Crafting specific goals to achieve your strategic vision

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A strategic vision is necessary for your career, but without a plan for execution, it is simply a daydream.

It can be challenging to execute on a long-term strategic vision in any field, and in academia it can seem even harder. Because you are expected to juggle so many job requirements, many of which include multi-step projects with extended time horizons, it can be easy to lose sight of whether or not you’re on track for success. You find yourself asking, “Is anything even getting done?” Grant proposals are rarely funded in the first round. Moving a research project from design to manuscript publication can take years. It can feel like everything is moving so slowly that you end up piling on more work—writing another grant, or taking on another student to work on a different line of research—hoping that something will finally pay off. But that’s simply a faster way to burn out, not achieve success.

Setting specific goals that are mapped out across time will allow you to see where you are on your strategic vision journey, what it will take to get there, and when you will arrive at success. By having a plan, you can increase your focus and reduce that overwhelming feeling of needing to do everything right now.

There are various frameworks available to help map your goals as they relate to your strategic vision. One example is the SMART goal framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.

Specific. What actions do you want to take?

Measurable. What metric will tell you if you have achieved your goal?

Achievable. Do you have the skills and/or resources necessary to do this goal?

Relevant. Does this goal align with your strategic vision?

Time-bound. How long will this goal take? When will you assess whether you have achieved your goal?

Let’s work through an example. Imagine that, in the strategic vision for your career, you want to increase your outreach, and help the public understand how your field of research can improve their lives.  To begin, list out some sub-goals that would support this larger, strategic vision. For instance, to increase your outreach, you could volunteer to do a lecture series at your local library. You could write op-eds in national media outlets. You could create a podcast. Once your list is in hand, pick a sub-goal—let’s take writing an op-ed—and run it through the SMART framework.

Specific. You want to have an op-ed published in a national media outlet.

Measurable. You will have achieved your goal when you see your op-ed in print or online.

Achievable. As an academic, you have worked hard to develop your writing skills and your expertise in the subject matter. But you may decide to take a workshop (such as those by Informed Opinions) to better understand the structure of op-eds, and how to pitch your ideas to editors.

Relevant. Your strategic vision is to increase your outreach; op-eds will help you reach people beyond academia.

Time-bound. In order to have an op-ed published within 6 months, you will take the workshop in the next month, draft an op-ed and get feedback in month 2, and pitch editors by month 3.

This format can be repeated with every sub-goal on your list, and each sub-goal can either be enacted in parallel or in sequence. If writing an op-ed is a sub-goal for Year 1, perhaps a library talk series is a sub-goal for Year 2, and starting a podcast is slated for Year 3. Along the way, you can keep track of specific metrics that will ultimately speak to whether you are realizing your strategic vision of increasing your outreach. How many people engaged with your op-ed online? How many print subscribers did that media outlet have? How many people attended your library lecture series? How many subscribers and listeners do you have for your podcast?

Now, you don’t have to use this specific framework, but the key here is to 1) be specific about your sub-goals; 2) determine in what order the sub-goals need to occur; and 3) understand—realistically—how long each sub-goal will take.  If you are committed to a specific deadline for an overall goal, start by working backwards in time from that date, establishing sub-goals for yourself along the way. For instance, if a grant application is due mid-September, you will want to work on the feedback from your collaborators by early September, which means you need to send them your draft by mid-August…and so on…

Having a framework that lists out your specific sub-goals can prevent you from feeling overwhelmed: you’re working a plan, not just trying to do ‘everything’, in the vague hope that something will one day bring you success. A framework also saves you from disappointment. If you are not moving closer to your goals, don’t panic. Examine your plan. How can it be iterated on and improved? What tasks took longer than expected? What steps were missing? By creating a specific list of sub-goals with clear and reasonable timeframes attached to them, you will have a manageable plan with concrete steps for moving forward, that when executed, will help you achieve your strategic vision.

I encourage you to think about the specific sub-goals that will help you achieve your larger strategic vision, and then start putting your framework into action! If you need help, reach out!  

Next week: Defining success on your own terms in academia