Why set goals?
Setting goals is a fabulous way to keep people motivated, build confidence, measure progress and track success. Goals assist us to remain accountable to perform tasks to the best of our ability and beyond. The process of setting goals is a great way to document career objectives and revel in our success as we achieve career milestones, that might be overlooked otherwise.
Beyond personal growth, confidence and satisfaction for individuals, goal setting carries numerous benefits for an organisation. Not only does it help improve worker productivity and create a sense of fulfilment for employees, but it also strengthens teams, helps monitor employee performance and helps identify areas of growth and development within the organisation for employees.
Goal setting considerations
Looking back to late last year many of us set goals for the year ahead. Our team at HRTAS certainly did. Some of our business goals included expanding our team, improving internal channels of communication, and focusing on individual self-care. Did you set goals for 2023? If so, why or if not, why not?
When it comes to setting goals, we like to refer to the motto, keep it simple, stupid. The SMART goal setting framework is an easy and popular tool which guides people through the progress of setting attainable goals. Under this model goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. What goal setting framework did you use? If you didn’t use a structured framework, it would be important to consider why not and reflect on the effectiveness of your goal setting progress.
Conducting a yearly performance appraisal with employees is an important component for every employer. It is a tool used to set goals along with other beneficial features used to measure performance, development and identify areas for improvement and training opportunities. How engaged are you or your employees in the performance appraisal process? Considering the benefits of goal setting in the workplace does this procedure need reviving?
Reviewing goals
Reviewing goals is as important as setting goals. If we make the effort to set goals, we need to ensure we review our progress towards achieving our goals. As we get intrenched in our working life it can be easy to lose sight of the goals we set for the year.
Reviewing your goals doesn’t need to be time consuming or complicated. Below we outline some simple steps to help you review your yearly goals:
- Time – takes as long or little time as you need to review your goals. We recommended setting aside at least an hour.
- Progress – for each goal consider how you are going towards achieving the goal. Are you on track or did you forget about the goal all together?
- Evaluate – consider if the goal is still relevant? What is and isn’t working?
- Adjust – it may be that a goal is no longer relevant, and it is either disregarded, re-shaped or shelved for a later time. It isn’t about failure, but recognising when a goal isn’t serving a purpose and by doing so you open up the space for a new goal.
- Celebrate – look at what you have achieved, whether it is big or small. Celebrating your success helps recognised the hard work you have put in towards your goals and is a great motivator to continue to focus on achieving your goals.
This process can be done to review team goals, as part of a performance review process or used for an individual to review their own goals. Make sure achievement of goals is celebrated within your team, whether they are individual or team goals, it is important to thoughtfully communicate and praise success with your team. If you didn’t set any goals for 2023, it isn’t too late. Give it a crack, now would be the perfect time to set yourself goals for the remainder of the year.
