Image by gabrielle_cc from Pixabay

By Katie Tejada

Every accomplishment in life, whether personal or business, must start with setting goals. No goals means haphazard development without steady progress or measurable results. You want the goals you set to be the stepping stones towards success. They must be achievable yet challenging enough to make you feel accomplished as you reach each milestone. If you’re looking for a how-to guide that will help you set goals for your team, check out this list for effective goal-setting ideas.

Small goals first

You already have an end result in mind, but you need to start small to keep your team motivated and inspired to get there. You don’t want to push too hard and discourage your staff with unachievable goals. If you start too big, your team may burn out, make mistakes, or give up before they even start.

Maybe your ultimate goal is to increase your revenue by 50% by the end of the year. Break this big goal into smaller steps with rewards at each milestone. Make monthly goals that focus on selling 10% more stock than usual or signing four new clients to increase revenue over time. No month will ever be the same, and sometimes you’ll see that your team exceeds their goals, meets their goals, or underdelivers. Reward their hard work after a successful month and encourage them when they underachieve to make sure they keep going no matter the result!

Make sure goals are measurable

Not setting goals is a huge mistake, but choosing goals that you can’t measure is an even bigger one. If you don’t know how to measure your progress towards a goal, how do you count it a success? You need goals that are quantifiable for a definite indicator that keeps your team motivated. Your goals should be specific, measurable, relevant, attainable, and time-based. Consider some of these ideas:

– XX in sales each month

– XX new clients each month

– Reduce expenses by XXX each month

– Increase website traffic by XX% each month

If your goal doesn’t speak to your core values and improve your business in some way, is it worth it?

Keep track of goals

You want to keep track of goals in a highly visible place to ensure they’re always at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Charts and graphs that show progress over the course of time guarantee that everyone is up to date and on the same page. You can also introduce interactive elements and gamification into your goal tracking to encourage engagement and office-wide updates. Ring a bell every time you sign a new client, fill in a graph for every X-amount of product sold, or highlight a staff member that makes the most sales each day!

Follow up with your team

When setting your goals, you generally have a long-term time frame. Whether you set goals for a month or for a quarter, you should touch base with your team every week to check in on progress and gauge their motivation. It’s critical to listen to what your team has to say about the goals you set. If they’re struggling to achieve their goals, you might have to modify your expectations or ask them if they need additional support to make it happen. Whether it’s a slightly easier milestone or additional sales tools, flexibility is an essential leadership characteristic that will lead to success.

Incentivize your team

Making sure your team is motivated to help your company thrive is critical. Some offices provide a lot of incentives, like bonuses and benefits, but others don’t have anything in place to reward and recognize hard-working employees. You might think that their pay should be enough to inspire hard work, but if you’re setting particularly difficult goals that grow your company, how will your employees benefit from increased revenue? Will you provide profit sharing, bonuses, or stock options? Your team needs measurable incentives for measurable results.

Recognize success

Incentivizing your team is different from inspiring them to work harder through recognition of their work. Simple recognition is incentivizing on a smaller scale, and goes a long way towards ensuring your employees feel like you appreciate them. During your weekly check-ins, highlight one or two employees that you feel have shown dedication and effort towards the success of your goal. There are many ways you can choose to recognize your team members, including calling them out on their achievements, taking them out to lunch, giving them a small gift card for coffee, and many other small rewards.

Set new goals together

After achieving one goal, don’t stop there! Continue on to the next with the help of your team. Brainstorm an even bigger goal together over a celebratory meal or company happy hour. When you stop setting goals, your business begins to slow down and stagnate. People get complacent, and productivity slows down. Goals and milestones should become a regular part of your office environment to increase motivation, productivity, and success.

As you watch your company grow and your team evolve, you should keep track of the goals you’ve achieved to inspire greater goals in the future!

_________

Katie Tejada is a writer, editor, and former HR professional. She often covers developments in HR, business communication, recruiting, real estate, finance and law, but also enjoys writing about travel, interiors and events.