Companies of all sizes and across a variety of industries rely on professional development goals to chart a path forward for their employees. These goals are often key markers of job satisfaction and professional growth, serving an important purpose for both employees and their employer.
While this goal-setting process is commonplace, it can be fraught with challenges. Andy Cohen, assistant professor of the practice in the Department of Management, is an expert in the domains of organizational behavior, leadership and human resource management. He recognizes both the importance and difficulties associated with the professional development goal process.
He offers some tips and tricks to set more effective goals that benefit employees, managers and companies.
Why Professional Development Goals Matter
Cohen said organizational growth is at the heart of why companies set professional development goals.
“Within an organization, goals are tied to what the organization is trying to achieve,” he said. “We want every employee to have goals that connect to the big macro goal of the organization.”
Beyond that, the employee must feel their goals align with their own personal values. If the employee doesn’t buy in, the goals are unlikely to work.
“Goals are only useful if the employee digests and owns them,” Cohen said.
Depending on the focus, goals can help employees connect their personal aspirations with career development and performance improvements. In an ideal situation, they benefit both parties. The employee should feel supported in their own growth, while the company sees benefits to its organizational goals.
How to Set Effective Professional Development Goals
As employees meet with their managers to set goals, there are some guidelines to follow to create effective ones.
Understanding SMART Goals
One common framework is SMART Goals, created in the 1980s by George Doran, a consultant and former director of corporate planning for Washington Water Power Company. These are goals that are:
- Specific: Targeted at a specific area for improvement
- Measurable: Able to be quantified
- Achievable: Can be done by the goal setter
- Relevant: Aligned with personal and company values
- Time-bound: Have a start and end date
Cohen likes this model but adds two additional letters to the acronym. He advises his students to set difficult and public goals. Goals should be difficult, he says, because they capture your attention and require you to focus to achieve them.
And they should be public to introduce another level of accountability.
“Speaking your goals out loud to someone who matters, which is where accountability comes in, is going to get us to do them,” he said.
Your accountability person probably shouldn’t be your boss or your life partner, because their motives can be mixed. Rather, you should look at a peer or someone on a similar level at work. Someone who isn’t reliant on whether you complete you goals but wants to help you succeed.
Aligning Goals with Career Growth
Setting effective goals can help you advance in your career, creating mobility at your current company or opening new opportunities elsewhere. Start by identifying the skills needed for your ideal job and set specific goals that will help you reach that.
In goal setting exercises, it’s important to set input goals that help you reach an output. So, if you want to run the accounting department at Fortune 500 company, Cohen calls that an output goal. That’s the end result.
Cohen defines input goals as behaviors or tasks that you’re going to take on that will help you reach your output goal. For an aspiring accounting boss, that might mean taking on a big project, managing a lower-level employee or achieving a certification. Those are all things that could help you prepare for an executive role in the future.
Balancing Short- and Long-Term Goals
It’s important to create a balance of both input and output goals, focused on both the short and long term. Most input goals will be focused on the short term and output goals tend to be more long term. There are two, perhaps conflicting, schools of thought around where to place your goal emphasis.
One school says you can’t reach the long term unless you nail the short term. Another says you’ll never get to the long term if you don’t focus on it.
Cohen’s preference falls somewhere in between. He advises his students to create about five goals that are spread across the short, medium and long term. More of those are going to be on the shorter end, but some should have long-term focus.
“You need to have a vision of what you want the long term to be,” Cohen said. “And if the long-term vision is dramatically different from what you’re doing short term, then you need to ask, ‘do I need to have some leapfrog goals?’”
A leapfrog goal is one that is aimed at fast-tracking your growth and challenges you to push outside of your usual boundaries.
If you work in finance, but your long-term goal is to open a brewery, you’ll need to set goals that help you pivot. So, in many cases, your long-term goal should inform your short- and medium-term goals.
Categories of Professional Development Goals
Goals can fit into a variety of different buckets, but Cohen likes to split them into two distinct ones. The first is skill development and the second is career advancement or growth .
Skill Development Goals
Skill development goals are things like improved technical skills, like coding or modeling, which can also support interest in a master of business analytics. These are often directly aligned with the organization’s goals and show direct impact on the company’s mission. These tend to have a short-term focus and coupled with a long-term goal.
Career Advancement Goals
Career advancement goals have a longer-term outlook and help employees prepare for a promotion or career change. These goals are often collaborative between the employee and their employer, Cohen said.
“They have to be a coming together of what the organization thinks they want over the long-term and what the employee wants over the long-term,” he said. “Sometimes those align super well, and sometimes they don’t. It’s really important to have that conversation so you’re clear on that.”
The challenge here is that these goals likely won’t have an immediate and obvious positive impact on the company. In some cases, the investment will cost the company. Cohen said it’s crucial to see the long-term value in development.
“The big moves strategically are long-term moves,” he said. “And they often hurt the profit and loss in the short term. Development is one of those things. If you’re an organization, you have to take a deep breath and say, ‘I know that this is going to pay off for us over the long term.’”
Common Challenges in Goal Setting and How to Overcome Them
There are two primary challenges Cohen sees when organizations approach goal setting: not setting aside time for development and not tracking progress.
Investing Time in Employee Development
While he recognizes that time constraints are a challenge for businesses, he critiqued organizations that expect employees to upskill on their own time.
“I think it’s dangerous when the organization says, ‘this is great, and you should do it on your own time.’”
He thinks even a small time investment can be meaningful if consistently applied.
“If I actually had you in a development posture, whether formally or informally, eight hours a month, that would be meaningful [for you and the company],” he said.
There is a common refrain that the top performing companies invest 5% of their budget in the development of their people. Cohen said eight hours a month, or roughly 5% of monthly work hours, could make a huge impact on people development.
Tracking Progress and Adjusting Goals
Where goal setting and professional development most often goes wrong is due to a lack of communication throughout the goal cycle. When employees and managers don’t discuss their goals throughout the year, they aren’t providing updates on progress.
Cohen advises that managers and employees meet often, in less-formal settings, to discuss goals and what it’s going to take to complete them. That way, when the end-of-year evaluation arrives, neither party is surprised. It becomes more of a formality because of the due diligence done during the year.
Take Charge of Your Career Development
Whether you’re leading goal-setting discussions with your team or on the other side of the table, developing a plan with your manager, it’s important to remember why we engage in this process in the first place. Personal and professional development is at the heart of goal-setting exercises, and growth never truly ends.
Daniels offers a variety of courses that can help guide you on your career development journey, whether you know exactly what you want or you’re still searching for a path. Executive Education provide quick-hitting, relevant and research-based programming to individuals, teams and organizations. Its programs and workshops are cultivated to develop leadership skills, enhance business acumen and increase team efficacy in less time than traditional training courses.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set professional goals that actually support career growth?
Start by identifying where you want to grow and what skills or experiences would help you get there. Strong professional development goals are specific enough to guide action but flexible enough to evolve as your career does.
What makes a development goal realistic and measurable?
A realistic goal has a clear outcome, a practical timeline and steps you can track. Instead of setting a broad goal like “become a better leader,” define what progress looks like, such as improving feedback skills, leading a project or completing a relevant course.
How often should professionals revisit their career goals?
It is helpful to revisit professional goals regularly, especially after major projects, performance conversations or career changes. Checking in keeps goals connected to your current responsibilities and long-term direction.
How can professional development goals support leadership growth?
Leadership growth happens through practice, reflection and continued learning. Professional development goals can help you build habits around communication, decision-making, accountability and the ability to support others more effectively.