For Business Goal-Setting, Less Is More
When you’re growing your business, you’re naturally in a “more” mindset.
More revenue. More clients. More people. More technology. More efficiency. More processes. More profit. More visibility.
But the way you actually get to more? Doing less.
***
Over decades of starting, growing, selling and consulting businesses, I’ve come to realize something.
The way you set goals—the approach, the framework, the guidelines, and the mindset—matter as much as the goals you actually set.
And here’s what I see with companies that want to grow, that are paying attention, and that, like all of us, feel the need to constantly do more.
They try to take on way too much.
Focus is about…focus.
It’s not about reorganizing a long list of to-do items. Teams talk about their priorities and then immediately set goals that spread themselves way too thin to make meaningful impact. (Technically, only one thing at a time can be the true priority…think about that for a moment.)
This sounds like tactical advice: set fewer goals. But it goes much deeper than that. It’s about where your team’s attention and energy goes, and if you fundamentally understand how to achieve the outcomes you’re looking for in your business.
***
If I asked a leadership team member, “What does your business need to win?” I might get a laundry list of responses, conveniently distributed across every function of the company.
But if their life was on the line, I’d get one answer—in 5 seconds or less.
Your company has challenges. Dozens of them. I get that. But not every challenge can be solved in the near future (i.e., the next 90 days). Some challenges will solve themselves when you address bigger, root cause issues. And, importantly, not every challenge is a company-level leadership concern.
When a team can understand the difference between company-level goals and departmental-level ones, it’s a sign they’re maturing and building a stronger business.
Want the shortcut question to ask to differentiate between the two?
“If we didn’t accomplish this goal, but we did accomplish our other goals, would we still be happy with our progress?”
If the answer is yes, then it cannot be anything beyond a departmental-level goal.
Answer this question honestly, and it will slice through the performative goal-setting that can happen during strategic planning.
***
Okay, you’re thinking, how do I figure out these 1-3 things, maximum, I need to prioritize?
The CEO role is critical. They need to set a strong vision for the company, and they also need to trust their gut.
Instinctively, many of your team members may already know what really matters for the business.
There’s no set formula, but there are patterns. As I work with companies to whittle down their goals, we often discover:
- A goal around hitting your metrics (revenue, sales targets, etc.)
- A goal related to something you do well and need to double down on: marketing strategy, acquisitions, client delivery
- Maybe: a goal related to an experiment you are running; something unknown you are testing that needs strong commitment from the team (note that often these experiments are only departmental-level)
A longer planning meeting isn’t necessarily a better one. The value is in the quality of the work done, and if that work becomes a half-day, with two major priorities that emerge, that’s far more effective than taking a full day to build a list of 7 goals that will be half-completed by the end of the quarter.
And if you’re really struggling to narrow down your goals, try this. Make a “not-to-do” list as well. Explicitly call out the things you won’t focus on. Surface the tradeoffs.
Those goals will be there, if needed, to pick up next quarter or next year…but you’ll likely find that most of them never rise to the level of importance you think they will.
Embrace doing less. Do less with full commitment and full focus.
And I bet you’ll end up with far more than you think.
