Unattainable Goals | 038 | Failure, By Design
Cowardice disguised as management.
Setting unattainable goals and then penalizing people for missing them isn’t leadership.
It’s cowardice and exploitation.
Real leadership is about creating the conditions for people to succeed. Toxic leadership, by contrast, manufactures failure and then pretends to be surprised by it. One builds capacity. The other protects power.
This practice shows up across sectors, but it’s especially common in bureaucratic organizations where performance systems are opaque, accountability is weak, and human consequences are abstracted into forms and ratings. Unfortunately, I’ve seen my fair share of this in higher education.
Let’s name what’s really happening.
Impossible Goals as a Shield for Cowardice
When people in positions of leadership set goals that are clearly unattainable, given time, staffing, authority, or resources, they are not being “ambitious.” They are creating plausible deniability.
The goal isn’t improvement.
The goal is cover.
In many systems, especially public institutions, leaders who are not truly invested in the organization’s long-term health (financially, professionally, or ethically) make decisions designed to minimize personal risk.
If they are waiting out a fixed timeline; for example, tied to vesting, benefits, or pension eligibility, the incentives quietly shift.
Short-term self-preservation replaces long-term stewardship. In effect, they become cowards, too preoccupied with protecting themselves to lead.
Rather than take responsibility for hard, structural problems, they:
· Set unrealistic targets
· Pretend support exists when it does not
· Reframe your refusal to absorb abuse as “weakness”
· Enable unkindness by colluding with loyalists
· Allow failure to become inevitable
· Then use that failure to justify poor evaluations, non-renewals, or quiet removals
Good people pay the price for a coward’s self-preservation.
That is not leadership. It is running out the clock, while individuals, teams, and the entire organization bear the cost.
Performance Systems as Weapons
Another driver of this behavior is equally corrosive.
Vindictiveness.
Insecure leaders often respond poorly to being challenged, especially by competent, ethical, or principled people. Rather than engaging in dialogue or improving their own thinking, they weaponize the system.
The playbook is familiar:
A dissenting voice is labeled “difficult”
Expectations quietly change
Goals are raised without additional authority or support
Failure is framed as proof of incompetence rather than evidence of sabotage
This is not accidental mismanagement.
It is intentional setup.
Performance evaluations become tools of retribution rather than growth. The system is used not to assess work, but to punish independence and meaningful change efforts.
That’s not accountability.
That’s petty authoritarianism.
Why This Is Exploitation
This practice exploits people in three ways:
It exploits effort: demanding labor toward goals that were never achievable
It exploits trust: pretending the system is fair when it’s rigged
It exploits professionalism: knowing people will keep trying because they care
People who are mission-driven, conscientious, and ethical are the most vulnerable. They assume good faith. They internalize failure. They try harder.
Meanwhile, the person in the position of power too often escapes scrutiny.
That asymmetry is the definition of exploitation.
What Real Leadership Actually Looks Like
Real leaders do the opposite:
They co-create goals with the people doing the work
They align expectations with resources and authority
They treat missed goals as data, not indictments
They own systemic constraints instead of outsourcing blame
They admit when they’re wrong
Most importantly, they don’t use evaluation systems to settle scores or protect pensions.
They use them to develop people and improve outcomes.
Reflection
Performance systems built on unattainable goals are structurally designed to fail employees, not improve outcomes.
If you are in a position of power and your success depends on others failing, the problem is not your staff.
It’s your leadership.
And if you are on the receiving end of unattainable goals paired with punishment, know this: Your failure is designed, not deserved.
Continuous learning requires courage.
Cowardice requires maintaining broken systems.
The difference shows up in the goals leaders choose, and what they do when people fall short.
Speaking Up Matters
People sometimes ask me, “Why do you put yourself out there like that? It makes you vulnerable. It makes enemies.”
The answer is simple: I hate injustice. I hate harm, especially when it’s manufactured by people in positions of power who should know better.
From New York City bullies, to an abusive Marine captain, to an ego-driven edu-celebrity and a researcher with shoddy methods who leave real damage at colleges, I’ve never been afraid to speak up and hold my ground. I’ve learned that when you do, the truth eventually finds a way to vindicate you.
When I was a teenager, my Latina mother once asked why I took certain risks. I replied, half-jokingly, “Porque puedo y no me da miedo.”
Because I can, and I’m not scared.
That remains one of the few mottos I truly live by.
Recently, at a conference, several high-profile college presidents came up to thank me for standing up for the truth and for the coaching work I do. There were a couple of exceptions, all from the same district. One relatively new president refused to shake my hand when a president colleague introduced us. He did it a second time in front of a larger group, wearing what we’d call in Spanish cara de mierda. Basically, an ugly face.
It reflected poorly on him; not on me, especially given the trust and goodwill I’ve built over two decades.
I was also confronted by another person put in a leadership position from the same district who wanted me to betray educators who had confided in me. I don’t snitch. Trust is not negotiable.
I don’t usually share these moments because the point isn’t the pettiness, it’s the pattern. Pushback is inevitable when you tell the truth, especially when the truth threatens fragile power.
Here’s the part that matters most: my role comes with privilege. And that privilege comes with responsibility. If I can speak when others can’t, when doing so would cost them their jobs or their peace, then I have an obligation to use my voice.
So I wear these experiences as a badge of honor. They tell me I’m offending the right people. The number of people who value courage and kindness will always far outweigh the small, fearful minority who resent it.
I can’t be everywhere. So when you feel alone, my advice remains the same:
Gather your allies
Formulate a strategy
Execute
If it doesn’t work the first time, don’t quit. Iterate. Try again. Keep going.
That’s how change gets a fighting chance.
Let’s connect on LinkedIn.
Onward…
Dr. Al Solano
Founder, Continuous Learning Institute | About
Host, Student Success Podcast
A meaningful test of success is how helpful we are in contributing to our fellow human being’s happiness.