Goal setting is crucial to all aspects of our lives. We set targets for everything from good health to weight loss, relationships, personal achievements, and of course, in our careers.
For the ambitious Salesforce star, a goal places a specific milestone or target in your future, so you know exactly what you’re working towards next.
At the start of a new year, motivations are high, and the desire to set new goals is greater than ever. You’ve had a chance to reflect on the previous year’s accomplishments and determine what you want to do next. However, before you dive straight into identifying your new targets, it’s important to have the right goal-setting strategy in mind.
Here’s how to set the right goals in 2023.
1. Explore the Possibilities
Staying focused on one target at a time is a great way to make sure you actually achieve your goals. You can have different goals for different categories of your life, such as one for work and one for your health, but don’t overwhelm yourself with too many aspirations at once.
According to psychologists, too many goals mean your targets constantly compete for your time and attention. Whenever you add a new focus into the mix, you’ll need to pull energy away from your other pursuits.
If you decide you want to take a new Salesforce Trailhead course, for instance, you’ll achieve the highest levels of productivity by focusing on finishing that course before you start anything else.
To decide where you should be focusing your goals on, ask yourself:
- What do I want to accomplish in the next [set period]?
- What skills do I need to work on, or changes should I make to reach this goal?
- What am I most excited about doing in my career right now?
- Which goals will make me more valuable to my employer?
- Which goals can help me enjoy a better level of wellbeing at work?
2. Break Big Goals Down into Smaller Steps
One of the main reasons people struggle with New Year’s resolutions and traditional goal setting is that they’re too ambitious with their initial vision. While it’s fine to have a big long-term goal you want to work towards, failing to break that target down into more manageable steps could leave you paralysed before you ever begin.
Setting a goal that’s too large may leave you wondering where to get started or how you’re ever going to accomplish your targets. It leads to increased stress, reduced motivation, and eventually completely giving up on your goals.
Instead of focusing entirely on one major goal, break your larger targets down into smaller steps. For instance, if you’ve decided you want to be a senior Salesforce Marketing Cloud consultant and you’re currently just learning about Salesforce for the first time, you’ll have a multi-step journey ahead of you.
Your first goal might be to join market cloud communities within the Salesforce ecosystem to learn from other people on the same route as you and make 5-10 valuable networking connections. Your next goal could be to take a Salesforce marketing cloud course and work towards your consultant certification with Trailhead.
Make each larger goal more manageable by splitting it into short-term, more achievable objectives.
3. Make Your Goals SMARTER
One of the best ways to boost your chances of successful goal setting in the Salesforce world is to learn the value of SMART goals. The term “SMARTER” stands for:
- Specific: Be clear with your goal statements, such as: I want to complete at least three Salesforce courses by the end of this year.
- Measurable: Quantify what you want to achieve, such as deciding on completing “three” courses.
- Achievable: Make sure you can reasonably achieve your goal without sacrificing work-life balance.
- Realistic: Be reasonable with what you expect of yourself.
- Timely: Choose a specific time-frame for your accomplishments (such as the end of this year, quarter, or in the next 5 months).
- Empowering: Your goals should drive you towards a positive, specific outcome.
- Reviewable: Goals need to remain flexible in a changeable environment like the Salesforce sector. As the industry changes, your targets might evolve too.
Setting smarter goals ensures you’re thinking carefully about each of the targets you set and how you’re going to reasonably achieve them.
4. Be More Flexible
Like many industries, the Salesforce ecosystem is evolving at a dramatic pace of late. Demand for ambitious Salesforce experts is increasing while new opportunities and technology appear all the time. Just like changes in your personal life can influence your personal goals, evolutions in your industry can impact your professional goals too.
With this in mind, make sure you’re checking in on your goals from time to time to ensure they’re still relevant, achievable, and engaging for you. For instance, if you start pursuing a Salesforce career in one industry and begin to lose your passion for that sector, it may be a good idea to pivot and look at other opportunities instead.
One of the best things about the Salesforce landscape is its flexibility. Many of the skills you learn with various Trailhead courses and community opportunities will be transferable as you pursue new directions in your career.
If your ambitions change, consider speaking to your Salesforce recruitment professional for advice on where your existing talents could take you and how you can find new opportunities.
5. Get Support
Finally, while it’s ultimately up to you to determine whether you’re going to reach your professional or personal goals, that doesn’t mean you need to do everything alone. When it comes to achieving personal goals, like giving up a bad habit or losing weight, often the support of our loved ones can make a huge difference to our chances of success.
In the professional world, the right support can also make your goals more achievable. Speaking to your employer about your targets can make it easier to access the resources you need to achieve your goals. For example, your employer could give you time off to go to a Salesforce community meeting or pay for your Trailhead certification.
You can also turn to your colleagues for assistance with your education and growth, asking them to mentor you in certain areas. Or how about turning to your recruitment professional for more advice on where you can develop your skills for new job opportunities?
Extra help goes a long way towards giving you the power you need to accomplish your goals.
Thanks,
Lee Durrant
ROD Founder
About Resource on Demand
Resource On Demand is Europe’s first specialist Salesforce Recruitment Company.
We assist innovative and disruptive organisations in growing their technology teams. Supporting companies to fill Cloud roles across the growing Salesforce.com suite of skills.
The team at Resource On Demand have access to an extensive database of key talent, registering over 8000 Cloud professionals each year.
To find out how we can support you call us on 01322 272 532