First comes the dream... "I'd love to climb Mt Kilimanjaro", or, "I want to be rich", or, "I'd love to have a body like Arnold Schwartznegger"... It's like a comforting fantasy of something we'd love to do or have or be, with no real form or consequence.

So what's the difference between having a dream and setting a goal? And how do you inspire your team to move from the dream to the creation and achievement of a goal?

Setting a goal is the first step towards making a dream come true

Setting a goal is the first step towards making a dream come true. A goal is a dream or desire, defined within different parameters such as time frame, quantity and quality and with an inbuilt expectation of realisation. Take the dream of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, for example. Making this dream a goal would transform the "I'd love to climb Mt Kilimanjaro" into something like: "My goal is to climb Mt Kilimanjaro, safely, in the month of August 2005, with a guide and two good friends and to drink Dom Perignon at the summit." Can you see the difference?

Taking Responsibility

When we stay at the dream level we're maintaining ourselves in a state of limbo, accepting what comes to us in life and, if we don't "get to climb that mountain" we say, "oh well, maybe it just wasn't meant to be". I'm sure you've heard that from your own people who've expressed their dream to be the best realtor in town, and then, after putting no form to the dream, have made no behaviour changes and sighed "oh well" at the end of another slow year. Once a person takes on responsibility for making a dream a reality by stating their goal, having given some thought as to when and how the dream is going to take form, other invisible forces are set in action which will support and guide them (and that's another story in itself).

However, there's another very important part to the process of goal setting. The part that will have the most impact on determining whether the dream that became the goal will indeed manifest as reality. This is the part that I call "making commitments towards the fulfillment of the goal" and this is where you, as broker or manager, can come in and support your people in the process.

Commitment

A commitment is a step towards achieving a goal that is completely within our own personal power and is not dependent on another person or external forces. The purpose of a commitment is to carry out an activity that we know is essential in order for a goal to be achieved. No doubt, as you think about the people in your team, you realise that most of them know what they need to do and have the skills and competence required to do it, and yet, at the end of the day they often have little to show for their time. They haven't committed to the prospecting calls, the customer follow-up and the other activities they know would get them ahead.

Activities

As broker, team leader, would you consider investing time with your team members to review their professional and personal goals and then to assist them in identifying at the most, three activities they could commit to carry out over a month? Remember, the activities must be things they personally can do, such as picking up the phone and making 40 calls a morning. They cannot commit to making 2 listing appointments a morning as this will depend on the response of others to their calls.

What's the major difference between a commitment and a goal?

In my terms, a commitment is an action that we entrust ourselves to do, with an obligation that is as powerful as making an oath. In the olden days, when you made an oath you said "may God strike me dead if I don't do this" - it was a "do or die" thing.

For example, if we were to set a goal to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in August 2005, what would be some of the activities that we might have to undertake or set in action, in order to find ourselves at the base of the mountain ready to go? One of the first issues for you to consider might be the level of fitness required to undertake such an adventure. An appropriate first commitment could be to set an appointment and consult with a climbing/fitness expert by a certain date and to map out a program for achieving the required fitness. Subsequent commitments could then be around going to the gym a certain number of days each week at a specific time each day to carry out specific physical exercises; committing to the diet most appropriate to maintaining the fitness; getting x hours of sleep a night and getting information on related issues such as altitude precautions, inoculations required, travel details, visas and so on.

Now, how many times have you heard your agents say things like "I'm going to write 10 thank you cards a day" or "I'm going to hire a personal assistant" and then, when you've checked with them a few weeks later, nothing has happened? They "just didn't have time".

Consequences

Why does this happen, time and time again? I believe it's because we don't set any consequences in place for when we lapse and fail to meet our commitments. Nor do we provide for any rewards for ourselves when we do fulfill our commitments. You'll hear me say time and again, our soul is our most importantly, whatever we're doing. So, setting in place rewards and consequences when we make commitments towards fulfilling our goals, is an important way of getting the soul along side.

So, when you set time aside to work with a team member on setting goals and making the commitments towards achieving these, do your agent a favour and insist that he/she set in place rewards and consequences around these commitments.

Rewards

Some examples of rewards you could suggest to help your people stretch towards a goal are: buying a new designer outfit; private coaching with a coach to improve their golf game or their fishing skills; or buying a fine bottle of wine that they wouldn't ordinarily buy for themselves. The purpose of a consequence is to put in place something they'd have to do, if they didn't fulfill their commitments, that would be unthinkable to them such as: buying that gorgeous designer outfit and then giving it away immediately; sending their competitor the voucher for the coaching program with a note from them saying he/she is much better than them; buying the fine wine and having to pour it down the drain in front of the people they had planned to share it with! Their soul ally is going to make sure that there's no way they're going to have to clean the neighbour's car for a month, or write a cheque to a former spouse as a consequence of not doing what they committed to. So, challenge them during this process and help them to potentise the formula!

Having someone to "keep us honest" and make sure we meet our commitments, carry out the "consequences" we set if we didn't perform or give ourselves the promised reward is something I strongly recommend. For this, you may want to suggest that your agent find a peer partner to share his or her goals and commitments with, someone other than you that they could be accountable to on a daily or weekly basis. This will release you to be on standby, as their technical, professional coach or supervisor, providing guidance and support as necessary.