Carl Jung once said that the privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are. This quote always makes me think about how to maximize our full potential. It is up to each of us to develop and embrace opportunities for growth and learning. But it is also the responsibility of employers, leaders and line mangers to build a learning culture. And herein lies the problem…or should I say the gap.

Goal setting uses a notion that individuals have a drive to reach a clearly defined end state, that is often a reward in itself. Its efficiency is affected by three features; proximity, difficulty and specificity. For an ideal goal, the initiation of action and achievement is close in time. This will increase execution focus. For the same reason, often annual targets are divided into monthly or quarterly steps so that individuals would refresh their focus and drive. A goal should be moderate, not too hard or too easy to complete. In both cases, most people are not optimally motivated. As many want a challenge - which assumes some kind of fear of failure – and, at the same, they need to feel that there is a substantial probability that they will succeed if they give it their best! Specificity concerns the description of the goal, that the goal should be objectively defined and understood by the individual.