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Examples of How to Set Clear and Actionable Goals

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At Project Thrive, we used the GROW Goal Setting Model to set goals for developers in our tech mentoring programme mentoring. But like with any goal-setting model, the quality of what gets “set” really depends on how much thought and effort a developer has put into answering the questions offered through the model.

At Project Thrive, we used the GROW Goal Setting Model to set goals for participants in our tech mentoring programme mentoring. But like with any goal-setting model, the quality of what gets “set” really depends on how much thought and effort you have put into answering the questions offered through the model.

d08fc43 (Changed most of the 'dev focused' language to try broaden the scope to other dev-adjacent fields)

While you might think that looking at the goals others have set for themselves wouldn’t be beneficial for your own personal technical, career, and personal ambitions, knowing how to tell apart a “clear, actionable” goal from one that is not can help you reflect on the quality of your own goals. Below are some goals real-life mentors and mentees have set for themselves. Try to evaluate the quality of these goals while keeping in mind the kind of questions you might ask yourself when using the GROW goal setting model.

1. “Bruno is a mentee whose goal is to be a better developer. He believes that his mentor will help him become a better developer.”

If you were Bruno’s mentor, what approach would you use to help him achieve this particular goal? Well, it’s important here to understand what the phrase “better developer” actually means. In fact, this could mean different things to different people, and depends on a person’s current knowledge and experience.

A good place to start as a mentor might to discuss Bruno’s views on what a ‘good’ developer looks like. From there, it might be a good idea to examine Bruno’s current skill level, and to determine his strengths and weaknesses. Only once these things have been determined can Bruno and his mentor collaborate on creating a plan for how to address certain weaknesses and capitalize on existing strengths. Ideally, this plan should include smaller milestones that Bruno would need to achieve along his path to becoming a “better developer”.

2. “Uma is a mentor. Her goal is to improve both her active listening skills and communication. She’s hoping that taking on a mentee will provide her with the opportunity to exercise her communication muscle and listen to their personal and professional goals.”

When working on more ‘soft skills’ goals like these, it’s important to think about how you could be intentional about working on these skills. How could Uma be intentional about building these skills? Some techniques might include reading up on active listening techniques and practising them in the mentoring relationship (there’s Mortimer J. Adler’s famous How to Speak, How to Listen or more recently Listen Like You Mean It by Ximena Vengoechea). For example, when speaking to her mentee, Uma could make an effort to reflect on what her mentee has communicated in order to demonstrate to them that she was really listening—and to show she understands! Apart from confirming the content of what she hears, Uma might want to focus on empathic listening skills as well (e.g., mirroring the feelings of those she’s talking to). Another thing to consider is that Uma’s goals are also a bit difficult to measure or quantify and so actively seeking feedback from her mentee—as well as other colleagues—regarding her skills would enable her to determine whether she’s making progress towards her goal.

tip

In his book, How to Speak, How to Listen, Mortimer J. Adler writes

“We all realize that the ability to read requires training…the same would appear to be true of speaking and listening … training is required … Likewise, skill in listening is either a native gift or it must be acquired by training.”

3. “Sihle is a mentee. She’s just started her new job as a backend developer at a national e-commerce company. Sihle is relatively new to the industry. Her colleagues have more experience than her and she isn’t confident in her skills. Sihle’s goal for her mentoring relationship is to build her confidence as a developer. She’s hoping that she’ll learn how to approach her projects at work, how to break the steps down, and not panic when her team starts a new project.”

This is a multifaceted situation. There are many reasons for why Sihle might be panicking when facing a new project. As Sihle’s mentor, what approach would you use?

A deep-dive discussion might be helpful here, with a special focus on any previous occasions where Sihle might have panicked when facing a new project at work. The aim of this discussion would be to understand why Sihle might have panicked (e.g., is there a pattern in the kind of thoughts and assumptions being made with each new project?). Based on whatever’s revealed in the discussion, Sihle and her mentor could come up with a step-by-step plan to build up her confidence. For instance, together they could work through everything that Sihle would need to consider when approaching a new project. Practising doing this in a safe environment (i.e., the mentoring relationship) could help Sihle build up her confidence for when she needs to do this in the wild (i.e., the work environment).

tip

This article by Ali Akhtari is an interesting read on the kinds of fears and anxieties faced by developers 🧠

4. “Dimitri is a mentor and has come to a point in his career where he could either become super specialised or take on a more managerial position. Dimitri joins a mentoring programme to get a taste of what it would be like to manage or guide another person. Dimitri’s goal is to focus on helping a junior developer build their career path.”

<<<<<<< HEAD <<<<<<< HEAD As with the situation we encountered earlier with Uma, it’s important to think about how to be intentional about working on softer skills like this. For Dimitri, reading up on techniques that he could use to help a junior figure out their career path and then practising them in the mentoring relationship would be a good start. For example, it might be useful for Dimitri to ask his mentee to do a Personal SWOT analysis—of course, this is just a tool; Dimitri should be prepared to guide his mentee through this analysis. Dimitri should also be ready to be honest with his mentee about their expecations. He’ll need to strike a fine balance between caring and challenging. He’ll also need to be intentional about asking for feedback from his mentee about they’re finding the process.

It’ll also be important for Dimitri to keep in kind that he doesn't need to provide his mentee with all the answers. Rather, his role as a mentor is to facilitate productive discussion that will lead his mentee to come up with ther own conclusisons and actionable steps.

As with the situation we encountered earlier with Uma, it’s important to think about how to be intentional about working on softer skills like this. For Dimitri, reading up on techniques that he could use to help a junior figure out their career path and then practising them in the mentoring relationship would be a good start. For example, it might be useful for Dimitri to ask his mentee to do a Personal SWOT analysis—of course, this is just a tool; Dimitri should be prepared to guide his mentee through this analysis. Dimitri should also be ready to be honest with his mentee about their expecations. He’ll need to strike a fine balance between caring and challenging. He’ll also need to be intentional about asking for feedback from his mentee about how they’re finding the process.

It’ll also be important for Dimitri to keep in mind that he doesn't need to provide his mentee with all the answers. Rather, his role as a mentor is to facilitate productive discussion that will lead his mentee to come up with ther own conclusisons and actionable steps.

d08fc43 (Changed most of the 'dev focused' language to try broaden the scope to other dev-adjacent fields)

As with the situation we encountered earlier with Uma, it’s important to think about how to be intentional about working on softer skills like this. For Dimitri, reading up on techniques that he could use to help a junior figure out their career path and then practising them in the mentoring relationship would be a good start. For example, it might be useful for Dimitri to ask his mentee to do a Personal SWOT analysis—of course, this is just a tool; Dimitri should be prepared to guide his mentee through this analysis. Dimitri should also be ready to be honest with his mentee about their expectations. He’ll need to strike a fine balance between caring and challenging. He’ll also need to be intentional about asking for feedback from his mentee about how they’re finding the process.

It’ll also be important for Dimitri to keep in mind that he doesn't need to provide his mentee with all the answers. Rather, his role as a mentor is to facilitate productive discussion that will lead his mentee to come up with their own conclusions and actionable steps.

c688094 (Fixing more typos and adding to cspell config)

But these are just a few examples of mentoring goals—what examples and comments do you think might be important to look at? These can be as specific or as general as you want! Drop them down below 👇