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From NetSpeed Leader Volume 14, December 2003
It's that time of year, but it could be any time: time to think about setting and achieving goals. Grab yours (they are written, aren't they?), along with those of your team or staff, and see if they measure up. Can you answer yes to each of these six questions?
Are the goals focused on results rather than activities?
This question may seem like a breeze—of course, your goals focus on results! But do they? Especially in Human Resources and Training, it's very easy to line up a list of goal statements that are actually activities, not results. These include categories like numbers of candidates interviewed, staff trained, courses designed, benefit plans renegotiated, and offices redecorated.
To focus on results rather than activities, answer the question why. That is, why are we interviewing, training, and renegotiating? What results do we want to achieve? Then include that information in your goal statements.
For example, here is an activity: Create and disseminate a monthly newsletter to all tenants within six months. Here is the same activity stated as a result: Create a monthly newsletter that establishes name recognition among tenants within six months.
Do the goals have clearly defined metrics or measurements?
Will you know if you have achieved the goal? Can you measure your success? We’re not talking here about measuring simply how much by when. Sometimes the factors can be complex.
For instance, if your goal is to retain experienced sales staff, you will know you’ve been successful if sales staff remain on the job. But how can you be sure they stayed because of your efforts? To get that information, look closely at your metrics. If salary equity has been an issue that you have worked to promote, for example, a metric might focus on the number of sales staff who mention "Better salary" in exit interviews as their reason for leaving. That metric, along with others, gives you information about the factors leading to your success.
It's essential to determine that the metric is the right one. Measuring the number of employees who have attended a training program, for example, doesn't reveal how many can use the new skill on the job. Be sure you are focusing on results.
Do your goals have both inputs and outputs?
Inputs are what we put into the achievement of a goal, things like costs and time. Outputs are our results—things like performance quality and quantity, and other positive gains.
With unlimited resources, we can achieve just about anything. So it's important to think carefully about our inputs. For example, if one of our goals is to reduce overtime costs by 30 percent without reducing customer service, we have to include other salary costs as inputs. Otherwise, to achieve our overtime reduction goal, we can simply hire twice as many customer service providers! That step isn't likely to achieve long-term corporate objectives, is it?
Be sure that your goals include the various resources and time that go into them as well as what comes out.
Are your goals linked to corporate goals?
Is there a relationship between your goals and the goals of the organization? There should be a close one. To express that relationship, we can use the performance tree as a helpful structure.
In a performance tree, the trunk represents the broad corporate goal or goals. For example, the trunk, the broad goal, might be to compete effectively within new emerging markets. The several large limbs that grow from the trunk would be goals too. They might involve increasing sales, adding products while continuing to ship current ones, and maintaining customer relationships within current markets. From those limbs would branch the smaller sub-goals. In Human Resources and Training, sub-goals might involve expanding the workforce, training employees in newly required skills, etc.
Can you clearly see your goals, and those of your team or staff, growing healthily from the corporate tree? Even if they are grafts, they should make sense to all involved. It's good to remember that you are responsible for branches—not the entire trunk—and to keep your goals in reasonable perspective.
Have the goals been created with your input? Or in the case of your staff or team, with their input?
Goals have a way of being achieved more creatively, efficiently, and enthusiastically when those responsible for achieving them are also responsible for creating them. Even with very demanding goals, some initial negotiation can be the key to eventually reaching goals.
If your goals have come to you from the trunk or main limbs of your organization's performance tree, you can still individualize them, asking questions like these: How might I (we) approach this goal? How is this goal like others I (we) have successfully achieved? What special expertise do I (we) bring to this challenge?
Do they stretch you and your staff or team?
Unlike job descriptions and standards, goals should stretch you to reach for the stars. It should be a stimulating stretch, something that causes you to adjust your behavior positively to support corporate goals.
Beyond the stretch, the vision of goal accomplishment should excite you. Do you feel excited when you look at your goals? If not, then you may need to return to some of the earlier questions: Do the goals focus on results? Are the metrics clear? Do the goals have challenging inputs and outputs? Are they linked to corporate goals? Were they created with your input—and if not, how can you make them your own?
Nothing creates a sense of satisfaction like creating and setting measurable, results-based goals; choosing the right metrics, including inputs and outputs; linking to corporate goals; and having a good stretch! Enjoy!
Note: Much of this content is based on the new NetSpeed Leadership module Setting and Achieving Goals.
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