What is goal setting?
Effective goal setting defines a specific, appropriately challenging outcome and pairs it with commitment, capability, feedback, and plans for obstacles.
See how well you turn meaningful outcomes into specific commitments, useful feedback, and adaptive follow-through.
Answer as you are today
Choose the answer that best describes your recent behaviour at work. No email required.
What does goal setting mean?
Effective goal setting defines a specific, appropriately challenging outcome and pairs it with commitment, capability, feedback, and plans for obstacles.
Why it matters at work
Goals direct attention and effort, but a target alone is not a system. People also need the knowledge, resources, feedback, and discretion required to pursue it without gaming the measure or sacrificing more important outcomes.
What this assessment measures
Goal quality
Choosing specific, meaningful, challenging outcomes with clear boundaries.
Commitment & plan
Translating the target into ownership, milestones, resources, and responses to predictable barriers.
Feedback & adjustment
Monitoring progress and changing the approach without quietly abandoning the outcome.
How to interpret your score
Your overall result is normalised to a 0–100 scale. Use it to choose a practice area, not to compare your worth with somebody else.
Build your goal setting foundation
Your answers point to a few situations where a small, visible routine could make this capability more dependable.
A developing goal setting pattern
You use this capability in some situations. Strengthen the dimension that becomes less reliable when pressure or ambiguity rises.
A strong goal setting pattern
Your answers suggest a reliable pattern. Keep testing it against harder work and evidence from real outcomes.
Designed for reflection, not diagnosis
The ten behaviour-based statements cover 3 practical dimensions. Responses run from “Never” to “Almost always”; negatively worded items are reverse-scored. Overall and dimension results are converted to a 0–100 scale. The assessment is educational and has not been psychometrically validated.
Read the full assessment methodology and editorial standards.
Research that informed this page
Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham (2002), “Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey”, American Psychologist.