In this issue, Maggie Grieve explores the Goal Pyramid, a tool to help clients achieve goals via tasks and milestones
What is it?
A Goal Pyramid, sometimes known as a goal hierarchy or goal ladder, is a visual representation of the steps needed to achieve a specific objective or goal. Structured in the form of a pyramid or triangle, with the main goal at the top and supporting sub-goals below it, its purpose is to help break down a larger goal into smaller, more manageable tasks or milestones.
Lending itself to so many coaching scenarios, I’ve enjoyed using it with clients to help with topics including life or career decisions, business development opportunities, personal development, project prioritisation, new job onboarding and company strategy development.
I was first introduced to the Goal Pyramid by fellow Henley coach, Callum O’Neill. Callum contacted us to suggest its inclusion in our forthcoming book, Coaching Tools: 101 coaching tools and techniques for executive coaches, team coaches, mentors and supervisors, Volume 3 and he shares his own client’s experience of Goal Pyramid below. I was so taken with the technique that I used it in a client coaching session the very next day!
Why it helps
So what was it about Goal Pyramid that caught my attention and encouraged me to adopt its use so quickly?
A great deal of my work as a business, leadership and team coach centres around helping people think more about strategic planning.
But the very expression ‘strategic planning’ can be enough to send anyone into a state of fear, denial or panic. For leaders, managers and their teams, translating big ideas, eg, a company’s mission, vision and strategic priorities, into actionable plans that they and their teams can successfully get their teeth into and address, can feel very overwhelming. For individuals in pursuit of big goals, achieving the things that really matter to them can feel quite daunting and out of reach without a reliable means of breaking the overarching goal down into bite-sized chunks.
Co-creating a Goal Pyramid can be a powerful and effective way of helping clients approach these complex challenges. The simple structure makes it easily adaptable for individuals, teams and groups, while also being easy to adapt as the project evolves. By using the Goal Pyramid as a working tool, coaches can effectively guide their clients through the goal-setting process, fostering clarity, motivation, and strategic thinking to achieve their desired outcomes.
Areas it helps with include the following:
Clarity and foundation:
The Goal Pyramid provides a visual representation that helps the client gain clarity on their desired outcome.
It then serves as a foundation for the coaching sessions and provides a clear structure for the client to work on between sessions. It keeps the coaching process grounded and focused.
Understanding motivation:
The tool allows the client to explore and articulate why the goal is important to them. By breaking down the goal into sub-goals and action steps, the client can delve deeper into their underlying motivations and values. This can also help them to create a stronger sense of purpose and commitment. The power of this in team coaching scenarios cannot be underestimated.
Assessing alignment:
The tool also helps the client and coach assess whether the goal aligns with values, aspirations, and overall life or company vision. It allows them to reflect on the significance of the goal and determine if it truly resonates with them as individuals or as an organisation or team. If the goal doesn’t make sense or the ‘why’ isn’t strong enough, it can be a signal to reconsider or adjust the goal.
Planning and prioritisation:
It provides a clear roadmap for the client, helping them identify specific actions and determine the order in which they need to be taken. It brings structure to the process and makes it easier for them to navigate the complexity of tasks and activities associated with achieving the goal. This is especially valuable when working with teams, as it facilitates collaboration, resource pooling, and proactive planning.
Communication and alignment:
The Goal Pyramid serves as a coherent strategy map that can be shared with relevant stakeholders, such as family, friends, bosses, or team members. It helps to establish buy-in and alignment from others, facilitating support and cooperation in the pursuit of the goal.
Continued progress and focus:
It acts as a focal point for ongoing work and development. It keeps the client on track and aligned with the overarching goal or objective or even allows them to deviate from it intentionally in a challenging and questioning way. It can be referenced and revised as needed, providing a framework for future coaching sessions and strategy refinement.
Figure 1
How it works
In simple terms, Goal Pyramids are structures that link long-term goals (mission) to short term goals (tasks and actions) through just four steps (it can also be reduced to three steps by combining the bottom two tiers): Mission/Top-Level Goal, Sub-Goals, Action Steps and finally Sub-Task/Progression level.
Mission/Top-level goal:
At the top of the Pyramid, lies the client’s ultimate goal or objective. This should be a specific and measurable outcome they want to achieve. As a simple example, if their goal is to become a published author, this would be their top-level goal.
Sub-Goals:
Underneath the top-level goal, are Sub-Goals that contribute to its achievement. Each Sub-Goal represents a significant step towards reaching the Top-Level goal. In the author example, Sub-Goals could be things like completing the first draft of a book, editing the manuscript, finding a literary agent, or submitting the book to publishers.
Action steps:
Each Sub-Goal is further broken down into specific Action Steps or tasks that need to be completed. These Action Steps are more concrete and actionable than the Sub-Goals. For instance, if one of the Sub-Goals is to find a literary agent, the Action Steps might include researching literary agents, preparing a query letter, and sending out submissions.
Sub-task/progression:
As you work your way down the Pyramid, the client is encouraged to complete the Action Steps and Sub-Goals, moving closer to achieving the Top-Level goal.
Using a piece of paper or a flip-chart, encourage your client as follows:
- Introduce the Pyramid concept to your client by drawing a rough example or sketch of a Goal Pyramid. Ask questions that help you to understand if creating a plan such as this would be useful to them.
- Assuming this is well received, start to work with them to identify their personal goal or to articulate the company or team vision or mission they’re seeking to achieve or impact positively. Draw or have your client draw a new Pyramid. Ask them to place this identified mission goal in the top segment and ensure it is labelled as their Top-Level Goal.
- Help them to be specific about what they want to achieve and by when, why this is important, what the impact of not doing it is and so on.
- Once you have identified this Top-Level Goal together, work with the client to break it down into Sub-Goals, or smaller, more specific objectives that they could achieve within a few months to a year, filling the Pyramid as you go.
- Next, work with them to help break each Sub-Goal down into even smaller, more achievable Action Steps that they can accomplish within a few weeks to a few months. These should be quality-focused steps.
- For each short-term Action Step, identify the specific progression or process goals or actions needed to take to achieve it. What steps do they need to follow, and what resources do they need to gather?
- Finally, create a timeline for each short-term goal, including deadlines and milestones along the way. Explain that this will help them to stay on track and monitor progress. By combining the Goal Pyramid with the SMART goal framework, individuals can create a comprehensive and actionable plan for achieving their objectives. The Pyramid structure provides a visual representation of the steps required to reach the ultimate goal, while the SMART criteria help to ensure that each task is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
- Reflect together on the Pyramid that has been created, asking questions that will help to establish if this feels like a robust format to help them move confidently towards their goal.
Case study 1:
US college degree
Earlier, I mentioned Callum O’Neill as introducer of the tool to me and here, one of his own clients shares her experience of developing a Goal Pyramid with him:
“For me it was an eye opener to remind myself to set new dream goal.
I had a dream goal for 2001 to be the first female in my family to earn a college degree from a prestige university in the US and to get a full scholarship. It was a long shot at the time more so because I had three kids and was living abroad in the US with my husband who was studying for his PhD full-time and we did not have any immediate family members in the area to support us.
The day I graduated was the most memorable day of my life because despite all the factors seemingly not being in my favour I managed to achieve it though dedication and passion.
When you were explaining the Goal Pyramid it forced me to reckon with the fact that since I’ve achieved that goal I feel like I’ve been living life in neutral gear. It reminded me of the fire that was alive in me and it made me want to rekindle it with a new goal.
My new dream goal will be to show enough diligence in the workplace to become the first female VP in this company’s history (another long shot).”
Case study 2:
Group manager
I’d also like to share my own example of using Goal Pyramid with a client. Recently, I started working with a new senior manager in a long-established company in the industrial sector. The company, established over 100 years ago, has been through significant directional change, restructuring and subsequent expansion over the last three years.
The ‘ask’ was to support his onboarding into a new role, leading a dispersed but experienced team across a wide geographical territory. As we engaged, he asked for help in thinking through ideas to help him strategise his approach. To bring the structure and organisation he was looking for, we centred our discussions on the concept of the Pyramid which he warmed to very quickly. This swiftly enabled him to identify the crucial objectives and essential steps he felt would be needed for him and for his team to thrive.
He was then able to break his goals down into sub-goals and action steps and then effectively prioritise and focus his and his team’s efforts on the tasks that could most contribute to success against the ‘big goal’.
He subsequently expressed how he had found this to be a highly valuable way to bring clarity and direction to his role, which had initially involved a more open-ended mandate from his employer. It had helped him to be mindful of the bigger picture and to generate a roadmap to achieve his objectives. Not only this but sharing the Pyramid with his new team opened the door to a discussion about aligning their own and collective input, with more surety about the potential impact.
Feedback from his team members shows they too found it a great way to work more closely together in pursuit of their individual and join objectives. It’s wonderful to see how this tool has been helpful in providing structure and guidance during this transition.
Make it work
The creation of the image using a pen and paper can provide coach and client with a clearer insight to the client’s big picture and real goals, the pluses, and minuses of the options open to them, and any potential roadblocks. This paper image also provides an opportunity for the client to revisit their thinking and their options in their own time later, or together with the coach during follow-up sessions.
At those tender early stages of a coaching relationship, it can help a client to feel ‘safely’ open to more explorative, yet tactical actionable thinking, ideally after a high-level
goal has been established.
It’s also possible to turn it on its head where a clear end goal isn’t visible. To use a bottom-up approach to see if what the client is doing today is taking them in the direction they’d like to go.
Conclusion
I wouldn’t be without Goal Pyramid now in my coaching practice.
The beauty of this tool is the simple but comprehensive picture a client gains of where they’d like to get to and how they might achieve this, with enough detailed and actionable steps to help them feel they can get there. It can help to overcome feelings of being overwhelmed or stuck by promoting creative and unrestricted thought within that structure and to see what choices and tasks need to be made, providing a clear roadmap that helps the client stay organised and focused on the tasks at hand.
The tool is one of 123 new tools clearly and simply laid out in the next Volume of our wonderful Coaching Tools series, due out in autumn 2023. Back by popular demand, this new volume builds on the success of Volumes 1 and 2 as a frther collection of favourite tools, techniques and experience of using them from more than 150 coaches from all corners of the globe, including Marshall Goldsmith, Michael Bungay Stanier, Peter Hawkins, Suzy Green, Tammy Turner and Jonathan Passmore.
Reference
Coaching Tools: 101 coaching tools and techniques for executive coaches, team coaches, mentors and supervisors, Volume 3, published by Libri, will be available from the Autumn of 2023, either directly from the publisher, Amazon and all major book retailers.
About the author
- Maggie Grieve is a triple accredited leadership and team coach with senior experience in business and strategy development in the global IT sector. Through her practice, Ping Thinking, Maggie marries her business and coaching experience to help clients deliver meaningful, lasting change with a focus on strengths, people and team development.