The Compass Question: Naming What Matters Before You Set a Goal

The compass question—What matters to me here?—can stop a measurable goal from pointing in the wrong direction. Ask it before choosing a target, deadline or tracking method, and the goal has a reason to exist beyond its numbers.

Consider an invented situation. Mara, a fictional project coordinator, is thinking about applying for a management role. She can picture the title and the next rung on the career ladder, but cannot say why the role appeals beyond sounding like progress. Before editing her CV or setting an application target, she asks what matters in this decision.

The compass question

Mara’s first answer is, “I want to do work that matters.” It is sincere, but too broad to guide a choice. Almost any job could fit those words, rather like trying to steer with a compass that points everywhere at once.

She asks what “matters” means in her working day and identifies a more specific value: helping colleagues become confident in their work. This is not a goal, because it names no result, deadline or finished state. It does give her a direction to look for.

A personal value is a quality you want to bring to your choices; a goal describes an outcome you can pursue. “Support colleagues’ development” can inform several goals. “Apply for a management role” is one possible route, not proof that the value is being served.

From value to direction

With her value named, Mara asks: What would help me express this value in my current circumstances? The question does not assume that the first appealing option is the right one. It gives her a basis for comparing possible directions.

She considers applying for management, taking on informal mentoring and contributing to staff training. Each option could involve supporting colleagues, but each asks something different of her. Management may bring responsibilities she has not considered; mentoring may fit her current work but offer a narrower opportunity; training may let her practise explaining ideas without changing roles.

Rather than choose the most impressive option, she decides to ask her manager whether she can contribute to an upcoming training session. She sets a clear decision point: by the end of the following working week, she will ask about the team’s need, the preparation involved and the time available. After the conversation, she will either propose a session topic and agree a planning date, or, if there is no suitable need or time, explore mentoring instead.

Make the goal observable

If her manager confirms that a session would be useful and workable, Mara’s goal is to prepare and deliver a short team session on a process she knows well. Its completion criteria are clear: the session takes place, colleagues have an opportunity to ask questions, and she records one point to keep or change next time. “Be more helpful” would be difficult to recognise; a delivered session gives her something concrete to review.

Say Mara has a conversation with her manager on Thursday and learns that the team needs a session on the handover process, with preparation time available. She agrees to draft an outline by the following Wednesday, checks the outline with her manager, then delivers the session at the next team meeting. She records the questions colleagues raise and one adjustment for next time. The result is a completed session and a specific decision about whether training work suits her; if the manager instead says the team has no need or time, her stated alternative is to ask about mentoring rather than press on with an unsuitable session.

After the session, Mara can ask whether she had the chance to support colleagues’ understanding, what seemed useful to them and what she would change. Those answers can help her decide whether to pursue more training work, explore mentoring or reconsider management.

What the choice changes

In this invented situation, the result is not a promotion or a dramatic career change. Mara has a defined next action and better information about the kind of work she wants to do. She has also avoided treating a job title as a substitute for a reason.

The lesson is not that everyone who values helping colleagues should choose training. Another person might prefer mentoring, management or a role outside their current workplace. A value supplies a basis for personal choice; it does not prescribe one route for everyone.

Nor does naming a value make a difficult option easy. Mara may lack time, discover the session is not needed or decide she would rather support colleagues another way. Each outcome tells her something about the fit between her intention and her circumstances.

Choosing the next measure

Once the direction is clear, Mara can choose how to track progress. A measure should show whether she has taken the action she chose or learned what she needed to learn. It need not become a verdict on whether she cares enough.

For this goal, she can check whether she spoke with her manager by the agreed deadline, whether a suitable topic and planning date were agreed, and whether the session was delivered with a note about what to change. If the conversation shows that timing is poor, she can revise the goal rather than pretend an earlier plan must remain sensible. A goal serves the value; the value owes no loyalty to an obsolete goal.

That flexibility matters when a goal depends on another person’s decision or conditions outside your control. Mara can prepare for the conversation and ask clear questions. She cannot decide whether the team needs a session or whether her manager can approve the time, so those outcomes should shape her next choice rather than count as failures of effort.

Questions about values?

Keep the direction visible

A useful compass question is not an invitation to search for one perfect purpose. It connects a particular decision with something you want your choices to express. Write the value in plain language beside the goal, then check that the proposed action still points towards it as circumstances become clearer.

Mara’s next move is specific: ask about the session by the end of the following working week, then either agree a topic and planning date or explore mentoring. When your own target starts to look like a destination chosen for its appearance, return to the compass question and name what matters before deciding what to do.