The Goal Gap: How to Rally People Around Big Goals

There's this moment that happens the first time you communicate a goal to your firm...

In a matter of milliseconds, people will hear it for the first time and instantly react in a very emotional way. It's inevitable.

In those moments, one of two things will happen:

• People feel inspired and rally behind achieving the goal

• People feel overwhelmed and doubt that it's possible

As a leader, the way in which you communicate has a big effect on which side of the equation you end up on.

And when it comes to things like aggressive growth goals, the stakes are high.

The good news is, with intentional communication strategies, you have control over how people react and therefore, whether or not your firm is better positioned to reach your aggressive goals or not.

Today, I'll share the critical things you need to get right in your communication to stay on the positive side of this equation and keep your firm on track to achieve what you've set out to achieve. Let's dive in.

The Goal Gap: Understanding What's at Stake

I'm advising the CEO of a Top 50 CPA firm.

Recently, this CEO shared their growth goal for 2025 with me (they have a fairly aggressive YOY growth objective).

Based on some market factors coming into play, they felt their aggressive growth goal "seemed like it would happen naturally".

As someone who's sat in the CEO chair, I get exactly what they're saying. I've felt the exact same way before.

Here's where it gets interesting...

I've also had conversations with Partners at the firm who expressed they were completely overwhelmed by the idea of the new growth goal.

Huh...so what's going on there...?

I call this the Goal Gap—the gap in perception between leadership's belief of how achievable a goal is vs. the people who are performing the work.

What's causing the gap?

Effective leaders spend intentional time ​on the balcony​.

From that vantage point, CEOs and leadership teams are viewing things through the lens of strategy and potential. From the balcony, progress can look like a natural progression because they're seeing the big picture of things like:

• Market trends

• Regulatory changes

• Product-market fit

• Internal momentum

• Pipeline projections

Meanwhile, those on the dance floor—the people doing the work—may perceive the same goals as completely overwhelming. Especially if they're already struggling to reach current goals, they have a difficult time seeing beyond what's directly in front of them. It seems like a mountain of work.

So they get overwhelmed—and rightfully so.

This difference in perspective is where this Goal Gap comes from.

How to Close the Gap

Confidence in your vision and goals is critical as a leader AND confidence alone doesn’t inspire action.

Saying, “We’ll naturally get there” isn’t enough. It’s your job to connect the dots between vision and execution.

Bring people into the conversation. In addition to what the goal is, leaders need to articulate HOW goals will be achieved:

• What's the path to achieving this goal?

• What specific actions are required?

• What resources will be provided?

As a leader, it's your job to walk people down the path of:

1. How we'll achieve this goal as a collective

2. What that means for each person (or practice, segment, etc)

So if 30% growth "seems natural" to you, HOW is it going to happen?

"Based on our average deal size and knowing these regulations effect all of our clients, we only need to add this service to 20% of our current client base to achieve our goal."

Alright, now we've got something more tangible to work with. Build the bottom-up, detail action plan from here.

Perception Is Tough to Overcome

Within milliseconds of hearing a goal for the first time, people are going to feel convicted and excited to accomplish it or shut down the possibility of it ever happening.

The way you communicate about the goal plays a major factor in people's emotional reactions.

If you first introduce it in the wrong way, now it's an uphill battle from that moment forward to gain people's belief back.

It's not impossible to overcome, but reaching and exceeding your goals as an organization will be much easier when you get out of the gate on a positive note.

Your communication has the power to influence which way things go. Be intentional.

With 2025 around the corner, if you'd like to workshop how you might message your firm's goals to your team, I'd enjoy discussing it with you. Send me a reply or ​book time on my calendar here to chat​.

With intention,
Alan D Whitman