Leadership And Service in Action

							                        Leadership And Service in Action
                Competency: GOAL SETTING AND ACTION PLANNING

You are a leader. Having Student Leader Core Competencies means that you have awareness,
skills and knowledge in these core areas: Personal Development, Organizational Development,
Communication, Analytical Thinking, Knowledge of Community and Knowledge of Leadership
and Change Theory. The Office of Student Life advisors have Leadership And Service in Action
handouts, which offer helpful ideas and suggest behaviors to practice as you develop as a leader.

Action Planning defines the how and when for your projects, but before writing the action plan,
be clear about your organization’s goal. As a leader it’s important to turn your vision into clear
goals, because it is the goals for the organization that will help you define the steps toward
making the vision a reality. Goals help make the vision of the organization clear to members.
(They are also great for membership recruitment because when shared, goals allow potential
members know what your group is all about.) From defining goals you need to assess what
needs to get done and clarify priorities, in other words, come up with an action plan.

     Leadership & Service in Action: Goal Setting and Action Planning Ideas
Goals are statements describing exactly what your organization would like to accomplish. Goals
are aligned with the organization’s mission and values.

Design goals that are:
q Believable – Set your organization up for success. Cultivate an attitude in the organization
   of, “yes, we can do that! It sounds like something that will contribute to the organization.”
q Doable - Goals help organizations reach for better effectiveness and efficiency, which means
   they help members stretch and grow beyond the status quo. However goals still need to be
   something everyone can believe is possible. They need to feel the goal is realistic.
q   Measurable – Avoid words like “better, best, big, biggest” unless there are numbers
   attached. Decide on something measurable like the number of participants, the percent
   increase, or set an acceptable range, for example, “we would like to increase our membership
   next semester by 30% – 40%.”

An Action Plan could be defined as the actual mapping out, in detail, of what needs to be
accomplished with in a specific time frame.

Eight Step Action Planning Guide:
   1. Put your “goal” in writing (make sure it’s believable, doable and measurable.)

   2. Put your “objectives” in writing. Objectives are simple, clear statements of exactly what
      you plan to accomplish. They are short-term, measurable, and attainable over a specified
      period of time. It’s fine to have multiple objectives for each goal.




                 For Leadership & Service Opportunities, visit our website: osl.berkeley.edu
                                                                                               0405 October 2003
   3. Put down in writing how you will reach your goals, break down your goals into steps.
      Include agreements about communicating with each other and the system for giving each
      other updates. These are the tasks to do in order to reach your objective, meet your goal,
      and complete your action plan.

   4. Put down in writing the resources you have in terms of people, money, and materials.
      Make a list of the resources needed for each objective.

   5. Write down who is responsible for each task. Have members volunteer and keep a list of
      names, deadlines, and contact information. Make sure your list can be updated with new
      information, and track the progress as each task is completed.

   6. Agree upon and write down the “by when” deadline. Have a calendar where all tasks are
      included. Have one person volunteer to follow up and update the calendar.

   7. What are the results you will collect, how will they be measured? This is why goals are
      measurable. This is the plan to collect the data, the facts measuring how close you were
      able to get to the goal. And the plan for who will collect and report about the results.

   8. Schedule an evaluation, sometimes called a “debrief.” Plan a time to reflect. Always
      include in your action plan that you will acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments
      and/or learning achieved!

Effective Questions for Goals and Action Planning
When reviewing your goals, you can also consider:
Do they fit with the overall purpose of the group?
What is the status of membership at this point in time?
How does the group stand financially?
What new programs can realistically be accomplished?

As a leader, you could not have come this far without knowing a lot about clarifying and
reaching goals, consider your answers to these questions:
When have I accomplished my goals by creating an action plan?
If I were to come up with a great example of how do use action planning, what story would I
tell?
If I were to develop an Action Plan that was effective, but the opposite of my usual planning
method, what would that version of successful action planning look like?

When reviewing your action plans, consider:
Who do I know that is excellent about breaking goals into manageable steps? Have I asked them
for advice yet?
What goals have been accomplished by our organization, what works? What is said about us
when we accomplish what we say we will accomplish? What are some of our success stories?
What are our best practices?




                 For Leadership & Service Opportunities, visit our website: osl.berkeley.edu
                                                                                               0405 October 2003