Why Communicating Your Goals Might Be One of the Best Career Decisions You Can Make
When we keep our goals to ourselves, we lack accountability.
In 2009, Psychology Today published an article featuring a study conducted by psychology professor, Peter Gollwitzer. The takeaway was that if you want to succeed, you need to keep your goals to yourself. According to Gollwitzer, sharing your goals and receiving praise and encouragement for them can trick your brain into making you feel like you’ve already accomplished that goal, thus making you less likely to work towards it.
Though many experts agree with this theory, I’d argue that sometimes it’s better to share and communicate your goals. It’s what I did early on in my career and it has set me on a path to a bright future in my field.
But it’s not as easy as just simply sharing your goals. It’s crucial to be strategic and specific about it.
Create long-term goals backed by a plan
When I first started working at my company, one of the first things I did was told the CEO what my goals were.
I told him that I ultimately wanted to become a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of a company and have the unique opportunity to lead and architect the technical…
