HARD GOALS THE SECRET TO GETTING FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE MARK MURPHY New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2011 by Mark Murphy All rights reserved Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher ISBN: 978-0-07-175423-1 MHID: 0-07-175423-7 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-175346-3, MHID: 0-07-175346-X All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs To contact a representative please e-mail us at bulksales@mcgraw-hill.com This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, securities trading, or other professional services If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought —From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations TERMS OF USE This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc (“McGrawHill”) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work Use of this work is subject to these terms Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill’s prior consent You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE McGraw-Hill and its licensors not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free Neither McGrawHill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise To Andrea, Isabella, and Andrew This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: HARD Goals— The Science of Achieving Big Things 1 Heartfelt 21 Animated 59 Required 95 Difficult 129 Conclusion: Starting Your HARD Goal Notes 169 Index 175 163 v This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments I hate to be cliché, but there really are too many people to thank individually for making contributions to this book My team of several dozen researchers and trainers, and each of our hundreds of fantastic clients, deserve a special thank-you This book, and the research behind it, wouldn’t exist without all of their efforts I would also like to highlight a few individuals who made special contributions to this particular book Andrea Burgio-Murphy, Ph.D., is a world-class clinical psychologist, my wife and partner through life, and my creative sounding board Since we started dating in high school I have learned something from her every single day My personal and professional evolution owes everything to her Lyn Adler is an exceptional writer who has worked with me for years Lyn’s assistance made it possible to distill mountains of research and interviews into this contribution to the science of goals Nicole Jordan, one of my vice presidents, took on special assignments filling in for me while I was immersed in the writing of this book The assignments were HARD, and her performance was outstanding vii viii Acknowledgments Corey Laderberg, Sarah Kersting, Kelly Love, and Jim Young are all members of the Leadership IQ team who deserve a special thank-you for their extra effort to help make this book possible Dennis Hoffman is an extraordinary CEO and entrepreneur whose friendship and counsel have significantly improved all of my books, including HARD goals John Sheehan is a great friend and the smartest data mind I know; his insights always improve the quality of my research And Elaine L’Esperance, Anthony Nievera, Phil Rubin, Sue Hrib, Dave Brautigan, Kevin Andrews, Ned Fitch, and Tom Silvestrini are all accomplished executives who have helped shape my thoughts on HARD Goals Mary Glenn, senior editor at McGraw-Hill, deserves a very special thank-you for recognizing the need for this book and making the process fast and smooth After working with Mary and the team at McGraw-Hill, it’s very clear to me why the best thinkers sign with them FOR MORE INFORMATION You can find free downloadable resources including quizzes and discussion guides at the HARD Goals website: hardgoals.com Introduction HARD Goals—The Science of Achieving Big Things I know something about you: you want to something really significant with your life Whether you want to double the size of your company, lose 20 pounds, run a marathon, advance your career, or transform the whole darn planet, you want to something big and meaningful with your life You want to control your own destiny and know that your life has a deep purpose I know this about you because you’re reading this book Some people are scared by this book; they don’t want big goals or big achievements They just want to pass the years, and they don’t much care if they never taste even a little greatness But that’s not you, and you are the reason I wrote this book With all the challenges and opportunities facing our companies, families, careers, personal lives, and even our countries, we could use some really big achievements But where these big achievements come from? Why is it that some people achieve so 170 Notes Amos Tversky, Preference, Belief, and Similarity: Selected Writings (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2003) Ibid., 888 Deborah A Small, “Sympathy and Callousness: The Impact of Deliberative Thought on Donations to Identifiable and Statistical Victims” (University of Pennsylvania, March 3, 2006), http://sciencethatmatters.com/ wp-content/uploads/2007/04/small06sympathy.pdf Maurice R Schweitzer, “Beware the Harmful Effects of Goal-Setting,” Bloomberg Businessweek, April 3, 2009 10 “Our Philosophy,” Google Corporate Information, http:// www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html 11 Susan J Curry and Edward H Wagner, “Evaluation of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Interventions with a Self-Help Smoking Cessation Program,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 59, no (1991): 318–324 12 Kevin G Volpp et al., “A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Financial Incentives for Smoking Cessation,” The New England Journal of Medicine 360, no (2009): 699–709 13 E Tory Higgins et al., “Increasing or Decreasing Interest in Activities: The Role of Regulatory Fit,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98, no (2010): 559–572 14 M R Lepper, D Greene, and R E Nisbett, “Undermining Children’s Intrinsic Interest with Extrinsic Reward: A Test of the ‘Overjustification’ Hypothesis,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 28 (1973): 129–137 15 “The engineer’s life,” Google Jobs, http://www.google com/jobs/lifeatgoogle/englife.html (accessed July 26, 2010) 16 “28 Days of Holiday Gift Ideas—Day 9,” Hollywood Today, December 5, 2009, http://www.hollywoodtoday 171 Notes n e t / 0 / / 5/ - d ay s - o f - h o l i d ay- g i f t - i d e a s -%E2%80%93-day-9 (accessed July 26, 2010) CHAPTER John Medina, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Seattle: Pear Press, 2008), 234 Chris Delp and Jeffrey Jones, “Communicating Information to Patients: The Use of Cartoon Illustrations to Improve Comprehension of Instructions,” Academic Emergency Medicine 3, no (2008): 264–270 Deborah Nelson and Kim-Phong L Vu, “Effects of a Mnemonic Technique on Subsequent Recall of Assigned and Self-Generated Passwords,” HCI (2009): 693–701 Nanci Bell, Visualizing and Verbalizing: For Language Comprehension and Thinking (Nancibell Inc, 2007) Sarah Blaskovich, “Success Stories—Brian Scudamore: Trash Is His Treasure,” Success magazine, http://www successmagazine.com/success-stories-brian-scudamore/ PARAMS/article/688 Stephen J Hoch, Howard C Kunreuther, and Robert Gunther Wharton on Making Decisions (New York: Wiley, 2004) Carmine Gallo The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009) John Medina, Brain Rules (Seattle: Pear Press, 2008) 172 Notes Allan Paivio, “Mental Imagery in Associative Learning and Memory,” Psychological Review (1969): 241–263 10 John Jacob O’Neil, Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla (Albuquerque: Brotherhood of Life, 1994), 257 11 Richard P Feynman, Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) (New York: W.W Norton & Company, 1997) CHAPTER T J Potts, “Predicting Procrastination on Academic Tasks with Self-Report Personality Measures” (doctoral dissertation, Hofstra University) Dissertation Abstracts International 48 (1987): 1543 J Harriott and Joseph R Ferrari, “Prevalence of Procrastination among Samples of Adults,” Psychological Reports 78 (1996): 611–616 Joseph R Ferrari, Kelly L Barnes, and Piers Steel, “Life Regrets by Avoidant and Arousal Procrastinators: Why Put Off Today What You Will Regret Tomorrow?” Journal of Individual Differences 30, no (2009): 163–168 R Neal Axon, W David Bradford, and Brent M Egan, “The Role of Individual Time Preferences in Health Behaviors Among Hypertensive Adults: A Pilot Study,” Journal of American Society of Hypertension 3, no (2009): 35–41 Suzanne B Shu and Ayelet Gneezy, “Procrastination of Enjoyable Experiences,” Journal of Marketing Research, Notes 10 173 2010 http://www.marketingpower.com/AboutAMA/ Documents/JMR_Forthcoming/Procrastination_Enjoyable _Experiences.pdf Richard H Thaler and Shlomo Benartzi, “Save More Tomorrow: Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Saving,” University of Chicago and The Anderson School at UCLA, July 2003 http://economics.uchicago edu/download/save-more.pdf Sheena S Iyengar and Mark R Lepper, “When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79, no (2000): 995–1006 Sheena Iyengar, G Huberman, and W Jiang, “How Much Choice Is Too Much? Contributions to 401(k) Retirement Plans,” in Pension Design and Structure: New Lessons from Behavioral Finance, ed O S Mitchell and S Utkus (Oxford University Press, 2004), 83–95 Dan Ariely and Klaus Wertenbroch, “Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Control by Precommitment,” Psychological Science 13, no (2002): 219–224 Irwin P Levin et al., “A Tale of Two Pizzas: Building Up from a Basic Product Versus Scaling Down from a FullyLoaded Product,” Marketing Letters 13, no (2002): 335–344 174 Notes CHAPTER Christopher Percy Collier, “The Expert on Experts,” Fast Company, November 1, 2006 Geoff Colvin, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else (New York: Portfolio Hardcover, October 2008) Gary P Latham and J James Baldes, “The ‘Practical Significance’ of Locke’s Theory of Goal Setting,” Journal of Applied Psychology 60, no (1975): 122–124 Siegfried Gauggel and Jutta Billino, “The Effects of Goal Setting on the Arithmetic Performance of Brain-Damaged Patients,” Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 17 (2002): 283–294 John Medina, Brain Rules (Seattle: Pear Press, 2008) 74 Index Abstract word disease, 88–89 Achievers, secret of, 1–2 Adams, Ansel, 92 Adler, Lou, 97–98 Affleck, Ben, 130, 131 Ali, Muhammad, 92 American Airlines, 71 Andrews, Kevin, 151–53 Animated goals Brian’s story, 67–69, 74 brief description of, 2, 5, 11 concrete words for, 88–90, 112–13 geniuses and, 90–92 importance of imagining a goal, 60–63 1-800-Got-Junk’s vision board, 67–69, 74 perspective and, 83–84 picture superiority, 59–60, 63–67 rules for making a picture, 76–83 specificity and, 70–76 summary on, 92–93 vision walls and vision boards for, 68, 69, 74, 76, 82 writing down, 84–87 175 176 Animation for required goals, 123–26 Apple versus Microsoft, 40–42 See also Jobs, Steve Ariely, Dan, 122 Armstrong, Lance, 114, 159 Attitude versus aptitude, 137–38 Bacharach, Burt, Baxter, Andrea, 68, 69 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 145 Beginning your HARD Goal calling a friend, 166–68 Cutting in Half technique for, 164–65 little push for, 163–64 Bell, Nanci, 66 Benartzi, Shlomo, 109 Bezos, Jeff, 2, 14, 81 Brennan, Edward, 71 Briggs, John, 90, 91 Brin, Sergey, 73 Calling a friend, 166–68 Chicago Bulls, 134–35 Choices, limiting, 120–23 Churchill, Winston, 10 Color and animated goals, 77–78 Index Colvin, Geoff, 137, 138 Commitment to a larger goal, 117–18 Concrete words, 88–90, 112–13 Costs, minimizing, 114–18 Cutting in Half technique, 164–65 David, Hal, Deadlines, setting choices for, 122–23 Cutting in Half technique for, 164–65 Difficult goals ability to achieve, 132–38 attention given to, 141–45 better performance with, 139–41 description of, 2, 6, 12 fear of failure and, 155–60 learning versus performance goals, 145–48 as noteworthy accomplishments, 129–30 pride and self-respect from, 131–32 Index summary on, 160–61 sweet spot of difficulty, 154–55 testing your goals, 148–55 Discounting future payoffs examples of, 99–106 tricks for combatting problem of, 106–23 Earhart, Amelia, 92 Einstein, Albert, 11, 92, 93 Emotions for animated goals, 80 Encoding, 85, 141 Endowment effect, 123–26 Ericsson, K Anders, 137 External storage of goal, 85 Extrinsic connection to goal, 45–49 Fear of failure, 155–60 Feynman, Richard, 11, 91, 92 Financial incentives, 45–47 Fryer, Roland, Jr., 31, 45 Future payoffs, discounting examples of, 99–106 tricks for combatting problem of, 106–23 177 Gandhi, Mahatma, 134 Generation effect, 85 Geniuses and visualization, 90–92 Gift cards, unused, 97, 98, 106 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 90 Google, 14, 43–45, 53–54, 73 Haircutting technique, innovative, 81–82 Hamm, Mia, 92 Happiness HARD Goals and, 8–9 procrastination and, 96 HARD Goal Quiz, 14–16 HARD Goal Scoring Grid, 16–19 HARD Goals animated goals, 2, 5, 11, 59–93 defined, difficult goals, 129–61 engagement of your brain and, as extraordinary goals, 3, happy, fulfilled people and, 8–9 178 heartfelt goals, 2, 5, 11, 21–57 leaders who set, 10 required goals, 2, 5–6, 11–12, 95–127 starting, 163–68 website, 14, 19, 57, 93, 127, 161 Hardgrave, Brent, 81, 82 Harris, Nick, 32 Heartfelt goals description of, 2, 5, 11 Diana’s story, 54–56 emotional connection to, 22–26 intrinsic connection and, 26–31 intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, 49–54 ownership of goal and, 21–22 personal connection and, 31–45 summary on, 56–57 three ways to heartfelt connection, 26 Higgins, E Tory, 47, 48 Hodgman, John, 41 Hundred Percenters, 13 Index Illusion of specificity, 71–72 Imagining a goal importance of, 60–63 rules for making a picture, 76–83 vision walls and vision boards for, 68, 69, 74, 76, 82 Individualizing, 34–37 Intrinsic connection, 26–31 Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, 49–54 Iyengar, Sheena S., 120, 121 Jefferson, Thomas, 134 Jobs, Steve, 2, 4–7, 14, 27, 73, 81 Jordan, Michael, 92, 135 Junk removal company (1-800-Got-Junk), 67–69, 74 Kahneman, Daniel, 124 Kennedy, John F., 10, 66, 87, 134 King, Martin Luther, 67, 87, 134 Latham, Gary, 139, 140 Lauriola, Marco, 124 179 Index Leadership IQ, 4, 142 Learning new skills, 115–17 Learning versus performance goals, 145–48 Lee, Bruce, 92 Lepper, Mark R., 120 Levin, Irwin, 124 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 91 Lighting for animated goals, 79–80 Lincoln, Abraham, 10, 134 Locke, Edwin, 139 Long, Justin, 41 Lynn, Ivy, 75–76 Medical treatment, individualizing, 34–36 Medina, John, 82, 141 Mental pictures of a goal picture superiority, 59–60, 63–67 rules for making, 76–83 vision walls and vision boards, 68, 69, 74, 76, 82 Michelangelo, 92 Money financial incentives, 45–47 strategies for saving, 109–11 Moore, Henry, 78, 91, 92 Mother Teresa, 34, 37, 134 Motivation difficulty of goal and, 141–45 financial incentives, 45–47 intrinsic versus extrinsic, 49–54 ownership of goal and, 21–22 personal connection and, 31–45 vision walls and vision boards for, 68, 69, 74, 76, 82 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 92, 138 Nelson, Lyle, 27–28, 132–33 Numbers assigned to goals, 7, 70–75 O’Keefe, Georgia, 92 Oversetting goals, 12, 149 Ownership of goal, 21–22 See also Endowment effect Page, Larry, 73 Paivio, Allan, 88, 89 180 Performance goals, learning versus, 145–48 Perot, Ross, 66 Personal connection companies that build, 40–45 extrinsic connection and, 45–49 individualizing for, 34–37 personalizing for, 37–40 stories illustrating power of, 31–34 Pierce, Howie, 118 Pippen, Scottie, 135 Pride from goal accomplishment, 131–32 Procrastination financial risk from, 96–97 happiness and, 96 as killer of HARD Goals, 11, 95–96, 126–27 Lou’s story, 97–98 six tricks for conquering, 108–23 Quiz on your goals, 14–19 Reagan, Ronald, 10, 67, 87 Red Alert Zone, 17–18, 19 Redelmeier, Donald, 34 Regulatory fit, 47 Index Required goals animated and, 123–26 deliberate steps and, 106–8 description of, 2, 5–6, 11–12 how we view future, 99–106 Lou’s story, 97–98 six tricks for, 108–23 summary on, 126–27 Save More Tomorrow plan, 109–10 Schultz, Howard, 73 Scoring quiz on goal quality, 16–19 Scudamore, Brian, 67–68, 69, 74 Sears, 71, 72 Setting for animated goals, 79 Shakespeare, William, 25, 26, 51 Shapes of animated goals, 78 Shoot the Moon game, 48, 49 Shoves and Tugs, 28–31, 54 Sightseeing, study on, 104–6 Index Small, Deborah, 37 SMART Goals, 4, 7, 40 SmartBen software company, 151–53 Smoking cessation programs, 45–47 Southwest Airlines, 71 Specificity, need for, 70–76 Sproveri, Diana, 54–56 Starbucks, 68, 69, 72, 73 Starting your HARD Goal calling a friend, 166–68 Cutting in Half technique for, 164–65 little push for, 163–64 Steel, Piers, 96 Taylor, Quinn, 116–17, 118 Tesla, Nikola, 11, 90, 91, 92 Thaler, Richard, 109, 123 Tricks for fighting procrastination (how to stop discounting future payoffs) attacking discount rate directly, 119–20 181 discounting future payoffs and, 99–108 limiting choices, 120–23 making benefits sound better, 112–13 minimizing costs, 114–18 putting future benefits into present, 110–12 putting present costs into future, 108–10 Tversky, Amos, 34, 123 Undersetting goals, 12, 148– 49, 150 Vision walls and vision boards, 68, 69, 74, 76, 82 Wertenbroch, Klaus, 122 Winfrey, Oprah, 74 Woods, Tiger, 138 Words, concrete, 88–90, 112–13 Writing down goals, 84–87 Zone of Concern, 17, 18, 19 This page intentionally left blank About the Author M ark Murphy is the founder and CEO of Leadership IQ (www.leadershipiq.com) Since its inception, Leadership IQ has become a top-rated provider of goal-setting training, leadership training, employee surveys, and e-learning As the force behind some of the largest leadership studies ever conducted, Leadership IQ’s programs have yielded remarkable results for such organizations as Microsoft, IBM, MasterCard, Merck, MD Anderson Cancer Center, FirstEnergy, Volkswagen, and Johns Hopkins Murphy’s cutting-edge leadership techniques and research have been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Businessweek, U.S News & World Report, the Washington Post, and hundreds more periodicals He was featured on a CBS News “Sunday Morning” special report on slackers in the workplace as well as being featured on ABC’s “20/20.” He has also made several appearances on Fox Business News Murphy’s previous book was the international bestseller Hundred Percenters: Challenge Your People to Give It Their All and They’ll Give You Even More A former turnaround advisor, Murphy guided more than 100 organizations from precarious financial situations to recordsetting levels of prosperity For these and other accomplish- ments, Murphy was a three-time nominee for Modern Healthcare’s Most Powerful People in Healthcare Award, joining a list of 300 luminaries including George W Bush and Hillary Clinton Only 15 consultants had ever been nominated to this list He was also awarded the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s Helen Yerger Award for Best Research A seasoned public speaker, Murphy has illuminated audiences for hundreds of groups and lectured at the Harvard Business School, Yale University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Florida For free downloadable resources about this book, including quizzes and discussion guides, please visit hardgoals.com .. .HARD GOALS THE SECRET TO GETTING FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE MARK MURPHY New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London... at the HARD Goals website: hardgoals.com Introduction HARD Goals? ? ?The Science of Achieving Big Things I know something about you: you want to something really significant with your life Whether... that If you want to double your company’s revenue: there’s a goal for that If you want to improve Introduction your personal fi nances: there’s a goal for that If you want to reform the world’s