Better Goal Setting with Effective Goals

There are many different approaches for goal setting but all these approaches need to ensure that the goals are effective.

In order to ensure that goals are effective they must meet the following criteria:

Recognized as Important

Employees understand the importance of the goal and there is a clear understanding why failing to achieve this goal is not an option.

Clear and Easy to Understand

The easier to understand, the easier it is to remember the goal. A simple rule of thumb should be that every employee should at all times know his individual goals and explain them without the need to look them up.

Written in Specific Terms

Short and precise language will limit misunderstandings and again ensure that goals are understood which is the only basis for goals to be achieved.

Measurable

A goal without measurable dimensions can never be missed but can also never be achieved. Low-performance organization lack this dimension and end up in situations where nobody knows about progress, how much is left and how much still needs to be done.

Time-Based

Time-based criteria are an extension of the measurable dimension, but they are specified separately here because setting a clear deadline is the single most important criteria to achieve goals. Without a deadline, it does not matter if the goal is achieved today, tomorrow, next week or next year.

Aligned with organizational strategy

Goals that are not aligned with the organizational strategy will never contribute to the success of the company, instead they will keep employees busy without having any impact. This alignment needs to be done by the responsible manager and needs to be communicated to the employee.

Challenging but achievable

There is a fine line between goals that are too easy to achieve and therefore don’t motivate employees and goals that are too ambitious and which instill fear of failure. Finding the right balance is not easy but the ultimate indicator of great manager and leaders.

Supported by appropriate rewards

Goals don’t need to be tied to rewards at all times because the most important reward is the employees salary and employment. But it is necessary to define rewards that are meaningful and to ensure that multiple goals are aligned with the right “share of rewards”.

Many organizations make mistakes when defining goals, two of the most common ones are:

1. Failure to create Performance Metrics: Performance metrics provide evidence of goal achievement. It might sometimes be hard to define performance metrics, especially when goals are very open. But every definition of a measure will help managers and employees to understand the progress they have made.

1. Failure to align Goals and Rewards: Goals change but rewards remain the same. This leads to employees that are putting the focus on the wrong areas (because they want to optimize their rewards) or more ambitious goals don’t get rewarded sufficiently.

With these guidelines and knowing the most common mistakes goal setting between managers and employees should be a simpler and more professional approach.

Bernhard S