Last week we talked about Mary Anne’s questions that help individuals “dig deeper” this year when setting goals.  This week we want to share with you Theresa’s work with leadership teams as they go about setting goals for the Company in 2015.  You may be inspired to look at this process a little differently after you read this post.

When this time of year comes around in businesses, there is often a sense of dread when you mention it’s time to think about the Company’s goals for the upcoming year. Often it’s a tedious and time-consuming  process where Department Managers feel as if they are going to be saddled with goals and budgets that are unrealistic, too ambitious or downright impossible to achieve.  The idea of goals coming from the “top” leaves many feeling as if their input or desire for their areas of responsibility is futile because “leadership is only going to tell us what we have to do and in the end, we don’t have a real say.”

If you are in charge of calling your leadership/management team together to set goals, listen up!

Getting buy-in and shared vision on goals is the key to success.  When kicking off the planning season for a business, it makes sense to look back a bit and celebrate your successes, acknowledge your disappointments and unmet goals, and identify the lessons learned that you don’t want to repeat in the new year. Doing this for the Company and each department has significance.  It’s as if you close one door before you open the next.  Celebration and closure are important in goal setting!

Turning to the new year, there’s always some pre-work that helps make a planning session highly productive – asking managers to assess their teams, having them do a SWOT [Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats] for the Company, and coming up with their list of 3-5 goals they think the Company should focus on in the upcoming year.  With information collated ahead of time, at the planning meeting the task at hand is for the Leadership Team to discuss the SWOT Analysis results and then identify the top 3-5 goals, which, if accomplished, will ensure the Company moves closer to its Vision.  If you don’t have a Vision and a Strategic Plan, make sure you do.  Both of these serve as the “rudder” that guides goal setting and decision making for the Company. The question to ask to get this conversation going is “By the end of [year], what will we have accomplished?”  This question is important. Goals must define the end results, and when defining the end result it is important to make it specific, measurable, accountable, realistic and time-bound. [SMART]  Here’s an example:

 Not SMART or End-Result focused:

Survey all employees by the end of 2015.

SMART and End-Result focused:

Employee survey results at the end of 2015 will show an overall increase in satisfaction with the Company from 3.8 to 4.3 and specifically, an increase in “employee trust” of Management from 3.5 to 4.0.

Now with this goal, the Team identifies key milestones, that is specific outcomes and/or deliverables, that will be accomplished on the way to achieving the goals.  Key milestones for this goal may be:

–  Employee survey is developed and approved by the Leadership Team by [date].

–  Employee survey is distributed to employees by [date].

–  Employee survey results are reviewed and discussed by the Leadership Team by [date].

Once the Milestones are completed, then the Action Steps for each Milestone can be developed.

With this step completed by the Leadership Team, the Department or Team Leaders return to their teams to do the same process with their teams.  The key question that guides this exercise: “What are 3-5 goals that we will set, as a Department, to support the achievement of the Company’s goals in [year]?”

Now with all this done, the big question that always arises is “how do we build in accountability and be sure we stay focused on this throughout the year?”

Theresa has a great template for tracking company and department goals. If you’d like a copy, send her an email at tgale@transforminc.com.

Theresa’s really got this process down and does it with tons of companies, so if you want to try this process using a “pro” who can save you and your team time and effort AND ensure you get buy-in and accountability, she’s the one to call.