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Some leaders who are very driven and competitive plan goals that are often unreachable. This is the optimistic guy. Some are very conservative and plan goals that are too easy to achieve, as they are afraid of failing and not achieving the goals.
So which way is better? The unreachable goal or the softball goal? Neither! The unreachable goal may demoralize the team as they do not believe that they can achieve it. The softball goal will leave you with an unchallenged and bored team. We need a 3rd option. Here is how you can use RedYellowGreen to create your 3rd option.
- SuperGreen: this is the stretch goal
- Green: achievable yet not a softball chicken goal. Achieving this is success.
- Yellow: your softball goal. Decent performance, but let's do better
- Red: not good. Unacceptable performance.
Using a scale instead of a binary target, you can create levels of success as well as have a stretch goal without scaring or demotivating people who think that the stretch goal is just unachievable. Yet your "A" players need that stretch goal to stay motivated and achieve their best.