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Locke's Goal Setting Theory: Still Relevant Four Decades Later
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Locke’s Goal Setting Theory gave us the blueprint for modern workplace motivation by making the direct relationship between goals, productivity and employee engagement both clear, and actionable.
In 1968, Edwin A. Locke published his groundbreaking Goal Setting Theory in Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentive. In it, he demonstrated that employees are motivated by clear, well-defined goals and feedback, and that a little workplace challenge is no bad thing. A few years after its publication, Dr. Gary Latham started studying Locke’s theory in practice, and soon confirmed that the link between goal-setting and performance was both real, and crucial. Later, in the 1990s, Locke and Latham collaborated and published A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance, which expanded on 1968’s Goal-Setting Theory, and became a key manual for employee engagement.
Locke and Latham’s five principles of effective goal setting
- Clarity. A goal must be specific and clear.
- Challenge. An easy or tedious goal is demotivating. But keep a realistic balance: don’t expect anyone on your team to spin straw into gold.
- Commitment. Your employees have to understand and buy in to the goal from the outset.
- Feedback. Provide regular feedback throughout the whole process. This helps to keep the goal on track.
- Task complexity. Think about realistic timescales, and break down the process into sub-goals with regular reviews.
The beauty of Locke’s work is that it doesn’t just apply to Goal-Setting, but can also be thought of in terms of other employee engagement drivers.
The concept of Intensity, and the importance of consulting employees on the approach to a goal, highlights a crucial need for autonomy in the workplace. In order for employees to feel intrinsically motivated to complete a task, Locke showed that they need to be involved in its conception, and afforded a degree of freedom in how they tackle it.
Similarly, the value Locke places on setting hard-to-reach goals can be considered as a way to promote a sense of accomplishment. By pushing employees outside of their comfort zone, they are more likely to achieve that overwhelming sense of pride you get when you outperform your own expectations.
One final word from Edwin Locke himself: it is vital to first make sure that employees have the task-based knowledge and essential skills to succeed (think Maslow’s basic needs). As soon as they are equipped to start tackling their targets, managers can maximize their employees’ potential by following the key principles of goal-setting.
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"The best time to set a goal is when you are sufficiently motivated to make and maintain that change. Trying to set goals before that will often lead to failure"
Ginger Clark, PhD.
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Out With The Old...And In With The New....Really??
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Admit it – we all do it. Every year we decide to start January 1st by reinventing ourselves in some novel way. But few of us stick to these resolutions and soon find ourselves falling back on our old ways. The idea of the New Year’s resolution is an important fixture in our society, but so too is the idea of ditching our New Year’s resolution. The concept even has its own holiday. January 17th has been dubbed “Ditch your New Year’s Resolution Day” because it is the most common date people abandon their New Year’s goal.
But maybe the problem is not what we chose to adopt. Maybe the problem is when. Maybe the very act of starting your goal on January 1st sets you up for the impending failure. First, consider what most people do the day before their resolution is enacted. Most of us stay up until midnight or later and consume alcohol to usher in the New Year. Thus, we face the New Year groggy, sleep deprived and hung over. We essentially spend December 31 digging ourselves into a hole that we are forced to climb out of on January 1st. This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that our willpower—or what scientists refer to as self-control—is a very limited resource (Baumeister, Vohs & Tice, 2007). You only have so much of it, and once it is used up, your ability to stick with your goals and resist temptation is threatened. So just getting out of bed and facing the day after the New Year celebration taxes your fuel tank, leaving you with little in reserve to put toward your new resolution.
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In addition to New Year’s festivities, the end of the year also marks the end of a whirlwind of activity. We are exhausted by all those holiday parties, elaborately cooked dinners and straining family interactions.
Businesses are working extra hard to wrap up by the end of their year. Workers owe their end-of-year reports and inventories. Projects all tend to be due at this time of year. And just when we get all of this cleared off our plate, we are hit with a flood of new projects to start out the year. Dealing with all of this stress requires self-control, leaving less available for enacting our new resolutions.
All of this doesn’t mean we are against the New Year’s resolution. Quite the opposite. It is great that once a year we all think about ways to improve ourselves. It’s just than January 1st may be the worst day to start these improvements. So what do we suggest?
First, hold off on starting your resolution for a week. Instead, spend the first week of the New Year planning and preparing for the start of your resolution. Clean out the kitchen of all the holiday cookies and candies. Stock it instead with healthy options like fruits, veggies, lean protein and whole grains. Dust off that treadmill that hasn’t been touched in months or better yet, drag it in front of the TV so there are no excuses. All good military generals prepare and plan before charging into battle. You should too.
Second, avoid starting your resolution on a Monday. Mondays are already taxing, so give yourself a few days to get back into the groove. Start your resolution on a Wednesday or Thursday instead. You increase your likelihood of successfully making it to the weekend, which will only empower you to try for the full week next time.
Third, instead of just designating one day a year to start anew, why not start over each season, or even each month? Instead of setting one large goal for the whole year, set a smaller goal for yourself each month. Treat the first of every month as a chance to re-commit to your goal. This approach takes the pressure off. If you fail at your goal in January, it’s no big deal. You’ll get a redo in February. By focusing on the when in addition to the what, you might just be able to skip that January 17th holiday.
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