Setting Goals in the Workplace
Goal Setting is a Crucial Motivator in Today's Work Enviornment
Apr 15, 2009
Goal setting can be one of the most important, but often overlooked, tasks in the workplace. Managers often times assume that employees automatically know the goals of the company. This is not always the case. Most importantly, employees need to be aware of the goals in order to achieve them.
Developing a weekly or monthly meeting system to talk with employees about the state of the company and upcoming goals can do wonderful things for employee morale. Employees that know where the company is headed are more likely to be headed in the same direction.
Goals Need to be Clear
Setting a goal to increase sales does little to inspire the sales team. However, if the goal is to increase sales by five percent during the month of March, the goal becomes much more clear and attainable. Steve Pavlina, a personal development blogger on the Internet, says that goals should include dates, times and amounts. Being specific means a much better chance of actually attaining the goal.
Goals Should be Written
Making sure everyone is working toward a common goal can be as simple as writing the goals down and posting them in a common area. For example, having a bulletin board in the break room or lunch room with the goals posted is an excellent way for employees to know how they are doing. To keep employees extremely up-to-date, management can even plot the progress toward the goals. Everyone will feel like a part of the team if goals are in a public area.
Work with Employees to Set Goals
Employees enjoy being involved in the goal setting process. In fact, the entire management by objectives theory is based upon this. Management by objectives means that managers and employees meet to discuss mutually agreed upon goals for the work setting. Employees tend to achieve set goals if they have had an integral part in setting the goal.
Follow Up on Progress
If goals are set and employees never hear if they have been achieved, the entire idea of goal setting loses its credibility in the workplace. For example, setting a goal to achieve an increase of five percent in sales for the first quarter means that management should update employees continuously throughout that time period to let them know how close they are to achieving the goal. Finding out at the end of March that the goal was not achieved does little to boost morale. In fact, if employees only hear that the goal was not achieved, they will feel as if they have failed. Instead, if they didn’t achieve the goal, but sales did increase by three percent, reward employees for that success.
Goal setting can be critical to a successful workplace. Involving employees in the process, making goal setting fun and writing down the goals for all to see can make achieving the goals sweeter for everyone.
