A leader understands that complacency occurs when goal setting stops.

That can be goal setting in any number of areas including financial, career, health, personal development, social, or faith.  However, it is my belief that it is foundationally personal goal setting that stops – having its impact on career (see the Effective Goal Setting poster for more on this subject).

By way of example, it is my belief in sales that in order to get a solid sales projection of future sales, the sales manager needs to understand the personal goals and financial needs of each of his/her sales team. When the financial needs of each sales staff are added together, and their commission used to compute what level of sales each person must generate; a solid projection of what will be accomplished in sales will emerge.  It might be that the sales manager will need to go find reps with a higher standard of living.

When I was fifty years old, my wife and I paid off our house.  My own motivation began to dip significantly.  It was too early in my career for this to be happening.  Now I’m not saying that paying off one’s house would have this effect on everyone.  In fact I know many to whom it hasn’t happened.  However, for me it definitely affected my motivation.

So we moved to a larger home and went under a mortgage again.  The motivation problem was solved, and we enjoy our new house so much more too.  I had literally “trapped myself” into increasing my motivation.

Might you need a similar strategy to keep complacency from stifling your growth as a leader?