free guide: how to set a performance goal
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Without goals people will occupy themselves with activities that keep them busy; usually activities they are most comfortable doing, but which contribute very little to the organization’s success. Goals define desired outcomes. They are the building blocks for performance planning, appraisal and improvement. This guide covers: How to write a goal that matters Translating the companies strategy into employee goals Setting performance metricsTRANSCRIPT
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HOW TO SET A
GOALPERFORMANCE
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© WorkCompass.com 2014All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, faxing, emailing, posting online or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the Publisher.All content and images copyright of the respective companies.For more resources and guides visit http://workcompass.com/resources/
HOW TO SET A
GOALPERFORMANCE
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How to set a goalGoals define desired outcomes. They are the building blocks for performance planning, appraisal and improvement. If this isn’t reason enough to pay attention to goals then consider Parkinson’s Law.
Without goals people will occupy themselves with activities that keep them busy; usually activities they are most comfortable doing, but which contribute very little to the organization’s success.
Every organization and its members need goals - and plans for achieving them. Goals focus the limited resources, such as time, on the things that matter most. As a manager, you are responsible for setting goals for your team. These include shared goals – so that everyone on the team has a common aim and works towards it – and personal goals, such as sales targets.
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Share this guideParkinson’s Law Work expands to fill the time available.
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Do you know your organization’s strategic goals & how you affect them? Most don’t!
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It makes sense for goal-setting to be a top-down exercise that begins with organization strategy. The organization exists to achieve a number of goals / outcomes so everyone in it should be linked to same. Team and individual goals should serve that strategy.
When the system works perfectly there is a cascading of linked and aligned goals from the top of the organization to the bottom. The strategic goal of the organization sits at the top, while each of the operating units or departments have goals that directly support the strategic objective.
Within the operating units or departments, teams and individuals are assigned goals that directly support the goals of their units. The real power of these cascading goals is their alignment with the highest purposes of the organization.
Every team member and manager should understand his or her goals, how assigned activities advance the goals of the team, and how the team’s activities contribute to the strategic objective of the organization. The result is that everyone’s energy is focussed on the things that matter most.
Successful goal-setting starts at the top
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You’d be surprised how many managers don’t recognise the difference. Activities describe how people spend their time, whereas goals are the results that they seek.
Activities Goals Writing weekly sales report Increase sales by 10%
Handling customer complaints and other problems
Reduce customer turnover by 15%
Meeting weekly to discuss new product development project
Launch five new products this year
Participating in quality-control training programme
Cut production waste by 20%
Confusing activities and goals can mean that you focus on doing tasks and not achieving outcomes.
The problems can be:
• You potentially reward activity that does not contribute to your organization’s goals.
• Your team believes that it is responsible for activity and not results.
• You and your team waste lots of time doing stuff that adds no value.
• The tasks required to achieve a goal will change as circumstances do. If you continue with the same list of tasks you are unlikely to achieve your goals.
Activities are not goals. Goals are not activities.
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Confusing activities and goals can mean that you focus on doing tasks and not achieving outcomes.
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The BeginningStart with an active verb, an action word that implies doing something either now or in the future. For example: devise, introduce, develop, implement, reduce and produce.
The MiddleThis is the place for ‘the what’: exactly what it is you want to deliver, develop, produce… and so on. It should be written in a way that everyone understands.
The EndHere you set out a specific measure and a date by which the goal will be achieved.
Three common mistakes you should avoid
1. Many companies fail to create performance metrics.2. They fail to align rewards (monetary and others) with organization,
team and individual goals.3. The achievement bar is set too low. An appropriately challenging
goal is one that the staff member believes they have a slightly better than 50 /50 chance of achieving.
Writing a goal
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Effective goals are:• Recognised as important • Clear• Written in specific terms • Measurable and framed in time • Aligned with organizational strategy• Achievable but challenging • Connected to increasing revenue,
reducing cost, reducing risk or improving capability
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These measurements provide objective evidence of goal achievement - or progress towards it.
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Performance metrics are simply measures of an organization’s activities and how well they function. These measurements provide objective evidence of goal achievement— or progress towards it. Sales revenues, output per machine, errors per thousand units of product, and time to market for new products are all examples of performance metrics. Whichever ones you use, be sure that they are linked to goals.
Some jobs involve goals and activities for which performance metrics are easily determined. If the goal is to increase revenue, you will simply create quantitative, measurable metrics for the sales staff.
But how do you create a performance metric for goals that are not easy to quantify, such as improving customer relations? Measuring customer relations is an impossible task. You may, however, be able to measure many things that contribute to improved customer relations, like the number of customer complaints handled satisfactorily during a quarter or the average time required to resolve a customer problem. So, don’t assume that qualitative goals cannot be assigned performance metrics.
Setting performance metrics
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THANKS FOR READING!
These are the management practices experts say drive strategy & goal execution and boost performance.
We would love to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this guide or just call us for some advice about performance management today.
Achieve goalsAlign staff objectives with those of the organization.
Improve your teamGive timely, structured feedback.
Track progressContinuously track progress.
MeasureMeasure the behaviours helping and hindering staff engagement.
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Denis Coleman is the founder and CEO of Work Compass, a cloud staff performance collaboration software platform. Work Compass helps teams to align their efforts with strategic goals and continuously improve performance.
Frustrated with the disconnect between strategy setting and day to day execution, as well as the lack of tools available to managers to help them be great at their most important unction - aligning their team’s activities with strategic goals and actively managing for high performance - Denis spent over 5 years researching strategy execution and performance management practices before founding Work Compass to create a software solution.
Denis has held senior roles with high performing electronics manufacturing and professional services organizations in Ireland, Czech Republic and North America for more than 12 years. Denis has worked as Finance Director for Flextronics International, with responsibility for €800 million in annual revenue. He was also the Key Account Manager for Dovatron International, responsible for annual revenue of more than €600 million, and Management Consultant for BDO, one of Europe’s most successful professional services providers.
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