Goal-Setting Boot Camp: Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
Kevin Shulman
Sandler Training (September 2020)

How and why effective goal setting starts in the personal realm and moves outward from there

The title of one of Marshall Goldsmith’s more recent books suggests that “what got you here won’t get you there.” In fact, I am convinced that what you got you here won’t even allow you to remain here, much less get you there…however “here” and “there” are defined. I agree with Kevin Shulman that smart companies have effective goal setting at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise, and, that it “starts in the personal realm and moves outward from there.” This “deceptively simple idea” drives individual as well as organizational success.

It is no coincidence that companies annually ranked among those most highly admired and best toi work for are also ranked among those most profitable, with the greatest cap value in their industry segment. However different they may be in most other respects, all of them a workplace culture within which personal growth and professional development are most likely to thrive

Shulman suggests a program within a three-day framework, and includes a “bonus” fourth day for sales professionals and business (development) leaders. Some who read this book may need more time but presumably Shulman agrees with me that doing it effectively is the objective, however long it may take.

The term “boot camp” refers to mastering basics. That is true of the training one of our sons received during his first three months with the U.S. Marine Corps and also of countless hours of deep, deliberate practice required to achieve peak performance. (See Anders Ericsson’s Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise (2017). This book thoroughly, rigorously covers all the basics.

I commend Kevin Shulman on the pragmatic nature of his insights and counsel. However, their ultimate value will be determined by how effectively each reader applies them.

That said, with all due respect to the importance of having a compelling vision, Thomas Edison offers this reminder: “Vision without execution is hallucination.”