Leadership Lessons: The Importance of Performance Goals and Standards

How Can You Hit an Invisible Bull's-eye?

"We're falling behind. My team is not hitting its goals. Why am I the only one losing sleep over this?" Have you ever found yourself asking these questions?

Some Perspective

One of the most important things a manager should do is involve individuals or teams in goal setting. Together they can determine, agree upon, and document goals as well as the standards of performance. Employees need guidelines to tell them how they are doing.

With clear goals and standards, everyone understands performance expectations. Then it becomes a group effort to improve performance against goals--not just the responsibility of the manager.

The idea here is not for the manager to just set goals for others and expect compliance. Instead, the manager's role is to work together with team members to develop and agree upon goals and standards that everyone understands.

A Solution

I've worked with many organizations where managers did not understand the value of planning, and they certainly did not know how to set performance goals and standards. The bottom line is that thinking you can achieve success without planning and developing performance goals and standards is not wise.

Employees are likely to perform better and have greater job satisfaction when they are given clear performance expectations. Additionally, employees will benefit from understanding how their goals and responsibilities fit into bigger organizational strategy. With strategic alignment at all levels, the organization is more likely to achieve its set goals.

"Developing Performance Goals and Standards" is one course in Vital Learning's Leadership curriculum that helps leaders implement the SMART approach to developing performance goals and standards:

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Result-oriented
T - Time-framed

Because SMART is a collaborative process to developing goals and standards, team members understand organizational performance requirements as well as their role in moving the organization forward.

With "Developing Performance Goals and Standards," the people your managers lead will know what they are expected to do, and they will know how to work together to accomplish the goals of your organization.

"Developing Performance Goals and Standards" is a 4-hour skill-building classroom workshop or a 2-hour online course that helps your managers implement the SMART approach. Also available is our option of combining online and classroom experiences in a Blended Learning approach. This approach maximizes learning and minimizes time off the job in the classroom.

To learn more about "Developing Performance Goals and Standards" or the complete Vital Learning leadership development curriculum download this 4-page PDF or watch this brief video.

The Vital Learning curriculum is available in Classroom, Online, or Blended delivery options and includes the following essential topics...

Disciplining - understanding how to discipline others to eliminate problem behavior
Complaints - being able to effectively manage complaints
Coaching - knowing how to productively coach job skills
Project Management - being able to run projects, both on-time and on-budget
Conflict - understanding how to successfully resolve conflict
Providing Feedback - knowing when and how to give feedback
And more...
For detail go to www.TheLearningEngine.org