The Biggest Mistake Every Goal-Setter Makes

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Too many times have I set a goal and then struggled to complete it–especially when it came to my goal to increase enrollment. The goal was a great one and even followed the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely) acronym, but I still never reached it. Has this ever happened to you? I feel your pain, but I want to let you know that I was missing a key component to successfully reaching my goals: the road map to get there. Be sure to get the free copy of the Recruiting Road Map here.

In this episode, Khristen discusses:

Why You Need a Road Map to Help Increase Enrollment
How to Find Your Finish Line and Starting Point
Determining Your Mile Markers

Why You Need A Road Map to Help Increase Enrollment

Think of your road map like you are reverse-engineering your goal. When my students and I would reverse engineer a product to make it better, we had to take it apart to see how it functioned and all parts involved. You’ll need to do the same thing with your goal to increase enrollment, but you’ll want to begin at the finish line.

How to Find Your Finish Line and Starting Point

If you’ve created a goal that meets the SMART criteria, the finish line is the goal itself. Where do you want to be at the end of achieving your goal? What does it look like? What does it feel like?

Example Finish Line: By the end of April course requests, I will have 150 requests for “Course A” so that I can increase the number of sections that I offer from two sections to four sections.

For the starting point, you need to figure out where you currently in regards to your goal. You may need to talk to others like counselors and administrators to get the current data.

Example Starting Point: I currently have two sections of “Course A.” One section has 27 students and the other has 32 students.

Determining Your Mile Markers

Going back to the reverse-engineering idea, you’re going to work backward. To start this process, you’re going to brainstorm. What is everything you can think of that will help you get to your ultimate goal? From this brainstorm–and quite possibly some additional research–you will need to determine which three things MUST happen to reach your goal. Which three matter the most?

Once you have determined these three things, they will become your guideposts or your mile markers. How do you choose your three? Go to your finish line and ask yourself, “What is the step that comes just before this?” Then choose two or more guideposts working back from there. The mile markers are there to help keep you focused on your goal as it is easy to stray and start working on other tasks that may only be somewhat beneficial to reaching your goal.

Mile Marker 1: Talk to school administration and/or central office administration about my goal and inquire about the requesting/registration process and FTE.

Mile Marker 2: Figure out who my ideal student is and what may appeal to them. What classes are they currently taking? What barriers might they have in taking “Course A?” Update course description of “Couse A” to attract ideal students.

Mile Marker 3: Advertise and promote “Course A” with short videos, announcements, social media posts, and flyers.

Now that you’ve got your goal and your road map in place, it’s time to get to work! Make sure that you reflect and revise your goal and your road map while you are on your journey and give yourself some formative feedback so that you are more likely to get the results that you would like. Remember, when it comes to working to increase enrollment in your career and technical education courses, it can be a long game, so be sure to make sure you are heading down the path that leads you to your ideal teaching schedule.