Goal Development and Decision Making Workshop
Goal Development and Decision Making Workshop
Rebecca M. Domzalski | 2018
Abstract
This Goal Development and Decision Making Workshop was created to complement the Navy’s leadership process, engaging junior sailors on their first enlistment in order to discuss their personal goals and how these goals can be achieved while on active duty. By harnessing a sailor’s individual goals I hoped to focus their energies both on and off duty to achieve something greater, avoiding engaging destructive behaviors that often present themselves when one has too much time on their hands. Making the decision to join the military is a big step in our future success and it is one that many others have made before us.
Turning goals into an action plan may seem like a very simple concept to many, but if you have never been taught the skills you can spend a great deal of your life waiting for something better without knowing what to do to get it. Teaching junior sailors about writing out the steps needed to accomplish the goal, reducing them to statements that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART). The steps of a properly developed action plan should be able to answer who, what, why, when, where and how with a timeline that can be revisited for changes.
Choosing a mentor to help guide us toward developing and achieving an action plan is an important part of the discussion. More than one mentor may be needed to meet the dynamic nature of having goals in more than one area of our lives. Not everyone will be supportive of goals. Even our best friends may discourage us for any number of reasons. Mentorship can help to keep us on a path through encouragement and reassurance, even when those that we trust the most do not appreciate the efforts.
Developing goals helps to give sailors an individual path to success on a journey that they have chosen which complements the Navy’s leadership process. Gaining confidence and competence in all areas of our lives creates more resilient sailors, capable of meeting the challenges of their career.