190 Strategic Leadership
of its fund-raising operations and to explore alumni attitudes as a critical part of
its narrative of identity. When a goal has been properly crafted, an organization
can confidently put itself on public record with what it intends to accomplish.
A goal that captures the institution’s authentic possibilities provides a powerful
form of motivation that operates continuously to shape people’s imaginations
and daily choices. It builds a sense of individual and collective leadership and
accountability, which are critical components of the total strategic leadership
process.
The creation of effective goals to serve the ends of leadership is a demand-
ing task. Even quantifiable goals can be subject to manipulation, so they require
careful and thoughtful definition. A steel factory, for example, may successfully
meet its goal to reduce scrap, only to find that its percentage of on-time deliveries
declines as workers take longer to complete each order. Or the college that defines
50 percent as a goal for alumni giving may find itself flooded by $10 contribu-
tions. Without careful consideration of the goal, staff time can be drawn away
from attending to gifts from larger donors, so as participation rates climb, total
giving could drop.
These eventualities suggest that effective goal setting requires disciplined
analysis. The place to begin is always with the strategic intent of the goal as
defined in the rationale for the strategic initiative or project of which it is a part.
As a consequence, it may be helpful to use a series of quantifiable measures to
avoid distortion of the goal. So, for example, the goal to raise alumni giving to
50 percent should be one of a series of interrelated goals that might include the
overall totals of cash gifts and contributions from major donors, and the size of the
median gift from individuals. People working in the trenches need to understand
the strategic intent of the goals they are responsible for fulfilling. When they do,
and as measurements match intent, goals are far less likely to be distorted and
more likely to become a source of motivation.
Accountability for Goals
Another crucial part of any strategy is the establishment of accountability
and deadlines for the achievement of goals. These elements are often omitted
in collegiate strategy reports and documents. With the omission, there is a loss
of the focus, motivation, and expectation that can come from a public defini-
tion of responsibility. Once a person or a team has accepted responsibility for
a goal, a new dynamic takes hold. In a healthy organizational culture, people feel
intensely responsible to one another and depend on each other to reach com-
mon objectives. Having responsibility for a goal releases energy and commitment,
born of both the satisfaction that comes from achievement and the fulfillment of
sharing in a common enterprise. On the side of negative motivation, the desire to
avoid looking bad to one’s colleagues and to stakeholders is not unimportant. The
willingness and capacity to take initiative and responsibility is one of the defining
elements at the core of a reciprocal and dispersed process of leadership.