By Clarice Fu.
In the previous two articles of this 4-part series, Clarice explained the roles and aims of a mentor at 180th, and our holistic approach to development. This third article explains our emphasis on goal setting.
Why have goals?
Goal setting is one of the most important activities that mentors do with mentees during a personal development planning session. Why is goal setting so important to the growth of a rover scout? Here is one of the stories that we love to tell:
The Harvard Business School asked a class of MBA students, “Do you have clear written goals for your future and plans to achieve them?” These were their findings:
- 84% did not have goals
- 13% had goals but did not write them down
- 3% had written goals with plans to achieve them
They followed up 10 years later to compare the average salary of these three groups. The results were astounding. The 13% with goals made twice as much as the 84% who had no goals. What about the 3%? They made TEN times more than the 84% and 13% COMBINED!
Since this study was described in Mark McCormack’s 1984 publication “What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School”, scholars have struggled to find evidence for this original study and others even call this an urban myth. Despite doubts about whether this study actually happened, studies have been conducted since, clearly showing that people who commit their goals to writing are more likely to reach them. Michael Hyatt, former Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, summarizes five reasons why we should have written goal in his article.
Of course, simply having written goals does not guarantee success, but we are more likely to be successful because it helps clarify our goals, takes commitment to the next level, and helps us stay focused. This attitude toward developing healthy habits of goal setting is what we try to instill in each rover scout.
In a later article, we will get into some of the more nitty gritty details of how we do goal setting and share the template that we use with our rover scouts. Stay tuned!