LECTURE SCRIPT (you can also turn on close captioning by clicking the CC button):

Goal setting is vital in every sphere of life.

Goals help people establish priorities, feel a sense of pride, and help them focus on workable plans and actions.

In whatever endeavor you take on, the sooner you name out your goals and plans, the faster you get on track and avoid pitfalls.

Let’s take a marriage for example.

Joe and Jane get married without discussing their goals in life – the big picture.

Joe’s not one for travel and would eventually like to own a farm in Nebraska raising cattle.

Jane is allergic to cattle and her life goal is to travel the world.

You can see how this marriage may run into some major issues down the road.

The same goes for employee and employer relationships.

You ask an interviewee, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Which answer sounds better – “Running my own tech startup” or “running a department in your organization”?

Both five-year goals are great, but considering it takes about three to five years to get employees fully trained and producing within an organization, you may want to reconsider anyone who already has future plans to create a job elsewhere.

In every stage of the employee’s relationship within a company – interviewing, onboarding, placement, promotion – goal setting and planning is necessary.

In the next lecture, we will look at how to identify the correct goals.