We attended a conference recently where one of the main speakers spoke on goal setting and goal velocity in relation to career. And as an online agency specialising in helping candidates find and settle in their perfect career, we felt the pointers were highly relevant.
What is Goal Velocity?
Simply put this is your rate of advancement toward a goal. So for candidates, it’s how quickly they’re moving toward their career ambition.
The speaker was Jim Cathcart of the Catchcart Institute in the USA. He authored the original Relationship Selling book which has been around since 1988, so we took his sales – and careers advice, very seriously.
Goal Velocity in Regard to Career Goals
As mentioned above Jim spoke on the fascinating topic of goal velocity, of which there are three types, each suited to a different personality.
High velocity – If reaching for your current career goal isn’t getting you excited, it could be you have a high goal velocity. This means you enjoy setting hugely ambitious goals you have no idea how to reach and your current one isn’t tough enough to match your innate personality. In this instance you might want to aim for a higher level position, or even a different role entirely (providing you have the required skillset!).
Medium velocity – These people set goals between high and low. Not much explanation needed here but they still need to push themselves to feel engaged with their career goal, just not quite at the hectic rate high velocity goal setters need to feel satisfied at work.
Low velocity – These individuals like to set goals they know how to achieve. This might be landing a promotion or a similar role in a different industry. This is no bad thing – too much pressure can lead to anxiety and panic, overwhelming you as an individual and it’s important to set career goals that will push you, but not overwhelm or underwhelm you.
So in regard to online recruitment, if you’re in the market for a new position and either feeling like reaching your goal of your dream job is insurmountable or panic-inducing, finding it rather tedious to look for a new position or generally feeling “meh” about your whole job search, all you might need is a readjustment of your goals.
Personally we’re happily on the fence and think ourselves to be medium velocity!
Other Ideas Around Career Goal Setting
Additionally, when it comes to your job search if you’re feeling like you’re not quite on the right track and not feeling positive about finding a new position, it might help look at the below applications of this methodology:
1. If no job is exciting you to look at: You might be a higher velocity goal setter and thus in need of a role more challenging and completely out of your comfort zone to inspire you.
2. If your job hunt is making you anxious: At the other end of the scale, you might like to take more time over your decision to move jobs at all and ensure you’re completely comfortable with both your choice, and the type of role you’re applying to.
Sales Tips from the Top
Lastly, we thought the below ideas we heard around relationship selling were useful for both sales professionals, sales recruitment and business owners.
• “It’s not about who you know, it’s about who’s glad to know you”
• Regularly challenge all assumptions about your career to ensure you stay engaged and excited at work
• Create a culture of problem solving
• To get more sales, simply create more contacts, and speak to those contacts about how you can help them
It’s a bit of a change from our normal style of post, but we hope it’s useful information both on the world of selling, and the world of career goal setting!
Castle Hill House