With 2020 underway, supervisors and team leaders should be looking at ways to enhance departmental and corporate success by helping employees reach their personal goals.
But what really makes a workplace conducive for better productivity? Is it simply having talented employees? While a great staff is certainly a plus, without a motivated working environment, a manager can’t expect to get the most out of their staff.
Workplace goals are effective tools for achieving desired results, provided they’re used correctly. To enable your team to achieve their potential, it’s important to provide each individual with actionable and achievable workplace goals. Here are five ways to make it happen:
1. Set Goals that Align with Company Objectives
Each employee’s goal should be tied to the company’s overall growth strategy in order to be effective. When employees understand how their individual role and responsibilities contribute to organizational growth, they’re often more focused and motivated to achieve goals that result in success for themselves and the business.
2. Create a 2020 Action Plan
As a manager, it’s important to remember that goal setting alone will achieve nothing without a plan for success. When are certain milestones met? How will you monitor employees’ progress toward their goals? That’s why the key to setting up goals for your team is to make sure they’re based on an action plan. Goal setting is an on-going activity, so discuss the plan with your team members and schedule monthly time slots to review and tweak them as necessary.
3. Make Goals Relevant
There’s no point in setting workplace goals that don’t really matter. Yet, making goals relevant can sometimes be a challenge for a supervisor. You need to target precisely those goals that your team or employee needs to focus on to achieve success. The goal should align with other departmental goals but also be important and worthwhile to the employee.
4. Make Them Achievable
Specific goals should be clear, easy to understand, and include all the elements necessary to ensure your team knows what’s expected of them to be successful. Don’t let your goals sound like a general, open-ended statement. It’s best to flesh them out properly with clearly defined expectations. Make the goal measurable so that progress can be tracked – ensuring a goal that’s meaningful and motivating for the employee.
5. Set a Timeframe
Achievable goals should have realistic target dates that transform each into actionable items. Work with your team or employee to agree on what an achievable timeframe for each goal is – then stick to the target dates. In general, managers should keep an open mind when setting times for goals. Remember – it’s better and more motivating for you and your team to achieve each goal on time.
Summing Up
Workplace goals and goal setting are important factors in individual and organizational success. While your goals will be contingent on your specific situation and the state of your company, the above tips should provide a framework for creating a goalsetting program that can provide a roadmap for you and your team to achieve success.
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