Setting and Achieving Career Goals
MentorExcellerator™
How the App works
This App allows you to select up to 5 Goals per year for up to 5 years ahead, as well as archive older Goals, and will therefore cover the requirements of most Personal and/or Professional Development Plans (PDPs) as well as most global Professional Bodies and Learned Societies.
How the Goal Quest methodology works
This Goal Quest method allows you to build a strong personal bond and connection to the “emotions of success” which you will experience once you have achieved your Goals.
Your Goal Image, Goal Vision, Motivation for Success and Goal Slogan may change over time and you have the ability to update it and thereby keep it fresh, inspirational and challenging.
One of the hallmarks of all successful and high performance people is their ability to identify, prioritise and achieve defined Goals.
Goals are usually set in the staged pursuit of a greater Goal Vision which they have set for themselves – often involving a balanced combination of both personal and professional targets.
In most instances in the life of students and graduates or even young registered professionals, these Goals may be informed by a professional body, association or institution which provides professional standards and oversight for your chosen discipline and career path.
S
SPECIFIC
Each Goal should be distinctly and uniquely focused. This may include specific references to what, why, when, where, who and how you want to realise the Goal – which may include identifying and achieving professional career objectives, further academic studies, key life skills and / or important financial milestones. Specific targets and other related outcomes expected may include the identification of key people and other essential resources involved.
M
MEASUREABLE
Each Goal must be unambiguously measurable using terms and quantitative metrics that you and a mentor or manager can easily identify with and agree on and you should try to avoid highly subjective metrics which may be prone to more qualitative opinion and personal interpretation. They should include a clear indication of “how” you will measure success.
A
ACTION
Each Goal should be attainable through a clearly defined action orientation approach. This means the Goal can be started, monitored and achieved within a realistic time-frame. Candidacy and young professional registration development programs often require regular proof or confirmation of progress in the form of training and experience reports, log books and journal entries.
R
RESULTS
Each Goal should have very relevant and realistic outcomes identified. “Stretch Goals” are important for high-achievers and getting constructive advice from a mentor or a more experienced person is often a good idea to ensure “reasonableness”. A very useful technique to combine with identifying the actual Result expected is the process of “visualisation” and asking yourself how you will feel when you achieve the Result and / or what may change for the better for you afterwards. This creates an important emotional connection to success.
T
TIME-BOUND
Each Goal should have clearly defined time lines which may be a subset of a larger overall “Goal Vision” time frame. These time lines should be broken down into increments of no longer than 12 months and positive progress measured monthly or quarterly to ensure that there is no serious untracked or unchecked derailment of the Goal taking place.
Monitoring your Goal progress
This App provides the Mentee, as well as their Mentors and Managers with the ability to monitor and evaluate the Mentees progress towards achieving each Goal - measured as a percentage from 0% up to 100% once the Goal is successfully achieved.
A slider is provided which works in increments of 10%.
-
For example: 30 on the slider = 30% achievement of the Goal.
-
All the progress estimates are consolidated and an average is calculated which is shown in the Progress Screen.