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Goals: Uncomplicated

by Scot Herrick on January 16th, 2007

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by all those New Year work goals? After all, there is this long process for goal setting, especially in large corporations. The goals need to be figured out by the business and then cascaded to the next level of management and then to the next level of management and then to the next level of management and then…well, you get the idea.

Business goals range from non-existent to utterly overcomplicated. And did you notice in all those blog entries out there on goals that goals have their own language?

Goals are stretch or SMART or attainable or cascaded or WIG’s or whatever. And the really sad part about all this work is that often the goals are created and then stuck in drawer only to be hauled out six months later when it comes time to do performance reviews.

We’ve overcomplicated the goal-setting process. Let’s see if we can uncomplicate the mess with a few tips to remember:

Goals should be desired end states for a particular time frame. Goals are about what we want to accomplish, something that we want to get done and not some esoteric thought creation process.

Goals should be measured. Measurements, of course, can be very complicated. But the purpose of measuring the goal is to enable us to know when we’ve accomplished what we’ve set out to do.

Having a goal of “weighing 165 pounds by June 1st” is a great goal. By being able to step on a scale and see your current weight — a measurement — one can judge progress. Without the measurements, you can’t tell if you accomplished what you set out to do.

Goals should be written for the work being done. “Increasing revenue by 5% by June 1st” is a great goal — but not if you are a person responsible for paying bills in the finance department.

The single largest mistake managers make in setting goals is not connecting the goal with the work that is actually done by their people. There needs to be this direct relationship between my goal and the work that I am doing.

Goal attainment should be the work done by the employee. The single largest mistake an employee can make is to work on stuff that is not part of the goals provided to them.

If an employee is spending 40% of their time on something that is not part of their goals — and the performance review is all about goal attainment; an assumption — then that time is wasted. Or worse, not contributing to the very goals that will determine the performance review. If you are spending a significant amount of work time on stuff that is not part of your goals, talk with your manager about what needs to be done.

Goals need to be regularly reviewed. Business changes constantly and what makes sense in January may make no sense in October. Reviewing the goals, measures, and attainment regularly — I suggest monthly — will help ensure that the goal doesn’t become a meaningless set of words on a piece of paper.

Keep your goals uncomplicated: focus on what you want to accomplish, figure out what is success so that you know you have accomplished your goal, ensure that the goal is focused on your work, and review the goal regularly.

Following those uncomplicated tips will help integrate goals into the work you do and make a pimpalicious treat out of the accomplishments of your work.

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