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Goal setting
How can academics set high quality goals for their career ?
By Emilie Lauer
An organisational behaviour expert has encouraged academics to set concrete goals this year to help advance their careers .
UNSW Professor Dr Peter Heslin said setting goals can help academics direct their focus .
“ Goals can help meet the vast range of university expectations many of us encounter such as publishing more , in ways that we find viable , sustainable and worthwhile ,” Heslin told Campus Review .
Heslin joined Campus Review to discuss the art of goal setting and how academics can keep themselves motivated during 2023 .
CR : What are the benefits of setting goals in your academic career ? PH : Well-formed academic goals can help us in four broad ways . First , to help direct our focus on what we aim to accomplish . Second , they can increase the amount of effort we exert and the likelihood that will persist with that effort till we achieve our goals . And finally , goals can trigger a quest to discover more effective strategies and developmental opportunities to enable us to attain them . Personal goals can help us identify and hone in on ways to focus the evolution of our professional identity and how to meet the vast range of expectations that our university employers often put on us in ways that are viable , sustainable , and hopefully worthwhile . These viability and sustainability elements are really important because many of us , as academics have been socialized to believe and we receive a regular trickle of subtle and sometimes not so subtle signals from our employer and our field that almost whatever we do or achieve , it ’ s just never quite enough , whether it be in the realm of research , teaching or service , the notion that we could and should always publish more and in more prestigious journals , obtain more and larger grants with a broader range of colleagues , innovate and teach ever more effectively and continually find more ingenious ways to build our institutions and have a positive impact on the world .
CR : All goals are not the same . What are the different type of goals academics should be setting ? When most people think of goals , they tend to think of outcome goals , also known
If we never stop working , we lose our edge , and our effectiveness goes down .
as performance goals , that define what you hope to accomplish - such as having at least one paper accepted for publication in a journal or having at least 90 per cent of your students satisfied with the quality of your teaching . But there ’ s three other types of goals that can support you in your outcome goals , striving and increasing the odds that you ’ ll attain your outcome goals . These three types of goals are behavioural goals , learning goals , and sub goals .
Behavioural goals stipulate the actions you need to take to reach your goal . Behavioural goals that could support the publication goal , for example , are perhaps first reviewing a journals ’ scope and recent statements by the editors of journals in your field that you think might be the best fit for your research .
Another example would be scheduling and ensuring to complete at least a dozen hours each week on the research project you deemed your most promising as a star publication candidate . And third , perhaps
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