why new leaders avoid making good goals

New leaders often show a reluctance to set bold goals for their teams. Among other things, a goal is a bet on the future, and these leaders feel bad making such a bet.  

It’s possible these leaders feel better trusting their perspective and read of current context than to boldly state what they want their team to make true weeks or months in the future. Epistemically, they have more confidence in real-time problem solving.

At the most basic level, though, the allergy to setting goals can be drawn to something that runs under all early leadership: fear of the power that I'm actually responsible for wielding at this moment. Someone new to leadership may say, “It doesn't even feel right to make a bet on this.” What they're actually saying is something more like, 

“What I've done before this is work for people who are making bets like this in ways I didn't understand. I’ve done work that feels experientially valid and leads to some good outcomes. But I have not yet been responsible. I have not yet associated my performance, my sense of being good at work, with having to set a pretty bold goal and work towards it. Up to now, my leaders have been doing that part for me. Nobody told me that's what I'm going to have to do now that I’m a leader.” 

-ben