“I am frustrated.”
What could frustrate leadership and employees, both? Why? How?
One problem that I have noticed in most of the companies is that of improper goal setting. They don’t set goals in advance.
Even if they do, they are not able to reach the goals within the stipulated time. The performance measurement is largely based on what they have done. The problem amplifies when the manager is biased and ignores the deviation of team members from their goals. He takes what I call the “hit the ball and place the goalpost” approach.
Let’s say such a manager were to rank the members, he would assign:
A rating to 70%
B rating to 25%
C rating to 5% of the members
Here, everyone is performing well but the organization is still not able to achieve its goals.
In one of the companies that I used to work for, there were seven verticals, each assigned to one partner. Out of the 7 partners, 3 used to regularly meet their assigned goals while the other 4 were least bothered. Since the goal setting in the company was weak, all the partners ended up getting similar increments. The three high performers had to perform in lieu of the rest for some additional incentives.
After some time, the hashtag#highperformers were frustrated and disengaged. They eventually left. The company kept promoting mediocre performers. All the high performers quit. The company was later sold off.
In any organization, setting goals in advance is met with resistance from team members. It is necessary to remember that setting goals before the performance period allows objective evaluation of individuals, rewards the high performers, discourages mediocre behavior, and contributes to the organization’s success.
The hashtag#businessstrategy should be broken into goals for individuals. The A raters should ideally exceed their targets. If 50% plus are A raters the company should exceed targets.
hashtag#Learning: The organizational strategy should be broken down into individual goals.
How to set goals and set them ahead of performance period?
1. Define the organizational strategies quantitatively
2. Break down the strategies into individual SMART goals
3. Share the goals well in advance with the teams
4. Break down the goals into monthly and quarterly targets for individuals
5. Identify and monitor lead indicators
6. Ensure effective discussion between the manager and the team
7. At the end of the discussion, the team members should be convinced that the goals are achievable, they will receive the required support and resources from the manager to achieve the goals, and feel engaged
How well in advance do you set your hashtag#goals? Does goal setting engage your teams? Are your top raters exceeding hashtag#targets?