Recently on LinkedIn I talked about how goal setting has been a critical aspect of accelerating my career success. Let’s dive into that more deeply today and see how you can use clear goals to accelerate your own career.
As an internal communicator, you’re usually super focused on the goals of other people. What does the business need, what does your audience need, what does your CEO need, how can you help them? You spend your days thinking about how to create engaging content, how to use your channels effectively, how to listen to your audience, how to demonstrate value.
But… what about YOU?
Do you ever carve out the time to focus on yourself and think about your own goals?
"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."

As an internal comms pro, you have the potential to influence organisational change and become a trusted advisor to senior executives. But this won’t happen by chance. It requires forward-thinking to define and pursue your goals. As author Tony Robbins said,“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Without goals, you risk drifting aimlessly and missing opportunities. You can be very busy for months or even years, but not feel like you’re getting anywhere. No promotion, no recognition, you feel a bit… stuck.
You need to invest time and energy in YOURSELF. It’s time to focus on you.
Does setting goals really make a difference?
In short – yes.
Goal-setting theory and research tells us that having an intentional, purposeful goal increases the likelihood that you will achieve the things you want in life. The research emphasises the importance of (a) knowing what you want and (b) creating plans to make help you get it.
Setting clear goals drives motivation, which accounts for a large part of what makes some people more successful than others.
People who set clear goals are more likely to advance in their careers, increase their skills and accelerate their learning. Whether you’re just starting your career in internal communication or have a decade of experience, goal setting should be fundamental part of your operating system.
What kind of goals should I set?
You can set all sorts of goals. Maybe you have a gap in your skills that you’ve been aware of for some time but haven’t quite gotten around to focusing on. Or maybe there’s a training course you’d like to do but you’ve been putting it off. You could want to set a personal goal around health, relationships or family time.
How do you actually do it?
My own methodology looks something like this: I break goals down into three different sections. I look at what I want to achieve in each of the three sections over the course of the next year, and then start breaking that vision down into achievable goals for each quarter. I try to make these goals very very specific so that at the end of the quarter it will be easy to judge if I’ve achieved it or not. I’ve created my own goal setting templates that I complete, then I print them out and stick them on the wall above my desk. This way, my goals are literally staring me in the face every day.
These become my North Star for that quarter. This is how I really accelerate my career and my achievements, by creating clear goals and by putting them in my line of sight every day.
Let's look at some examples.
❌Unclear goal: Go for regular walks
✅ Clear goal: Walk 10,000 steps 4x a week for 3 months.
Let's look at another one.
❌ Unclear goal: Read more books
✅ Clear goal: Read 1x chapter of a non-fiction business book per week
But c'mon Joanna... this sounds so simple.
Setting the goals is the easy part.
EXECUTING on the plan to achieve the goals is harder. Accountability is harder. Doing this alone makes makes it really bloody hard.
Lucky for you, I'm building something to help you 👀 If you want to accelerate your internal comms career using goal setting and have support and accountability to help you commit and execute, then this could be for for you.
This might be for you if you are ready to be:
Accountable
Action-oriented
Ambitious
Is this you? Then you need to join my IC Accelerator programme. Come smash some goals with me.