Each member of a team can use this three-part process as a framework to achieve team goals that are focused, yet take into consideration the value of human potential. Remember, in this process; there is no good or bad or wrong or right, only a focus on setting and achieving goals with open dialogue and critical thinking. Each part of the process works in cooperation with the other two pieces, helping people maintain an intentional and accountable process for achieving goals: Show
Start with Awareness Each member of the team should take the time to individually move beyond “the way we’ve always done it” thinking. Take the opportunity to stretch the imagination. With awareness comes possibilities. Encourage each person to gain knowledge by searching online to see how other people have completed the tasks you want to plan, complete a word search for topics related to the program. Write out ideas that come to mind. Stay intentional about documenting a list of all the possible objectives and different possibilities of the plan. The broader the selection of choices, the better chance you have of finding a broader perspective. Without awareness, you may not uncover an available opportunity. Move Toward Discussion Discussing the plan helps to verbalize thoughts. Pull together a group of people who are participating in the ultimate program, or who have knowledge that could be valuable to the project. Encourage brainstorming. Document responses about ways to accomplish the project. Talking with other people, both within and outside of the team, helps people become engaged in the program and offers motivation for creating the plan. Make sure to set goals that your employees support. The more engaged your employees are with the plan, the better the chance for success. The discussions are an excellent opportunity to engage facilitators or use SWOT, SMART, or, more recently, ACTS to assess the possible goals and start building a framework for the ultimate plan. With discussions, the combined potential for the project expands as people create a practical context. Finish with Action Solidify a final list of actions or objectives with measurable assignments for people and timelines. A project manager or a project program, such as Microsoft Project and Gantt Charts, helps keep the plan moving forward. All too often, with goal-setting, people leave the discussions without a timeline or a way to manage the project. Maintaining schedules may seem rudimentary, however, how many times have you been at a goal-setting event that ends with a nice feeling, but little accomplished a year later? During the implementation of the plan, use some positive reinforcement to maintain a higher level of enthusiasm for the project. Reinforcements for successful completion of timelines could include activities such as emails thanking people for their part in completing the task on time, small gift cards for drink shops so individuals can take a quick run to get their favorite beverage. Team reinforcements, when completing a large part of the project, could include such activities as taking lunch orders for a particular meal or afternoon drink table, whatever matches the personality of your team. The important thing with these reinforcements is to make sure that they are items or activities that have value for the individuals. You may have to invest a little time in learning more about your team, but in the end, you will gain valuable time with the engagement of employees as they invest in the project. The goal of goal-setting is to bring cohesion to an organization with some intentional direction and active participation. When you combine motivated people with business goals, you have the potential to create a fully completed and deliberate plan for success. Read more at https://www.business2community.com/leadership/dont-let-setting-goals-put-barrel-01754723
The reason we set goals is to see an improved or newly achieved outcome over a set period of time. It’s a psychological tool to help increase productivity. Sounds simple, right? Then why is it that so many people have a hard time following their goals and seeing them through to completion? A poor goal-setting process is often to blame. Why is goal-setting important?The act of setting goals actually helps people to follow them through to fruition. Sure, you can say something out loud or have a discussion with your manager about what you want to achieve, but unless you actually put it down on paper (or in a structured OKR/KPI doc), your goals are likely to fall through the cracks. For example, in a study with 270 participants by Psychology professor Dr. Gail Matthews, they found that people are 42% more likely to achieve goals if they write them down.
Goal-setting in the workplace is important, not only for the success and growth of an individual but also the company. The more you can motivate employees with attainable and measurable goals, the more everyone will succeed.  So, how many steps are there in goal-setting? While you can break the goal-setting process down into 4, 5, or 6 steps, the number of steps is less important than using a method that works best for you and your team. That being said, we’ve found that our 7-step process works well for most teams, which is why we’re highlighting it in this post. In this article we’ll be covering the 7 steps of goal-setting to follow: Let’s dive in! 7 steps of goal-setting1. Review your last quarter or yearDepending on the timeframe you’re working with, it’s important to analyze what went well (and what didn’t) in the previous time period. Why is this important? It helps to make sure that you’re focused on the key areas that will push you and your team towards hitting those goals, whether that be growth, retention, traffic, etc. Here are some key questions you can ask yourself and/or your team during this retro process:
Run through these questions (and more) as a team and keep track of the answers. Use this as a starting point for your new goal-setting process. 2. Understand the org-wide and exec team goalsWhat is the importance of goal-setting to business strategy? Without it, there’s a lack of alignment across the org and you’re more likely to have underperforming employees. That’s why all goals need to be derived from your organizational goals. Whether it’s been shared at a town hall or in a management meeting, it’s important to understand what the bigger org-wide goals and objectives are, and to plan your/your team’s goals accordingly. Otherwise, every department will be moving in all sorts of directions, which will stifle company growth. Often these big picture goals will trickle down from your company’s North Star Metric, creating a pyramid-like structure where all goals connect in some way to the top. TIP: If you’re setting your own goals and you’re unsure of the company ones, ask your manager for the answers during your one-on-one. These should be shared with you before the start of the quarter, or within the first week at the very latest. 3. Develop bigger-vision departmental goalsNow that you know the bigger goals, how will you/your team contribute to the org-wide goals? Some goal examples are:
When thinking about departmental goals, reach for the future. What’s your bigger vision for the team 1 quarter, 1 year, and 5 years from now? How do the goals of this quarter lead up to these stretch goals? If you haven’t noticed by now, clarity, future planning, and laddering up is the name of the game in the goal-setting process. As you’re developing your big-vision, a great exercise to lean back on is to look back at your previous 1-2 year department plan.
Whatever the team goals are, present them to the department so that everyone is on the same page! 4. Gather feedback and brainstormAfter brainstorming with the team about how the departmental goals will be met, it’s time to dig into those individual goals. Individual goals are not created by simply putting down tasks for the quarter—they need to be well thought out. That’s why successful goal setters often follow SMART Goals. SMART goals stands for:
Access our free SMART goals template here. It’s so important to involve your team in the goal-setting process. Individual goals should be set from the bottom-up and not the other way around. Don’t tell your team what their goals should be, make it into a working process where you collaboratively define those goals. Doing this will help increase accountability on the team and foster a sense of ownership. This will also give you more ideas to work with, especially ones that align to your team’s own personal/career goals and interests (making them way more engaged in the tasks at hand), as well as help you achieve your own management career goals. And rest assured—if you’re following the above steps in your goal-setting process, your employees should have a good idea of what their individual goals should be. Work with them to nail these down! 5. Make goals accessible to the teamThe hardest part is yet to come! Determining team and individual goals is just one step in the goal process. Tracking, managing, and keeping people motivated is arguably way more challenging as it takes a lot of ongoing work. Lucky for you, you can use Hypercontext’s goal-setting software to track everything in one place! Streamline objectives, meetings, and morale into one workflow that gets you the results you need. With Hypercontext goals, you’ll be able to:
It’s important that goals are easily accessible to everyone, and thus having everything on a platform works best. Other alternatives of course are a shared spreadsheet or a central doc—but we suggest a platform that integrates with your meetings for best results. 6. Talk about goals every single week with your teamYou’ve got your team and individual goals outlined in a central place that can be easily accessed—what’s next? You need to keep reinforcing and revisiting goals throughout the quarter/set period. We suggest 1x a week! You know what they say—out of sight, out of mind. If you’re not talking about them, it’s almost guaranteed that some goals will fall off the thought train. Here’s why you should talk about goals every week:
If you’re not sure how to talk about goals every week with your team, or if you feel like every week is overkill, here’s how to do it without it feeling like you’re micromanaging:
7. Run a retro meeting around your goals then start back at step 1And like any cycle (because the goal-setting process will always be a cycle), it’s time to review how things went before doing it all over again. Reviewing your agreed-upon goals helps to see where everyone landed. If someone does not complete or hit all of their goals (this is completely normal), dig into why and see if there’s room for improvement or change. We recommend using a quarterly meeting template when going over performance and goals with your teammates. During this time, you can cover:
Some managers will set more lofty goals on purpose but just remember—if your team is constantly missing their goals, this can actually be detrimental to their confidence and performance. Make sure that goals are challenging but reasonable. What’s next?If you’ve made it this far in your goal-setting process, it’s time to repeat! As mentioned above, the goal-setting process in management runs in a cycle. If done properly, not only should the process become smoother, but your team should see some substantial improvement/growth. And we’ll stress this one last time since it seems to be a common pitfall in goal-setting—work with each employee to develop their personal goals! Telling someone what they should achieve without including them in the conversation is not the right way to go about it. While goal-setting is important, the process of setting those goals is what will really drive you towards success. If you’re looking for a solution that makes it impossible for everyone to forget about their goals, we’ve got you covered! |
What is the final step in the goal setting process?
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