal I will make progress on:
• One habit I will commit to:
• One person I will have a curious career conversation with:
• One way I will support someone else:
• One mistake I won’t make again:

New Year Resolutions are often overwhelming.  This simple process, resulting in just a few important next steps, can reboot your Resolutions and provide some insights to move your career forward.  What a nice new year gift you can give to your career!

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Tupper, H. & Ellis, S., “How to Create Your Own ‘Year in Review’,” Harvard Business Review online, December 14, 2023.

The new year is around the corner and you are figuring out how to get your team fired up for the new year.

That’s great.  But before you dive into new year planning, take some time to look back and savor your accomplishments from 2025.

You can do this in just a few hours.  Look through your calendars.  Come up with the top three accomplishments your team had for every month of 2025.  What were the highlights?  Who were the heroes?  Celebrate these!  Ideally you can have a celebratory lunch or dinner to really appreciate all of your accomplishments.  Savor these for a few days.

Then – focus on 2026.

Set the three most important Strategic Goals that your team needs to accomplish in 2026.  Use the following guidelines.  If you already have the goals, use the guidelines to sharpen them up:

• Outcomes.  Set your goals as outcomes – results – not activities you want to complete.
• Specific & Measurable. This is the only way to know if you are on track.  If you have difficulty, try this book as a resource: Make Success Measurable.
• Aggressive.  If you want to get even more innovative, try setting Almost Impossible goals like they do at Google.  Learn more in this brief, free video.
• Relevant.  What are the three most important goals you can set that will advance your larger organizational goals – as well as the vision and mission.
• Time Bound.  Every goal must have a date.
• Outcome Milestones. Set at least four of these during the year to see if you are on track with your results – not your activities.
• SWOTs.  People like to reserve SWOTs for strategy, but you can use them for each goal.  What Strengths do you have that you can leverage to achieve the goal?  What Weaknesses do you need to develop in order to achieve the goal?  What Opportunities can you seize to help you accomplish the goal?  What Threats do you need to keep an eye on so you are not derailed with the goal?  This analysis can help you set your Action Plans.

Your review and savoring of 2025 will set a positive tone and build your team’s confidence.  This will act as a springboard to catapult you into setting and accomplishing your 2026 goals.  Good luck making a Mission Impact in 2026!

Note: There will be no Insights With Impact blog on December 30, 2025.  Enjoy savoring some time off!

Every leader loves it when their team performance is humming along nicely.

But, if this is always the case, you may be losing out on a great learning opportunity through “productive failure.” 

There are many goals that you really do not want a person or team to fail at – such as processing payroll on time or submitting a required report to a government agency.  And many of these goals are binary – you either get them done or not.

Other goals, however, have a performance range.  How big is our profit margin?  What are our quarterly sales numbers?  What is our Net Promoter Score?

Let’s say that you have been working hard on Net Promoter Score (customer loyalty) and your numbers are pretty good – but it would be great to get them higher.  Here is how you can use “productive failure” to learn and grow.

1.  Challenge Your Team to Set a Hard Goal.  Inspire your team to reach even higher and explain the payoffs for the team and the organization.

2.  Assure Them that Learning and Creativity are Paramount.  While achieving the goal is important, explain that the main thing is to try new ideas that you can learn from.

3.  Create a Safe-Fail Zone.  Tell the team – and keep reinforcing this – that this is a “safe-fail” zone in which they are empowered to try new ideas, even if they do not work 100%.

4.  Design and Implement New Ideas.  Enthusiastically implement your new plan and be sure to document the new process.

5.  Don’t Freak over Failure.  If you set the goal high enough, then it is likely your team failed.  You can acknowledge this – but remind the team that they had tried new, creative ideas – which was the main point.  This step is crucial, or your team may never try anything new again.

6.  Conduct an After Action Review.  With a focus on learning, review everything the team did and what you can do better the next time.  Celebrate the learning!  Check here for more on After Action Reviews.

Continuous improvement and growth is a serious competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced work environment.  Use “productive failure” to keep your team improving their Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Morris, S.  “To Help Your Team Learn, Set Them Up for Productive Failure,” Harvard Business Review online, November 6, 2024.

If the proverbial Genie told you that you could set one personal Goal for 2025 and you were guaranteed to be successful, what Goal would you set?

Take your time.  This is an auspicious moment.

And we are not used to thinking this way.  We are used to setting incremental goals based on where we are right now.

But now you can be Aspirational!

If you could really set one, Big Goal – knowing you would not fail – what would it be?

No, I don’t suggest that you actually set that as one of your Goals for 2025.  But don’t disregard it either.  This exercise lets us dream about what we really want – with no boundaries.  It gives you a clue to your Aspirations.  So, even if you don’t set that one exact Big Goal, I encourage you to set at least one of your 2025 Goals in that direction.

For example, perhaps you have not been working out much and your Big Genie Goal is “Work Out Every Day.”  That’s pretty big!  But setting a Goal that is more doable would be a better place to start.

Or if your Goal was “Become the CEO of my organization.”  Maybe this cannot happen that quickly, but perhaps you need to set a Goal to get more serious about that promotion you have been musing about.

While many people are setting their New Year Resolutions this week.  I encourage you to instead set New Year Goals.  You can read more about the difference in this article I wrote for the Washington Post a number of years ago.  And here is a link to some free, short videos that can help you set goals most effectively.

The New Year is an exciting time to set goals and to consider how to have an even more fulfilling and impactful life. I encourage you to try this exercise today and set some empowering, aspirational goals for 2025.  Good Luck and Happy New Year!

That sounds kind of harsh, so allow me to explain.

It is true that research shows that higher goals generally lead to higher levels of performance.

Unfortunately, this is as far as some leaders have read in their “how to be a boss” book.

The “higher goals” only work if:

a) People think they can actually accomplish the goal, and

b) They will receive some kind of “reward” that they value if they do accomplish the goal. The reward could be “extrinsic” – like a pay raise, or even “intrinsic” like a student telling you they learned a lot from a class you taught.

Many times leaders seem to create big goals out of thin air, without regard as to “how” it will be done.  The staff team knows this and has no clue on how to accomplish the goals; which disempowers them.  This is what makes the big goals: Stupid.  A “bad boss” might say “you just have to figure that out” or “work harder.”  People who are afraid for their jobs might work harder for you for a while.  But it won’t last long.

A better idea is to involve your team in setting the goals and work with them to show how they can get it done.

Talk with your team about the importance of the goal and what it will mean for the organization.  Talk about what it could mean for them, even if it is just “intrinsic.”  Examples: “we can be the team that put on the best client appreciation event ever” or “it will mean a lot to everyone else in the organization that we were able to pull this off.”  This could make your big goals: Inspiring.

I know that you want to push your team and that you are worried that they will want to set easy goals.  But people generally like to work hard.  If you can show that you are there to work with them to figure out how to accomplish the goal, then you can build their confidence and get them on board.

People can and will do some amazing things if you work with them properly.  For more on how to get great things done with goals, check out this series of short, free videos on The Power of Goals.

Here are three steps you can take to focus your passion.

First, take some quiet time and ask yourself the question:

“What would the world look like if I could have it any way I wanted it?”

As you answer this question, you will note that there is a big gap between the kind of world you want and what the world looks like now.  Next ask yourself:

“Given my strengths, what impact do I want to make in the world?”

Then finally, ask yourself:

“What three goals can I set during the next year that will make that impact?

Then of course you will want to create action plans around these goals and get to work.  To learn more about The Power of Goals, check out this link.

As you ask yourself these questions, it could give you more focus in your current job.

Or, maybe it will give you ideas about passions you want to explore in your volunteer life.

It could even lead you to explore new work opportunities.

Following our passions gives life more meaning and allows us to connect with others who have similar passions.  Reflect on these questions today and give your passion more focus.

SWOT it!  SWOT is not just for organization strategy.

First, imagine yourself accomplishing this new, big goal.  (Check here to learn more about The Power of Goalsetting.)

Next – with that goal in mind – ask yourself:

What Strengths do I have that can help me achieve that goal?  Don’t list all of your strengths, just the ones that you think might be helpful in achieving the goal.

What Weaknesses do I have that I may need to address in order to reach the goal.  Again, don’t list all your weaknesses.

What Opportunities exist that you maybe able to seize to accomplish this goal.

Finally, what Threats do you need to watch out for that could derail you.

Now what?

First, evaluate the Weaknesses.  Will these really get in the way or possible just hold you back a little?  If they aren’t such a big deal, don’t worry so much about them at this point.  If they are significant, then make a plan to address them.  Do you need to develop new knowledge or a skill?  Or – is this something that you can partner with someone on?  If so, ask for their assistance.

Next, look at your Strengths and Opportunities.  Do these line up in any way?  Are there ways for you to seize an Opportunity with one or more of your Strengths?  If so, this needs to be a priority; add that to your plan.

Once you address a Weakness, does that open up a way to pursue an Opportunity?  If so, make that a part of your plan.

Don’t ignore the Threats, just keep an eye on them.  If you think that they pose a significant problem then make some plans to address them.

SWOT gives you a nice tool to use to methodically brainstorm how to accomplish any goal.  Use it to build an even more joyful and fulfilling life!

Sorry about this, but – if you are like most of those people – you will fail.

Here are some tips to increase your chances of success:

*Start Small.  If you have not been working out, then setting a goal to workout for an hour everyday is probably not going to happen.  Start with something much more doable for the first few months – maybe two or three times a week for fifteen minutes.

*Make Your Goals Specific and Measurable.  This way you will be able to clearly monitor success.  Ask yourself “how will I know I am making progress on my goal?”

*Make a Realistic Plan.  Any new goal requires thoughtful consideration of your plan – and keep it simple.  A complicated plan increases your chances of failure.

*Connect Your Plan to a Calendar.  Depending on your goal, there will probably be better or worse times to work on your goal.  Make sure that your calendar supports your chances of success.  For example, many people choose to workout in the morning so they are not drawn into last minute meetings that run past the workday.

*Seek and Reward Progress.  If you wanted to work out twice in the first week of the new year and you did one workout, then give yourself a “star.”  That is more than you did the prior week.  If something happened that thwarted your plan, then adjust it moving forward.

For more ideas on how to succeed with your New Year Goals, check out the excellent book, Atomic Habits.  Check out this blog for an overview.

Good luck with your New Year’s Goals and have a SuperFantastic 2024!

However, aside from the signing bonuses and long term guaranteed contracts worth millions of dollars, in a lot of ways we should all be paid like athletes as well.

How do you know if your favorite athlete is having or has had a good year?  What do you look at?

You look at their performance statistics.

For example, one of my friends is frequently updating me on the prowess of Women’s College Basketball player, Caitlin Clark, from University of Iowa.  A check of the stats of the top scorers  will show us that she is second in the country.  Wow – sounds like she is having a good year.  And when you look directly at Clark’s stats we see that she has been very good for all three years she has been in college.  When she turns pro next year, her evaluation should turn into a good contract.

Are you having as good a year as Clark?  What data will you look at to decide that?

In the book, First, Break All the Rules – published by the Gallup Organization – the authors make the point that one of the most important things a manager can do is to set the OUTCOMES they want each employee to accomplish.

If you do not know the OUTCOMES that are expected of you, then get to work on that.  If you want help, check out the excellent book by Doug Smith, Make Success Measurable.

Some people want to judge how well an employee is doing based on whether they accomplished their goals or not.  If an employee knows this, then they are going to set low goals – which is counterproductive!

Caitlin Clark is scoring 27.6 points per game this year.  If we found out that she had set a goal to score 35 points/game this year would we say she is having a failing year?  No!  That would be idiotic.

Evaluating yourself and others based on their performance – on the OUTCOMES they produce – is the way to go.  Not on whether they met some arbitrary goals or – worse – how hard you think they are working.

Baseball legend Babe Ruth was once asking for a big raise and writers told him that this meant he would make more money than President Hoover, to which Ruth replied “I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.”

Make sure you have the performance metrics to be evaluated in the same way.