What is performance without a target? Is like playing poker without money: no fun!
If you don’t set an appropriate goal, you will not be able to evaluate how your people are doing and, most of all, you will not be able to put in context the results achieved.
As you may guess this time we focus on one aspect that is fundamental in performance management: goal setting.
First of all it is important to clarify that correctly defining the objectives does not only mean acknowledging those that are transmitted to us by our company, but also knowing how to “tailor” them to the measure of our people and, above all, knowing how to explain them. A correct identification of the objectives and a consequent measurement is essential to stimulate people to do better; but there is nothing more harmful than unexplained or poorly explained goals. And it’s your job as a manager to explain to our resources, to quote a famous joke from that gentleman who was cleaning at NASA, that they send rockets to the moon, they don’t just clean the floor.
Determining goals in a suitable way is also a path to grow your direct and indirect reports, focusing their efforts on what matters and correcting their trajectory when they deviate.
So what characteristics should the objectives have?
There are many different methods off the shelf but my preferred one is the so called SMART.
A) Specific. Generic or badly argued goals are useless. And they must have a target value that defines whether or not they are met
B) Measurable. “You did it right” or “you did it wrong” are not objective. Each goal must be associated with a target that will make it easier for all parties to understand if the goal has been reached or not; better to spend the time to set a numeric target rather than discussing a qualitative one
C) Challenging but reachable. The target set must be challenging but not unattainable, otherwise it would defeat all efforts and damage your credibility. The objectives are neither a way to penalize the resources on the variable pay nor a way to distribute easy money . The goal must be calibrated to require an effort to reach it but still maintaining in sight the possibility to get there
D) Realistic. Whether is related to business or not, a goal must always maintain contact with reality. Assigning goals like “improve group morale” will only leave the door open for future discussions.
E) Defined in time: a goal has a beginning of measurement and an end. Not determining them will only create confusion.
This will also greatly simplify the discussion with your own resources and will also make the correction in progress manageable: a fundamental part of performance management is also giving constant feedback on their progressive achievement. An unfulfilled goal is not a way to punish the resource but it also requires the manager to think seriously if he has understood the problem and tried to solve it.
What objectives you can assign to your team?
