You may remember a few months back we wrote an epic post on setting goals that will motivate and inspire your support team. The post talked about digging deep, getting specific about goals, making a plan and how to measure results. Great stuff really. After reading it we hope you felt invigorated and ready to get your team moving in the right direction.

We’ve equipped you with the knowledge to set and measure goals for your support team. Now let’s touch on how to crush those goals. I’m not just talking about ticking a box off your list. I mean suiting up for the long haul marathon (because meaningful goals are a marathon not a sprint), running off into the sunset and bursting through the finish line style crush it.

If that sounds like something your team is ready for, let’s jump right into how to successfully achieve your goals.

Get Into The Right Mindset

Of course, setting goals is a great way to get things accomplished. But if you don’t believe in them they are pretty much useless. Not only for individual career goals like increasing personal CSAT scores, but for the overall goals of the company such as increasing overall customer satisfaction. Mindset is important no matter what type of goal you’re setting really. Creating a team of people that think and behave with a positive growth mindset is essential. In a nutshell, having a team of people with the right mindset working collectively towards goals is like having a well oiled machine.

Professor Carol Dweck is well known for her work on mindset. She’s found that there are two types of mindsets: fixed and growth. Those with a fixed mindset basically believe, “it is what it is”. They believe their given intelligence, experience etc. is where it ends and there’s no room to improve because they’ve been given what they’ve been given. People with a fixed mindset are also more likely to avoid challenges and risks due to fear of failure. While on the other hand, those with a growth mindset believe they’re capable of developing skills and adding to what they already know or are capable of.

Happy Team Needs To Grow

Fortunately, a fixed mindset isn’t the end all be all. Creating a customer support team made of up adaptive and strong-willed people who are ready to tackle daily challenges and crush big goals is possible. Some ideas to start fostering a more positive, growth-driven mindset amongst your support team include:

• Access to training, development, books, resources, conferences etc.
• Mentorship opportunities
• Offering growth opportunities within the company
• Having the right tools to complete their jobs effectively
• Open communication with management and coworkers

Creating the right environment for a flourishing, happy team will not only enable people to tackle goals. This mindset also reflects into overall job performance.

Support and Accountability Are Necessary

Once the thrill of getting clear on a vision and setting specific goals wears off, people start to realize that accomplishing goals takes hard work and perseverance. And without accountability and support it’s fairly easy to throw in the towel on the bad days. Which is exactly why a network of support can make all the difference. This could look like healthy competition between team members, weekly check-ins, and again, mentorship.

Some people like to think that accomplishing a goal makes them a better person (that’s probably just your ego talking). In reality it usually makes things harder. Having someone or a group to turn to on the hard days, seek advice from is important in the long-term journey of accomplishing a goal. In fact, American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) conducted an accountability study. They found that people have a 65% of completing a goal when they’re held accountable. Also when there’s specific accountability check-ins or conversations regularly that jumps to 95%.

Whether it’s a one-on-one or a group of coworkers, being held accountable engages the power of social expectations and pushes our brains to do what we said we would. Aside from achieving goals, accountability sets overall expectations, builds trust in ourselves and team, and strengthens the overall company vision.

When Things Don’t Go As Planned

Even with the best intentions, support, accountability groups and tracking, we don’t always meet our goals. There are a few options when this happens. The easier one is throwing your hands up and saying, “Forget this!” Or, you could instead analyze what went wrong and how to make things go right the next time you try (because you’re not ready to give up yet, right?).

Whether it was an individual goal or a team goal, discuss what each person thinks went wrong and whether or not the perceived failure was in their realm of control or not. If so, dig into what other solutions or outcomes could have been achieved had they controlled the situation differently. This isn’t meant to shame or reprimand anyone, but instead open people’s eyes to the realm of other possibilities. Maybe the goal was a little too out of reach after all and focus needs to shift to improving smaller habits or skills before successfully accomplishing a goal. Perhaps all the resources needed to be successful weren’t there or the goal wasn’t really important after all.

Whatever the case, examine the journey, learn from the mistakes or realizations gained along the way and move forward. Whether that means starting from the beginning and get even more laser focused on what it is you’re trying to achieve, moving on or trying the tackle the same customer service accomplishments, understanding the why is key.

Don’t Forget The Small Wins

It’s an amazing feeling to accomplish a big goal and it no doubt deserves celebration. But it’s important to remember the act of setting goals and attempting them is something to be celebrated as well. Remember to pat yourself on the back for giving it your all on the days when you want to give up. Keep in mind that failure is a part of the journey to success. So even if things don’t go as planned, the most important thing is not giving up until you accomplish what you set out to. Now get out there, get some amazing customer service accomplishments and go get em’!

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