Managers set the pace and tone of work for the rest of the team. It’s an essential part of the job role and there’s no way of getting around it. Goals are required to keep everyone working at the same speed and get projects done on time, every time. They craft an environment within the workplace which makes employees work better and more efficiently, gaining above-average results without burning out, and without making the work seem intimidating and impossible.
But how do you create goals properly and make sure that they’re the most effective that they can be?
So, read on to make sure you make the most of your goal setting and get it to work for you in your managerial position.
Show that goals start from the top
Paul Gleason, an HR coach at Australia2write.com, states.
Recent studies show that only fourteen percent of employees have a good understanding of what their company wants to do – i.e. its goals and strategies, and where it’s going in the world of business, both short-term and long-term.
This is terrible, obviously, since the other eighty six percent don’t have a clear understanding of where the company is going and can’t work accordingly or even understand the tasks that they have to do every day and how they’re helping the company’s progress.
Employees need to know why they’re doing X, Y, and Z. If the company is aiming to increase profits by ten percent, their tasks will center on increasing sales or reducing costs, etc.
If you show that your goals start at the top of the company and inform your team of what the company is trying to achieve, the goals will have a greater impact and feel more important, meaning that employees are even more likely to try harder in achieving these goals what leads to better results.
Be personal
Not every employee will need the same goals or go about achieving the goals in the same way. Setting a general, office-wide goal may be a good idea for starters.
So, make sure that you consider every employee and give them individual goals, if possible. It will maximize their skills, interests, and abilities.
Furthermore, not every employee will be able to achieve the same professional goals. Some may work too slowly for a short-term goal but produce brilliant results when given longer time frames.
On the contrary, some may just specialize in different areas or be used to different technologies which the office uses a little better than others. Everyone’s unique, and everyone’s human, so you can’t treat your employees like robots.
Make sure everyone can meet goals. If not, create different goals for different people. It’ll give you more respect as a manager from your employees since it shows a clear effort on your part. Also, it’ll make goals more achievable – you’ll experience less resistance overall from the office as well.
Respect deadlines
Obviously, some goals may have clear deadlines. If you’ve got emails from the head office clearly stating that profits must increase by the end of this quarter, then you’ve got yourself a deadline.
But even smaller goals should have some sort of project timeline which you expect to have them done by. Your employees should be aware of this timeline to make sure that everyone is in sync. Stick to SMART goals if needed.
Using an online goal-setting tool can keep everyone in check. If your team knows that they’ve got deadlines to keep to, they’ll work more efficiently. It will also make your goals seem like less of empty threats and more like real work tasks that need to be done.
GanttPRO is online project planning tool based on Gantt charts. It helps teams strictly follow deadlines not forgetting a detail about tasks. GanttPRO is a choice for everyone willing to stay on track of a project.
There will be fewer excuses and more communication in the office for sure since everyone will have clear deadlines which they’ll be accountable for and which everyone else knows about. It leads to a healthily pressured and open workplace, for sure.
Be ready for issues
We don’t live in a dream world. Obstacles will arise. You have to be prepared for them to interfere with your office’s goals.
If your team is trying to increase sales but they regularly experience drops around the winter months, you’ll have to plan around this and try to figure out ways to help out your employees.
Brainstorming solutions for these problems before you even set goals would be a brilliant idea, since then you’ll be prepared and ready to respond to anything that arises. Planning for unknown issues, such as a member of the team falling ill or tension between co-workers can also be useful since you never know what’ll happen in the future.
Remember, your goals have to be adaptable to whatever comes your way.
It’s a tricky business but if you can get on top of it, you’ll be succeeding at goal-setting no matter what happens!
Break it down
While general goals such as raising profits and lowering costs can be great, your employees need a little more direction than that. This is where breaking down your goals can come in handy.
Yes, you want to increase revenue, therefore increasing profits overall. But how are you expecting your employees to do that?
There’ll be individual tasks in your mind that you’re thinking of subconsciously. So, you need to get them down on paper or in a project management tool and address them as individual goals. Then give them to the most appropriate employees.
This makes the goals easier for your employees to achieve and has the bonus of every small accomplishment. It makes an employee feel like “a winner”, increases morale, and makes for a happy working environment.
This is especially important if you have a big project that will take a long time to complete – going weeks or months without anything to show for it (anything that seems like an “accomplishment”).
Make sure that you break down the tasks and create smaller deadlines within the huge project deadline. It makes the work more approachable, keeps your team members happy, team management more efficient, and makes sure the project gets done well and on time!