Brief Biography
Edwin A. Locke was born in 1938. He grew up in New York City.
For high school, Locke attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, graduating in 1956.
Locke then entered Harvard College for his undergraduate education, obtaining his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1960.
For his graduate work, Locke went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, earning his master’s degree in industrial psychology and experimental psychology in 1962, followed by his PhD in industrial and organizational psychology two years later, in 1964.
Locke wrote his doctoral dissertation at Cornell on the subject of the relationship between intentions and affect, in general, and motivation, in particular.
Immediately after obtaining his PhD, in 1964, Locke appointed an associate research scientist with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), in Arlington, Virginia. In 1966, he was promoted to full research scientist, a position he occupied until 1970.
During his last three years with AIR, from 1967 through 1970, Locke also held the position of Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland in College Park. In 1970, he left AIR and became Associate Professor of Business Administration at Maryland.
Between 1972 and 2001, Locke moved up the academic ladder at the University of Maryland, in both the Department of Psychology and the Management and Organization Department of the Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Locke held a number of posts at the University of Maryland: 1972–2001, Professor of Business and Management, and of Psychology; 1984–1996; chair, Management and Organization Faculty;
In 1998, Locke was appointed Dean’s Professor of Leadership and Motivation in the University of Maryland Business School. Since 2001, he has held the status of Professor Emeritus.
Locke is an industrial/organizational psychologist. His most-famous work is his theory of goal-setting, introduced in 1968 in his pioneering paper, “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives,” Organizational Behavior & Human Performance, 3: 157–189. Locke later developed the theory in collaboration with Gary P. Latham.
The basic idea behind the theory of goal-setting is that enterprises that set explicit goals for their employees to meet will experience greater success in the conduct of their business. The reason cited is that employees who have a stronger and clearer sense of the purpose of their tasks are more productive.
The theory of goal-setting has been called the most influential idea in the history of modern business management. Locke is also one of the most-often-cited authors in the field of industrial psychology.
Locke has also undertaken work that is more broadly philosophical in character.
A personal friend of the Russian-American philosopher Ayn Rand and an affiliate of the Ayn Rand Institute, Locke has defended a pure form of capitalism, as well as the associated political philosophy known as “libertarianism.”
Locke has also taken up the cudgels for the metaphysical doctrine known as “libertarianism,” namely, the rejection of physical determinism and the acceptance of free will—see his The Illusion of Determinism: Why Free Will Is Real and Causal(2017).
Locke has authored, co-authored, or edited around 10 academic and popular books. He has also published some 340 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
Notable Quotes
Note: The original sources of the following quotations attributed here to Edwin Locke are provided where known. If no specific source is mentioned, then the attributed quotation may be assumed to derive from or (perhaps via paraphrase) be inspired by Locke’s many academic and popular writings.
Achievement
Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.
The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable.
Without clear, specific goals, there can be no genuine achievement.
The most effective way to achieve your goals is to break them down into smaller, manageable tasks.
Don’t be afraid to set ambitious goals; they are the fuel that drives extraordinary achievement.
Ambition
The only limit to your success is your imagination and your willingness to work for it.
Attitude
Your attitude determines your altitude in life.
Challenges
The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.
Success is not measured by how much you accomplish, but by the obstacles you overcome in achieving your goals.
The difference between winners and losers is not their IQ or their talent; it’s their attitude towards setbacks and obstacles.
The only way to reach your full potential is to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.
Deadlines
The difference between a dream and a goal is a deadline.
Effort
Highly ambitious goals create persistent effort.
Failure
Successful people are not afraid to fail; they see failure as a learning opportunity and a stepping stone to success.
Your attitude towards failure determines your capacity for success.
Success isn’t determined by how many times you fail, but by how many times you pick yourself up and keep going.
Feedback
[F]eedback alone doesn’t work. Why? Because you get feedback all day your whole life, but which part do you act on? You act on the feedback that ties to a value or goal, and the rest you ignore. So, the principle that used to be famous, “What gets measured gets done,” isn’t true. It’s not true. Feedback tied to goals gets done.
Interview with Jeffrey M. Cucina, “An Interview with Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham,” 2016 SIOP Living History Series [Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology], April 16, 2016.
Goals
Goals give you focus, direction, and a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
A goal is something that an individual is trying to accomplish—a specific outcome that they’re trying to achieve within a specific time frame.
Goals should be clear, concise, and measurable. They should provide direction and focus, and serve as a roadmap for action.
Goals tell us what we want to accomplish; they tell us what behaviors we will engage in to achieve those outcomes.
People perform better when they are committed to achieving specific, challenging goals rather than simply trying to achieve good results.
The key to effective performance is clarity in what we are trying to achieve.
Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.
Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation.
Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy.
Goal-Setting Theory
Goal-setting is the single most powerful tool for motivating people and for creating a sense of ownership and responsibility in them. High-performance standards, when combined with goal-setting, provide the basis for achieving excellence.
The goal-setting theory of motivation states that specific and challenging goals, along with appropriate feedback, lead to higher performance.
Goal-setting is not just about achieving outcomes; it’s about creating a sense of purpose and direction in life.
Improvement
Success is not about being the best; it’s about being better than you were yesterday.
The greatest value of goals is not what you achieve, but what you become in the process.
Success is not a destination; it’s a journey of continuous improvement.
Leaders
The most effective leaders are those who set clear goals and inspire others to achieve them.
Middle Age
The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
Morality
If you have some moral flaws that need fixing, make it a priority to correct them.
Selfish Path to Romance: How to Love with Passion and Reason, with Ellen Kenner (2011).
Motivation
The best motivational technique is self-motivation. The person who has it won’t need any external help; the person who lacks it won’t benefit from anything external.
A positive, goal-oriented self-concept can help to strengthen motivation and resilience in the face of adversity.
The hardest thing about doing something hard is getting started.
People are motivated when they believe they can influence outcomes that are important to them.
Motivation is the fuel that drives you towards your goals.
People who are self-motivated and goal-oriented are more likely to succeed than those who rely solely on external motivation.
Setting goals gives you a vision for your future and the motivation to make it a reality.
Multiculturalism
You cannot cure racism with more racism.
Multiculturalism asserts that all cultures are equal and therefore none may criticize another; intellectuals and politicians are therefore reluctant to declare the obvious superiority of Western culture to Islamic culture.
Operant Conditioning
A “conditioning” model, which is at root based on the assumption of mindless, subconscious determinism, is completely hopeless for understanding even something as basic as shopping—not to mention human action in general.
The Illusion of Determinism: Why Free Will Is Real and Causal (2017).
Performance
The better the match between people’s abilities and the difficulty of the goals they are set, the higher their performance.
The relationship between a person’s goals and performance depends on the extent to which the person accepts the goals, understands them, and is committed to attaining them.
Goals affect performance by directing attention, mobilizing effort, increasing persistence, and motivating strategy development.
The best predictor of future success is past performance.
Preparation
The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.
Nothing is as empowering as the feeling that you’re on the right path.
Success is not about luck; it’s about preparation, hard work, and persistence.
Psychological Needs
People are not machines. They have more than physical needs—they also need psychological growth.
Nothing works better than just improving your product.
Purpose
People who have nothing to do are quickly tired of their own company.
The Rational Faculty
The answer is: the rational faculty, the ability to conceptualize. This was a giant step in evolution, although there were evidently many intermediate species between the apes and modern humans across a period of perhaps six million years.
The Illusion of Determinism: Why Free Will Is Real and Causal (2017).
Self-Discipline
The essence of self-discipline is to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.
Self-regulation is the key to achieving long-term goals.
Self-Understanding
The belief that you can accomplish your goals is the foundation of success.
Your beliefs about yourself and your abilities determine your success more than any other factor.
Self-esteem is an essential psychological need—no one can live with the conviction that they are fundamentally no good, so people who lack the real thing attempt to fake it.
Selfish Path to Romance: How to Love with Passion and Reason, with Ellen Kenner (2011).
Success
Without a goal, there is no direction. Without direction, there is no progress. And without progress, there is no success.
More than any other factor, it is the ability to set and achieve goals that leads to success. Without such a capability, individuals are likely to drift through life, never realizing their full potential.
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
The most successful people are those who set goals, take massive action toward achieving them, and persist until they succeed.
Success is not always the result of hard work; sometimes it’s the result of smart work.
The path to success is paved with determination, dedication, and discipline.
The key to success is not just setting goals, but setting the right goals.
The most successful people are those who are willing to do what others are not willing to do.
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