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Goal Setting |
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Page 5 of 5
Goals That Work
Managers implementing the goal setting process must be able to clearly communicate company strategy and priorities to everyone. As the organization’s main change agents, managers must ensure there is a line of sight between each employee’s goals and important corporate initiatives. They do that by helping employees craft goal statements and by defining measures to illustrate individual and team progress.
The goal setting process requires employees to commit to delivering specific, measurable results within a given time frame. Through that statement of intention and by associating measurements that will be used to monitor results, the process establishes a mechanism of accountability – a way to know who is signing up to deliver which parts of the desired outcome.
Automated performance management systems can enable managers to automatically assign goals to their team members or to share their goals so that their employees can write supporting or derivative goals statements.
Study participants said they require managers and employees to apply the “SMART” acronym in writing goal statements. SMART says the goals must be:
Specific – A good goal statement should answer 5 questions: who, what, where, when, why and how. It provides a clear description of the business outcome the employee intends to accomplish.
An example is: Our solution sales executives will sell our new BPO Service to 10% of our existing account base (10 new customers) in Latin America using the solution selling methodology. We will increase the company’s BPO Market share in Latin America by 1 percent within one year.
Measurable – A performance goal must be able to be measured. By stating exactly how it will be measured, the employee and the manager know what success will look like without any ambiguity. The goal statement also should include the specific metrics that will be analyzed on a periodic basis to track progress toward the goal.
An example of a measurable goal statement would be: Conduct 5 sales appointments each week, deliver two proposals per month, negotiate 3 contracts each quarter and close 10 new BPO deals within one year. Metrics being tracked in this goal statement include: Sales call, proposals, contracts and closed deals.
Attainable – Employees should be stretched by their performance goals but not defeated by them. A good goal statement gives an employee something to shoot for and motivates a higher level of performance than in the previous performance period. However, goals should never be beyond the reach of the person setting them. When employees see at the outset that a goal is impossible, it gives them little incentive to try. When both manager and employee start the review process by admitting they never expect the goal to be achieved, any outcome is acceptable -- defeating the purpose of the performance management process.
Relevant – Relevance ensures that the goal relates to the team’s or organization’s higher level objectives. It provides the litmus test to ensure goals are adequately aligned to the larger mission. (Some organizations say “R” stands for Realistic. Because the word “realistic” also forces employees to set goals they can achieve, the word can seem redundant with Attainable.)
Time-based – Each goal statement should provide a deadline – a specific date when the goal will be achieved.
The process of setting goals builds an elaborate set of threads through the entire organization to tie plans of action for divisions, groups, teams and individuals to the stated objectives of the business for a given time period.
As organizations continue to push decision-making down to lower tiers in their organizations to create fluid, adaptable structures able to adjust quickly to competitive challenges, they must provide the context and a good framework within which people can make the right decisions. The goal setting process within performance management can provide the context and the framework. It also highlights the tension on precious resources by giving work teams a way to choose the key initiatives on which to focus.
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