OK, I admit it: I’m a professional development junkie. I love learning and I over-consume professional development workshops, articles, and videos. If you’re anything like me, when you hit on something that helps you ‘connect the dots’ in new and powerful ways, you want to share it with others.
I had one of those Ah-Ha’s a few weeks back. I attended a terrific Boston Facilitators Roundtable workshop that the executive coach and leadership consultant Jeb Bates offered on his “Results Roadmap” program. The big take way for me was a new way of thinking about goals and results. (Thank you, Jeb!)
Try this out yourself:
Think of a goal you have now.
Maybe it’s to build or overhaul your website, or to launch a crowdfunding campaign, or to book a certain number of performances or residencies. Whatever it is, it should be something concrete and measurable.
Whatever the specific thing is you’re looking to achieve . . .
Write it down
Next, imagine that you’ve achieved this goal. Think about what this will do for you. How will it change things? What are the results that achieving your goal will bring to your career, your life, your state of mind?
Write the ultimate results down
In the workshop with Jeb, we worked on these questions with a partner and the conversations quickly led to unexpected places.
The goals participants had were concrete career goals. But the results that people were ultimately after ranged from a sense of peace, to being accepted / respected, making an impact, and leaving a legacy.
The results that we desire are personal and specific to our values, challenges, and our unconscious longings—the dreams we may keep hidden from our consciousness. There’s no right or wrong, there’s only what’s true for you.
When we consider honestly the results we’re after, it can change how we work toward our goals. In translating Jeb’s excellent material into a version for musicians, I see this playing out like this
Let’s say three musicians each want more performances.
And let’s say each one sets a goal of booking a specific number of concerts (X) for next season.
If we asked each of them, “Once you’ve booked and performed the concerts, what results do you picture for yourself? How will this affect you?”
Of course there are practical results: they will have learned new repertoire, added credits to their bios/resumes, and will have performed for more people, adding more names to their mailing lists, and there’s the income as well. But if we ask the musicians to think beyond these immediate results, the other broader effects might include . . .
The results will be different for each
Musician #1: “I’ve been ‘treading water’ in my career, feeling somewhat stuck—X more concerts for me will feel like real forward motion. I want that sense that I’m moving ahead.”
Musician #2: “Performance stress has been an issue and I know I need to be performing more regularly. I want to work on being more fully present and ‘myself’ in performances. Doing X concerts will help me prove to myself that I can change. That I can become the musician and the person I know I can be.”
Musician #3: “I feel I’ve been kind of ‘coasting’ in my playing. Doing X concerts with new recital programs will challenge me artistically. The result would be feeling like I’m creatively engaged—more fully alive.”
So we have 3 musicians who all want more performances but they want them for different reasons. This is part of what makes this work so fascinating for me: each musician’s roadmap is distinct. Once we clarify the goals AND the results they’re after, it’s about finding a tailored approach to achieving both.
Let’s play this out: here’s how the desired results might inform how each musician proceeds. In coaching, the idea is to build the desired result into the actions taken to motivate the work.
So how might each musician move forward?
For musician #1, since a ‘sense of progress’ is the driving factor, it can help to track and celebrate the booking actions the musician takes. To underscore the sense of forward motion, the “wins” would be the number of proposals / follow-ups sent (many more than the goal number of concerts because the musician knows full well that only a percentage of proposals will be accepted). This can help in dealing with the inevitable discouragement we feel when presenters don’t respond or a proposal is rejected. The sense of progress comes from taking action so the focus is on that and learning as you go.
For musician #2, knowing that performance anxiety is a key factor, the focus might be on identifying and reframing the negative self-talk and thought distortions that can derail performances and prevent us from booking concerts. Keeping a journal can help, noting the specific negative thoughts and statements and then consciously reframing these. The more we can experience successfully changing our own thought patterns/beliefs—both onstage and off—the more confident we’ll be in our ability to manage anxiety.
For musician #3, the desired result is to be more creatively engaged. In this case, the focus might be on creativity in the programming, choice of collaborators, venues, and the approach to booking and promotion. For this musician, emphasizing creative engagement throughout the process can reinforce the motivation to do the work of planning, booking, and preparing the concerts.
What does this mean for you?
With all three musicians, the immediate goal is to book more concerts, but the focus for each is different. The idea is to pinpoint what the key issue is for you and use that to help you stay motivated, directly addressing your ultimate desired results. That way you can build the desired results into the actions you take toward the goal.
Challenge: try it yourself: What’s the goal you’d most like to focus on in the coming months? Imagine achieving it. Then think holistically about the results—what are you ultimately after?
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Looking forward,
Dream Big, Plan Smart, Live Well!
