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Goal Setting with Your Strengths

Does setting and getting goals light you up and get you groovin? Or maybe you’re not a big fan.

Either way, this episode focuses on how to set yourself up for success – by using your Strengths, of course!

We believe that when you approach goal setting through the lens of your individual talents, it not only makes the process more enjoyable but also opens up a whole new realm of possibilities that you might not have considered before.

Tune in for personal anecdotes and insights about how leveraging your strengths can transform your goals from mundane tasks into inspiring challenges. We discuss the importance of having a solid action plan and the value of check-ins to keep you on track.

Plus, we emphasize that even if a goal feels outside your natural strengths, you can still use your unique talents to achieve it. So, whether you’re looking to set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal or just want to make your bed every day (no judgment here!), this episode is packed with tips and strategies to help you set it and get it!

Work With Us On Goal Setting with Your Strengths!

BREA Roper
Communication | Woo | Activator | Futuristic | Connectedness

If you need a Strengths Hype Girl, for yourself or your team, connect with Brea at brearoper.com. She’s ready to deliver an inspirational keynote, empowering training, or transformational workshop. If you’re looking for an expert guide to support your internal Strengths efforts, reach out today!

LISA Cummings

Strategic | Maximizer | Positivity | Individualization | Woo

To work with Lisa, check out team workshops and retreats at the Lead Through Strengths site. For 1:1 strengths or life coaching, check out the Get Coached link. For independent coaches, trainers, and speakers, get business tools support with our Tools for Coaches membership.

Takeaways on Goal Setting with a Strengths Lens

• Strengths-based goals set you up for success: Setting goals through the lens of your unique strengths can lead to more meaningful and attainable objectives. By focusing on what energizes and excites you, you can create goals that feel natural and motivating.
• Think beyond SMART Goals: While SMART goals are a great starting point, it’s essential to think outside the box. Incorporating your strengths into the goal-setting process can help you identify opportunities and areas for growth that traditional methods might overlook.
• Strength doesn’t happen by accident. Strength, or as Gallup defines it, “consistent, near-perfect performance” doesn’t happen by accident. To achieve the best outcome,use your talents to bring intention and clear direction to your goals.

Take Action – Add a Layer of Thought to Set Goals with Your Strengths in Mind This Time

• Explore Your Strengths: Take time to identify your unique strengths and consider how they can inform your goal-setting process. Reflect on what comes naturally to you and what you enjoy.
• Create an Action Plan: Simply setting a goal isn’t enough; you need a step-by-step action plan to achieve it. Without a clear strategy, it’s easy to lose focus and get sidetracked. Consider using tools (like sticky notes or vision boards) that align with your strengths to keep you organized and motivated.
• Goal Setting With Your Strengths for Talent Development: Consider setting goals that focus on developing your talents further. This can lead to new opportunities and enhance your overall performance.
• Use Accountability: Find an accountability partner or coach to help you stay focused on your goals. Regular check-ins can help you assess your progress and make necessary adjustments.

Let’s Connect!

• LISA: Website | LinkedIn | Facebook
• BREA: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram

AI-Generated Transcript on This Episode: Goal Setting with Your Strengths

Lisa:

Hey, I’m Lisa.

 

Brea:

And I’m Brea.

 

Lisa:

And today’s episode is all about goal setting.

 

Brea:

Oh my gosh, we came in with giggles because I was like stretching and groaning like an old person as I was getting ready for the record button to go. So funny.

 

Lisa:

It would be great if one of those kind of noises, I guess, included, you know? Yes, I love letting them in. And my back cracking as I’m like crouching in my chair. We’ll have to overdub some back cracks. Oh my gosh.

 

Lisa:

Hi, everybody. Yeah. Hey, everyone. And a double hello to Ricardo. I want to give him a shout out. He has been a listener, oh my gosh, I don’t know how long, for eight years, nine years. He’s been a listener forever and has been giving feedback over the years and has just been a great, great listener and strengths peer. So shout out to Ricardo for suggesting the topic of goal setting.

 

Brea:

Okay, love that. Thank you, Ricardo.

 

Lisa:

Yes. And I think, Brea, you tell me what you think here. I’m going to say you have to give an obligatory nod to SMART goals because it’s the standard everyone talks about. So if you’re a listener and you’ve never heard of SMART goals, it stands for, it’s an acronym, it stands for Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

 

And yes, those are great standards to make sure your goals are concrete and ready to go and in a form that feels gettable. And with that, I would like to quickly move right off of SMART goals so that we can give you some insights and things to think about that are different from every other goal setting podcast or article you’ve ever read. What do you think, Brea?

 

Brea:

Yeah, you know, we’re talking about strengths. We’re talking about goals through a lens of strengths. So already it’s different because, as everyone on this podcast knows, your strengths are as unique to you as Well, there is nothing more unique. They are 100% unique to you, the blend of your talents. So already, just if you are leaning into your strengths when you are approaching goals, it’s already going to be unique to you. So let’s dive in.

 

Lisa:

Yes. You know, as you said that what pinged for me was When I’m deciding on my goals, what comes to my mind first is traditional goal setting stuff like, okay, let’s think of the workplace and what are some metrics I want to move for the year? What are my revenue goals? I start to think of things like that. And when I think of strengths and add that in, I add things that I never would have thought of otherwise. So for example, I lead through positivity, individualization, woo, I have these need for people kind of themes, and I’ve worked from home for over 15 years.

 

What I’ve realized is if I don’t have goals that relate to social things, I start to lose myself a little bit and I just don’t realize it’s that important for me to be around other humans physically because you can just be heads down in your work and forget. So I think that’s an example personally of where goal setting with a lens of strengths, it could even tell me which ones to set that I might overlook entirely that’ll be really valuable to me as a human. How about for you?

 

Brea:

Yeah, totally. Using our strengths for goal setting automatically broadens the scope of where you can go and what you can achieve. And it’s attainable because it’s coming from a place of strength, right? So it feels like, oh, this is a surprise. I’ve never really thought about setting a goal like this. And at the same time, it feels so doable and so natural and exciting, hopefully, you know, to think about going for that.

 

Lisa:

Yeah, yeah. And they also give you. different approaches. If I think of mine, strategic’s my number one. I love to get a list going of possibilities, and it’s quick. But here are things I could focus on for the year. Here are things that might be important. And then I know that if I’m realistic, I can’t do 40 top goals. That doesn’t make any sense.

 

So instead, I can use strategic to say, what’s most important for me? What are my priorities? And boom, I’m picking these two and that’s it. And if I need to pivot later, cool, I will. And it allows me to do that. I love that. And I think my maximizer number two, it really drives me to set a goal and a BHAG, you know, the Big Hairy Audacious Goal, so that I can challenge the standard and challenge my potential and get a little bit of fun out of having the goal and then having the Big Hairy Goal.

 

Brea:

Yeah. I love that.

 

Lisa:

What do you think?

 

Brea:

Yeah. I, I just, I’m thinking about, well, I’m thinking about why, why is setting goals so important and also why do so many people not do it? And also for those of us that do do it, like, why is it so hard? to finish. And I wonder if part of that is just because we are setting the wrong goals. Like you said, if we think about this through the lens of our strengths, we’re able to set goals that can help set us up for success versus, you know, younger Brea would use goal setting to make my bed every day.

 

And, I just am not an everyday bedmaker and I’ve wasted so much time going after that goal, but it’s just not a goal that’s worth my effort. So I think this idea of setting goals through the lens of your strengths is so important because it helps you choose the right goals. And then the big hairy audacious, um, what’s the G in beehive? Oh, Oh my gosh, I crack myself up. Okay, as soon as I said it, it was like right there.

 

Lisa:

It’s like pin number, personal identification. What’s the N? Oh my gosh. It’s a pin number. It’s a BHAG goal. I think it’s the same situation. So you’re off the hook.

 

Brea:

Yeah, that’s so funny. So the BHA goal is, I forgot what I was saying. I don’t even remember.

 

Lisa:

I’ve got to jump on the insight then while your brain can bring it back to you. I think what you said, it felt like a metaphor that happens in the workplace all the time. So at year end, especially, but it happens at all different times of the year when people have to do their individual development plan for the year. It’s required that they do formal goal setting and document it at work.

 

Of course, sometimes you have assigned goals where it’s like, here’s your goal. Go figure out how to meet it. And you can do that through strengths really well as well. But there’s this opening on these IDPs, the individual development plans, for so many people because you’re supposed to come up with a few of your own development goals. And what do people do?

 

They come up with goals that they think someone else wants to see. And what I just heard you saying, it reminded me of this same situation. Maybe they’re making Make your bed goals. They’ve tried it and it was a meh goal. Well, those aren’t fun to achieve. Those don’t motivate you and pull out your potential. And if you use your strengths as a filter, they’re going to be fun, or at least more fun. They’re going to inspire something in you. There’s going to be a spark.

 

And if you set your goals the way you think someone else believes you should, well, of course, they might not be that motivating for you. They might not sound that exciting. So I think strengths as a lens of goal settings, oh, it’s so smart because all that stuff we talk about with the ease, ease, energy, enjoyment, excellence. If you set your goals aligned with strengths, it’s going to bring all of those things out in you.

 

Brea:

Totally. Yeah, I 100% agree. I’ve been that person. I think most, if not all, of our listeners have been there, so totally that resonates. Yeah, the BHAG doesn’t seem so big, hairy, and audacious if it’s aligned with your strengths.

 

Because what feels big to us or hairy to us or audacious to us are often the goals that are not in alignment with our strengths, right? Because like you just said, if we’re setting goals that are in alignment with our strengths, then it feels easy. It feels energizing. It feels like excellence is attainable, right? We’re excited for it. We enjoy it. That does not feel like big hairy audacious, right?

 

Lisa:

I think, okay, so big, yes. Audacious, yes. Hairy, maybe not. But I would think like be careful with what kind of audacious, what kind of big, what kind of hairy. What a funny conversation. But I would say, okay, let’s do an example. If I say, I want to double my number of members in Tools for Coaches. That sounds possible.

 

But I could set an audacious goal to triple it. And is it possible? Yeah, I think it’s possible. And I like the stretch in the brain on something that sounds really exciting for me, something that is strengths aligned if I allow it to be. and I do it in a way that is of service to the members and in alignment with my strengths at the same time, then the audacious part of it feels amazing.

 

So instead of audacious being outlandish, it would be audacious because it’s like, ooh, this is just a little possibility that I’m seeding in my mind so that I can start marinating on how I could actually pull that off.

 

Brea:

Yeah, and I think when we use our strengths, we can do that, right? The big hairy audacious becomes possible.

 

Lisa:

What about accomplishing goals? Let’s say it’s a goal. Now it’s set. You’ve done your SMART goals, you’ve picked a BHAG or a stretch or whatever version of it, and you’ve done it. with your strengths in mind. It feels aligned with you, with you as a person. So your goals are set.

 

Brea:

And now you got to go get them.

 

Lisa:

You got to go get it. Brea’s got the ultimate rhyme. Set it and get it. So now we’re on the get it phase. How do you use your strengths? What does that even look like if you’re using your strengths to accomplish what’s already set?

 

Brea:

Yeah. So we’ve talked about how setting the right goal is setting yourself up for success. But then you got to go get it. And you can’t just like set the goal and say, okay, cool, and then have no plan. And I think that’s the second place that people fall down is that they don’t have a step-by-step action plan of how they’re actually going to get there.

 

So it’s kind of like Babe Ruth steps up to the plate and he points to where he’s going to just crush this Homer But if I did that, the ball would not go where my finger is pointing, you know what I mean? Like, I have no plan, I have no practice. That’s where I think a lot of us fail in our goal getting is there’s no strategy, there’s no plan, there’s no step-by-step. So gotta give yourself some direction.

 

Lisa:

Direction, intention, you know, which you also brought out for me is the difference that in the same thing, let’s say the same, goal, I’m going to use this in quotes, because you might not do goal setting. If you were Babe Ruth, you’re not like I am goal setting to hit the ball over there in that moment. But if it were you, you would have to because of all the things that would have to come to lead up to it. So the relative part of this is cool because we’re one person’s task is another person’s goal.

 

Thinking back to some recent coaching conversations – I had one recently where person manages her goals and tasks with sticky notes really masterfully. And I think that’s kind of neat to see. Yeah. And if you imagine adaptability, arranger, those kind of things, or someone has all the stuff and Achiever was on board. All the things that you have to accomplish, they can get scratched off and thrown out. They can get pushed over to another category on the side.

 

Goals can be stacked. If there’s a project involved, the next action is the one that’s on top. I was getting the whole visual of this thinking, this sounds so beautiful and strength aligned. And the next person who leads through futuristic and strategic and positivity, maybe they love vision boards to get them started, and then they turn that into concrete action.

 

And maybe the next person who leads through competition and analytical, they’re all about the metrics and understanding where they came from last year, where they’re headed to this year, what the industry standard is, how they’re going to nail it, how they need to break it down by month.

 

And all those different examples, those are really different paths to possibly hitting the same exact goal. It’s using your strengths to find the approach that is fun to you because your strengths are aligned.

 

Brea:

Yeah, that’s so good. Yeah. I think something you’re bringing up is, um, guardrails or just like check-ins, you know, depending on the goal, depending on the length of the project or, you know, the timeline that you have, you might need to have little milestone goals, right? You might need to put in some check-ins to say, let’s look at the data. How are we doing? Are we making progress?

 

Because that’s the worst is if you set a goal and you start running after it, and then. you know, squirrel and you get distracted, something comes up and all of a sudden you’re off on another tangent. So if you can’t be that person for yourself, if you can’t set those, those boundaries or those guardrails for yourself, then maybe it’s finding an accountability coach, or maybe it’s taking advantage of weekly check-ins with your manager or whatever it might be.

 

Lisa:

Yeah, I like that. How do I know what else needs to happen to keep me on target or to check in? Whether, like you said, whether that’s accountability partners or using, for example, using some relationship themes to reach out to people who have been in that industry longer than you so that you could get some data points outside of the ones you know, but you could do that through relationships.

 

You could sit back and do some reflection and thinking or research with your thinking themes. Just go through the domains. I just went through two of them, but you can go through and think about different ways to approach it based on the domains you’re dominant in.

 

Brea:

Yeah, this is so important. If you’re given a goal, okay, bring your strengths. How can I use my talents to accomplish the goal that has been set before me? Even if it’s not, let’s say, most naturally aligned. Maybe it’s an execution goal and executing is your lowest domain. Okay, that’s fine.

 

You can still get there using your strengths. You can also do goal setting with your strengths to actually develop your talent. What a great use of time, energy, resources. You know, the definition that Gallup gives us for strength is consistent, near-perfect performance. That does not happen by accident, okay? So you need to be intentional. So let’s set some goals to develop our talent and build strength, create new strengths, and go out there and just crush life, you know?

 

Lisa:

Yes, I’m loving what you just brought up. And it made me think of this example of a person in a workshop a couple of years ago. She led through connectedness. She told me she had been squashing it down at work and that that was more of her personal strength with friends, family, social, etc. But she kind of put it in a drawer for work because she had the sense that it wasn’t hard driving and logical enough. and didn’t think it was useful at work.

 

So she set a goal, to your point, to develop connectedness and see what it looks like at work. And pretty soon she’s realizing, oh, this is how I build rapport. Oh, my kindness takes the edge off when I really need to push hard. Oh, connectedness, it helps me see downstream effects that others don’t see. It helps me see how our work is connected to the end user. She came up with 20 things that it was valuable for as she got into it. Yeah, and she did it because she set the intention to work on one that she had been totally shutting off in the workplace.

 

Brea:

Yeah, and I think that’s a great example of, and I hear it from clients too, this is a great exercise to help you get to the goal setting process. Just start looking at your strengths, start looking at what is easy for you, what’s natural for you, what you enjoy, and dreaming about how you can grow that – how you might be able to bring that to a place or a person or a task that you normally don’t. And then all of a sudden you’re like, oh wow, look at all these opportunities, right? And then you can do goal setting with your strengths to help you get there more easily.

 

Lisa:

Beautiful. Inspired action.

 

Brea:

Ooh, love. Hello.

 

Lisa:

Oh, I got snaps.

 

Brea:

Love it.

 

Lisa:

Okay, we got snaps, but we also need to tell people how to work with us because what if they want our help in exploring their goals? So, Brea, tell them. If they want some goal-setting work with their strengths and they want Brea Roper in the house, how do they find you?

 

Brea:

Well, if you are ready to go for your own snaps, then come to my website, brearoper.com. Set up a call. We’ll figure out if we’re a good fit to work together. How about you, Lisa?

 

Lisa:

Come to leadthroughstrengths.com/getcoached and we can do a one-off session on goal setting or any topic you have on your mind.

 

Brea:

Love it. Don’t forget to use your strengths to set it and get it.

 

Lisa:

Set it and get it.

 

Brea:

But don’t forget it.

 

Lisa:

Yes. Don’t forget it.

 

Brea:

Don’t forget your strengths when you’re setting and getting goals.

 

Let’s Connect!

• LISA: Website | LinkedIn | Facebook
• BREA: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram