Why Your Team Goals Keep Failing (And the Kayaking Lesson That Fixes It)
Jun 24, 2026Picture this: you're perched at the top of a waterfall, kayak ready, about to attempt something you've never done before. Your guide pulls up beside you and delivers a comprehensive briefing—every rock to avoid, every current to navigate, every micro-decision mapped out in detail. Sounds thorough, right? Except you freeze. There's too much to hold. You never even leave the starting point.
This is exactly what happens to teams every day when leaders try to unite them behind goals.
In this episode from Kendall's "What the Wellness Center?!" series, recorded four years ago but offering wisdom that hasn't aged a day, she welcomes Paul Kuthe of Tributary Coaching. Before business coaching, Paul spent years as a professional kayaker and adventure guide, navigating clients through some of their most physically and mentally demanding moments. That experience taught him something crucial about human motivation that translates directly to business leadership.
Paul's waterfall story illustrates the lesson vividly. Early in his guiding career, he'd give students exhaustive instructions—every rock, every current, every decision point—only to paddle off and look back to find them frozen at the starting point, overwhelmed. As he grew wiser, he simplified: "Main current, go off the right, paddle left at the end. Boom." Same goal, same waterfall, but now students actually followed. As Paul explains: "If we have a clear cut plan that is three, maybe four steps that we can return to—almost like a mantra—all the other smaller, complicated little obstacles tend to fall away and people take action."
Kendall connects this to trauma-informed practice: "When people go into something and they don't know what to expect or it feels confusing, that's when our stress responses, our trauma responses come out." Clear communication isn't just nice leadership—it's nervous-system-aware leadership.
But clarity alone doesn't motivate teams. Paul emphasizes connecting goals to individual benefit: "We're all individuals... we all wake up and are sort of the hero of our own story." Effective leaders draw clear lines between team goals and each person's personal "hero's journey," showing how contributing helps them survive and thrive—without requiring them to do that translation work themselves.
The conversation tackles controversial goals directly, relevant to pandemic-era business decisions many leaders faced. Paul's prescription: consistency of message across multiple channels (video, team meetings, written communication, individual check-ins), repeated six to eight times before it truly sinks in. Crucially, leaders need both empathy and authority: "There needs to be enough authority and enough firm stance... but then also coupled with that empathy and really hearing them."
Paul identifies three goals-setting mistakes that sabotage team buy-in. First, leaders crafting goals in isolation then announcing them, missing the motivation that comes from contribution. Second, failing to celebrate milestones along the way—Paul compares this to ocean kayaking versus river kayaking: "Out on the ocean, you could paddle for hours staring at the same thing. It's hard to know if you're ever even moving." Third, simply assuming people remember the goal once it's set, rather than reinforcing it consistently.
Paul's signature tool, the "Goal Story Formula," expands the traditional SMART framework into SMARTER: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Timed, Exciting, and Story-based, then Shared. Writing goals as vivid future narratives—engaging all five senses—helps brains actually believe and pursue them, while sharing them creates accountability.
For business-level goals, Paul offers an elegantly simple mission statement formula from his own mentor: "We will accomplish X by [timeframe] because [reason]." No legal jargon, no forgotten HR binders—just a sentence compelling enough that people would follow you into battle for it.
The episode closes with reassurance for leaders whose goals don't pan out exactly as planned. As Paul notes: "Goals are not a fixed point situation... it's okay to adjust goals backwards a little bit. But don't use that as a reason not to set them at all." The alternative—leading your team through fog with no destination—guarantees nobody follows for long.
If your team's goals tend to get set once and quietly forgotten, this episode offers both narrative inspiration and practical formulas for building goals that actually move people.
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About Anna Rudel
Anna Rudel, L. Ac is the owner and founder of Lokahi Acupuncture Clinic in San Jose California, founded in 2003. Anna is a master organizer and clinician, and as a Coach she specializes in working with Clinic Owners in the state of California, and Acupuncturists and Acupuncture Clinic Owners, or groups wanting to add Acupuncture worldwide, as well as teams that need support with employee retention and satisfaction. Born in the UK, Anna has traveled extensively in Asia and now has a thriving multi-practitioner clinic in the US!
Anna's Website and Links
- Website: https://lokahiacupuncture.com/
- Learn Group Coaching: https://www.wellnesscentercreators.com/group-coaching
- For info about Individual Coaching: https://www.wellnesscentercreators.com/individual-coaching
About Kendall Hagensen
Kendall is a Somatic Mental Health Therapist, Multidisciplinary Clinic Owner and Business Coach. She specializes in, and is passionate about, working with healthcare professionals to create the businesses of their dreams. Big goals always have a psychological component beneath the surface, so Kendall uses her background in Somatic Psychotherapy and EMDR Therapy mixed with Business Coaching tools to help clients develop a healthy relationship with their business and their strength as a leader.
As someone who lives with a chronic illness herself, Kendall feels that health happens best within community, which is why she takes a holistic, integrative, and collaborative wellness approach to her personal and professional life.
Kendall’s Web/Social Links