It’s goal-setting season. Discover how to articulate goals that motivate, inspire action, and turn into achievements.
Why Goal Communication Matters
Setting goals is not just important for personal growth. It’s a cornerstone of effective business management and team leadership.
The purpose of goal setting is improvement. Goals are supposed to make us better.
To turn goals into positive outcomes, they must be relatable and meaningful. They must be achievable. Most of all, though, they must be communicated in a way that motivates and inspires action.
The Power of Words Relies on Their Arrangement
Let’s be clear: word choice matters. Words are powerful. They trigger emotions and can encourage effort.
But don’t get stuck on individual words. Powerful words alone are not enough.
Great communication relies on the arrangement of words. Buried in a poorly constructed sentence, words cannot develop their power. On the other hand, if organized effectively, they have the ability to captivate, influence, and motivate.
Sentence Structure – Not Exciting, but Essential
Sentence structure may not be the most thrilling topic. For many people, it conjures up memories of tortuous grammar lessons and red-pen corrections on essays. Maybe that’s because some of our English teachers failed to communicate the power great sentences have. The lessons focused on the “how” and not the “why”.
A well-crafted sentence can be an effective call to action. It engages the audience, gets the message across, and can drive change.
Look at the following business goal:
Better employee engagement will be achieved through the introduction of monthly team-building events.
We can improve the sentence on the word-level by changing the verb.
Employee engagement will be boosted through the introduction of monthly team-building events.
But what will really make a difference is changing the sentence structure.
We will boost employee engagement by introducing monthly team-building events.
We are boosting employee engagement with monthly team-building events.
We are introducing monthly team-building events to boost employee engagement.
The last three sentences show determination. They are actionable. The speaker/writer owns the action. That makes them more effective than the first two options.
3 Ways to Create Better Sentences
Developing sentence building skills takes some practice. Below are three great ways to get started.
Make Your Sentences Active
From English class, you may have a vague memory of active voice versus passive voice. Voice shows the relation between a "doer" (in more technical terms: the subject) and an action. In an active sentence the subject performs the action.
We (subject) are introducing monthly team-building events.
A passive sentence reverses that structure. It moves the focus away from the doer. The doer is inserted later in the sentence with the help of the word “by”, or it is left out altogether: Monthly team-building events are being introduced (by us).
There are some instances where a passive structure makes sense. For strong goal communication, though, active sentences are the better choice.
Three reasons why active sentences are better for goal communication:
Clarity: Our brain likes the doer-action structure. It’s easy to understand and clear.
Resolution: Active sentences express a person’s or organization’s firm decision to do something. They are bolder.
Accountability: Active sentences assign accountability for action and inaction: We will do it. If we don’t, we are responsible for the inaction.
Keep Your Sentences Short
Reduce the length of your sentences. Sentences get long, when we stuff them with too much information. Complex sentences are hard to understand. The core message is easily lost in the shuffle.
My clients often ask me: What’s the maximum number of words for a good sentence? My answer: There is no prescribed length you need to stick to. Follow the two steps below to manage sentence length.
Two easy ways to make your sentences shorter:
Break them up! Don’t pack too many ideas into one single sentence. Don’t hide your key message. Give important ideas their own sentence – they deserve it!
Trim the fat! Take out what has no purpose: fluff, repetitions, fillers, etc. Edit your sentences for conciseness.
In a future blog, I’ll discuss how you can use paragraphs to capture more complex ideas.
Focus on Flow
If you plan to craft a longer document to share your organization’s goals for the year ahead, pay attention to the flow of ideas. Make your vision easy to follow.
Two easy ways to achieve flow:
Create a roadmap: Add signposts along the way. Linguists call them transitions: words and phrases that signal how ideas and sentences are connected. For example: first, moreover, as a result, etc. They help you build sentence-to-sentence logic. Choppy or disconnected messages can make goals seem unfocused and weak. Read this blog if you want to learn more about this topic.
Give visual support: Use visual elements, such as bold, to highlight key points. Organize content with clear headings and lists. The absence of visual elements is tiring for the reader. A tired audience is an uninspired audience.
Increase Your Chances of Success
To turn goals into positive outcomes, they must be communicated in a way that allows others to understand and own them.
Words have power – but their power only shines when arranged skillfully. Clear, impactful goal communication relies on well-constructed sentences. Sentence construction is a skill you can learn and improve!
I specialize in helping professionals enhance their communication skills in English. Reach out to me for a free consultation, if you’d like guidance on presenting your ideas and goals more effectively. Let’s start improving your communication today.
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