The Value Of Goal Setting and How It Will Enhance Your Career

By Vickie Elmer

If you're like a lot of American workers, you are required to set and get some goals. They're part of your annual review or your management program, but they don't stir your passions or incite you to wake up an hour early to achieve them.

Maybe you're not setting the right goals – for the right reasons. Maybe you need HARD goals – as in heartfelt, animated, required and difficult. That acronym, from Leadership IQ President Mark Murphy's book of the same name, makes a case that the best goals come with emotional attachments. "The heartfelt piece comes first. If that's not there, it's hard to make the rest of the goal work," said Murphy.