Keep these ideas in mind when you set goals for your teams:

1. Your goals should be based on your company corporate goals.

2. Set your goals around the three ‘P’s: Profit Performance People

3. Involve your team when you set the goals – not after you have written them.

4. Communicate your goals: in meetings on notice boards one to ones 

5. Make goals easy to understand and easy to remember – snappy.

6. Talk about goals constantly so that they are always at the front of peoples’ minds.

7. Review and change goals when circumstances change and remember to communicate the changes.

by Syd Strike

Here are two questions I give delegates as part of a ‘True or False’ activity on leadership courses:

Q1 Good leaders have personal objectives (true/false)

Q2 Good leaders have objectives for their departments (true/false)

Without exception all delegates attending middle or junior management courses, on every occasion selected ‘true’ as the answer to questions 1 and 2 above.

However when I asked the delegates if they were able to produce either personal objectives or objectives for their teams, then it is a rare occasion when someone is able to respond positively.

It is different when I am working with senior managers. They can very often state their department objectives.

So is goal or objective setting an effective management tool? I have never heard of any manager who ever said that goal setting was not essential, but I do hear of managers saying that it is not always effective.

Ask any Olympic medallist if goal setting is effective and you will of course receive a resounding YES to your question.

One key difference between the world of sport and the world of service and manufacturing is total dedication. In industry managers are often extremely dedicated to the company goals but they are not always able to impart the same enthusiasm to the workforce. This is not surprising in some cases when staff are not aware of the key goals of the company and are not engaged in activities that give them a sense of ownership towards achieving the goals.

It is interesting to observe how goals, targets, objectives; whatever you wish to call them, are often written at annual reviews or appraisals and then don’t see the light of day until the following review twelve months later. This behaviour is a recipe for apathy and failure. When you have produced written corporate goals and a clear and workable strategy, that was formulated with involvement of as many people as possible, and certainly communicated to all stakeholders, then you have the foundation to build on. So please don’t lose it by lack of movement at this stage. Make the next move. Make your management meetings effective and lively. Managing Directors and senior managers should expect management teams to be producing targets and plans to make the strategy work. Have frequent, short meetings where people can share success and bounce off each other. Senior managers should hold regular one to one meetings with each of their key managers and review what has been achieved and what should be done next. You should be changing the goal posts from time to time in order to adapt to the changing world around you. It is a mistake to keep soldiering on with last month’s objectives when the market is demanding something new. A mistake that some of the best MDs have made is ‘over trusting’ their top level managers. There is no doubt that a dilemma exists when it comes to how much we trust good managers and how much we need to keep our finger on the pulse, but it is a grave mistake to bury your head in the sand on this point. Review your targets, successes and failures and find a way of measuring success and building on your success with continuous improvement.

Case Study

I recall working with an MD who was extremely positive and getting brilliant results from his team. Everyone seemed to love him and enjoyed working for his company. However not all of his senior managers were behaving positively or working in a way that supported the corporate goals. One manager operated in a way that was not in line with the company purpose or company values. He was harsh and uncaring towards the employees and seemed to be working towards his own agenda. There were no immediate, serious consequences so the MD decided not to take action. He believed that the senior manager had to sort out these issues himself. However, the manager didn’t sort out the issues and continued to operate as he had always done. In time the inevitable occurred as morale dropped along with performance levels. The MD had to take serious remedial action. Senior managers have to be accountable and it is up to the person at the top to get the right balance of delegation and accountability.

For more examples, request a copy of our white paper on 7 key ways to improve performance or visit our blog to comment on does goal setting work?

You can improve management performance and achieve company objectives through the Syd Strike Management Academy – Don’t wait – take a look at what is on offer.