Target Your Team by Pointing Toward Goals
GOOOOAAAAAAAL!!!
Imagine a soccer game with no nets at each end of the field. The players would kick the ball around with no target — no way to make a goal. The game would literally be pointless.
The same is true in the corporate world. People need goals: It’s the difference between an organization that thrives and is happy, and one that is lost and bewildered.
Work success and team satisfaction balance one another through effective goal management.
Most managers look at goals in a broader context of the year or the quarter. It’s the lazy manager’s way of posting the target and cruising through until the next checkpoint. Motivated and effective team members need to be well aware of their quarterly and annual goals, but they also need to be coached on how those desired outcomes translate into meaningful day-to-day goals.
Here’s a test to see if you are properly engaging with your team on a regular basis: Do your team members go home at the end of each week understanding that the meetings they had, reports they produced, the process they were accountable to was all part of a grander goal? In short, do they understand how their contribution each week contributes to the larger company objective?
Simple psychology tells us that we need to understand our goal in order to feel the deep satisfaction required to put in extra effort. A business team without goals is like that soccer team without a net. Without day-to-day goals that feed into the larger goals of the company, chances are that your team is just kicking assignments around.
Here’s your fuel for thought: How do you focus on goals everyday?
At ROUSH CleanTech, we start each meeting with the stated objective and end with the question, “Did we accomplish the objective?” Easy as that.
Your team probably doesn’t need a better locker room speech. They just need to know which end of the court to shoot at.
