Early in my career I pushed people hard. Harder than some of them wanted to be pushed. A few of them loved it and did the best work of their lives. Others dug in, went quiet, and waited for me to move on to somebody else.
So I softened it. When I taught goal setting, I leaned on the SMART framework... Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely... and I put most of my weight on attainable. I wanted every manager in the room to believe the number in front of them was actually reachable. For a leader who has never hit a target on purpose, that matters. Confidence has to come from somewhere, and the fastest place to get it is a goal you beat.
That still works. But here's the trap... most teams stop there.
They get comfortable. They hit eight of their ten quarterly priorities. They do more than they thought they could a year ago. And they finish the year well short of what the store was actually capable of. Nobody failed. That's what makes it hard to see.
I see it most clearly in planning meetings...around this time of the year. A general manager walks in with next year's forecast and it's this year plus four percent. Used volume up a little. Service up a little. Fixed ops gross up a little. Everyone nods, because nobody can argue with it and nobody has to change anything on Monday to get there. That plan is not a stretch goal.
So I've gone back to pushing. Not because the soft version was wrong, but because a lot of the leaders I work with are past needing it. They've proven they can hit a number. The question now is which number.
Here's the one I'd ask your leadership team before you build next year's plan:
What if you only had twelve months to hit your three-year goals?
Sit with that one for a minute before you answer it. Not "could we?"... the honest answer is usually no, and that's fine. The useful question is what would have to change starting this week.
Because a three-year goal lets you keep every current assumption. Your comp plan stays. Your org chart stays. Your vendor stays. Your Tuesday manager meeting stays exactly as useless as it is now. A twelve-month version of that same goal doesn't let any of it stay.
Try it on something real. Say your three-year goal is 150 used units a month and you're at 95. On a three-year timeline, you hire a little, you buy a little better, you get there eventually. On a twelve-month timeline you have to look at where the cars actually come from, who is accountable for acquisition by name, whether your desk can handle that volume without slowing the deal down, and whether the manager over that department is the manager you'd hire today for a 150-car store. Same goal. Completely different conversation.
Or take service. Three-year goal: two more advisors and a real absorption number. On a twelve-month timeline, that turns into a hiring process you don't have, a training path you've been meaning to write down, and a hard look at the hours your existing techs are actually turning versus what they could be.
Ambitious goals do one thing that attainable goals can't. They force the questions you've been avoiding. Every time.
That's the change I'd make to the framework this year. Keep Specific. Keep Measurable. Keep Relevant and Timely. Swap Attainable for Ambitious.
Two rules if you're going to do it.
First, a goal being ambitious does not make missing it free. Ambitious is not an excuse to stop keeping score. You still measure weekly, you still name an owner, you still have the uncomfortable conversation when the number is red a few weeks running. If anything, you need that rhythm more, because a bigger goal goes off the rails earlier and quieter.
Second, don't do this to your whole store on the same day. A new advisor who has never hit a target needs the attainable version. A manager who's beaten her number six quarters in a row is bored, and bored is how you lose good people. Match the goal to the leader in front of you. That's the part to master.
The reason I care about this is simple. Great goals don't let you stay the same. If your plan for next year lets you keep every habit you have today, it isn't the plan for next year.
You've got about a month to build the real one.
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