Use learning goals (not performance goals) for novel tasks
For new or complex skills, set a goal around what you will learn, not what you will produce.
Key takeaways
- What it is: For new or complex skills, set a goal around what you will learn, not what you will produce.
- Why it works: Locke and Latham introduced the distinction between performance goals (specific outcomes) and learning goals (specific knowledge or skill acquisitions) for cases where the path to performance is not yet known. Assigning a specific outcome goal on a genuinely novel task can produce cognitive load and anxiety that hurt performance; a learning goal keeps attention on understanding rather than on defensive self-protection.
- Evidence: Backed by randomized trials / meta-analyses.
- Avoid: Assigning a specific performance target to a genuinely novel skill, then interpreting poor early numbers as evidence of low ability rather than as the normal cost of learning.
Why it works
Locke and Latham introduced the distinction between performance goals (specific outcomes) and learning goals (specific knowledge or skill acquisitions) for cases where the path to performance is not yet known. Assigning a specific outcome goal on a genuinely novel task can produce cognitive load and anxiety that hurt performance; a learning goal keeps attention on understanding rather than on defensive self-protection.
How to do it
- 1Before assigning an outcome goal, ask: "Do I already know how to do this?"
- 2If no, set a learning goal first: "I will discover three effective strategies for…"
- 3Switch to a performance goal once the path is reasonably known.
- 4Do not mix the two: learning and performance goals activate different cognitive strategies.
What the evidence says
RCT / meta-analysisSeijts and Latham (2005) demonstrated that learning goals outperformed performance goals for a complex task where participants did not yet know the strategies required. The finding is a direct extension of goal-setting theory to conditions where the theory’s original assumptions do not hold.
Honest caveat: The learning-vs-performance distinction applies specifically when task strategies are unclear. For well-understood tasks, performance goals remain superior.
- — Seijts & Latham (2005), learning versus performance goals: when should each be used? Academy of Management Executive
Common mistake
Assigning a specific performance target to a genuinely novel skill, then interpreting poor early numbers as evidence of low ability rather than as the normal cost of learning.
IX Coach identifies which goals are performance goals and which require learning goals first, and switches the framing accordingly — so you are measuring the right thing at the right stage.
Practice this with IX Coach →