The Science of Goal Setting
As Coaches, we know intuitively how important goals are for clients to achieve desired outcomes.
I imagine you use goals in your personal and professional life. There is good reason for that.
Goals have a profound effect on our motivation. They give us focus, a sense of meaning to sometimes meaningless tasks, and they can boost our confidence. Goals increase our level of effort, especially to persist during setbacks.
We have learned a great deal about goal setting over the past half-century of research.
Here are some of the findings I think are most interesting and relevant to us as coaches:
- Specific, challenging goals lead to higher performance than “do your best” goals.
- Take ability into account. Set realistic expectations to avoid aiming too high or too low.
- Build commitment. How much your goals matter, matters.
- Gather accurate feedback to track progress.
- Have a plan. Decide on tactics and steps rather than leaving it to chance.
- For complex, difficult goals, use sub-goals to manage progress.
- Set learning goals when you need to build knowledge or skill, and performance goals when you already know how to reach the result.
- Monitor your self-talk. Keep it positive.
- Consider situational resources and minimize constraints.
- Tell people what your goal is and get their support.
Consider how you can apply these principles and insights to help yourself and your clients achieve your goals.
Please join us next month for our next chapter meeting,
The Four Cs of Care: A Framework for Ethical Coaching, led by Jordan Mercedes, MCC. If you’re looking to fulfill your ethics education requirement, you don’t want to miss this session.
See you next month,
Chris King
2026 President, ICF Iowa Chapter
References:
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and
task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705
Seijts, G. H., & Latham, G. P. (2005). Learning versus performance goals: When should each
be used? Academy of Management Executive, 19(1), 124–131. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841964