Why Setting Goals and Expectations are Essential for Teamwork
Do you remember back in high school and college being assigned a dreaded group project? I recall the endless frustration of team members who didn’t do their share of the project or produced subpar work. While these projects could seem like a complete waste of time, they were teaching us an important life lesson about working with others - a skill that is necessary for the working world.
All too often, when a team collapses, it's due to improper goal setting and failure to clearly communicate goals and how each team member could contribute to the team’s success. As leaders, we can easily place blame on our team members’ perceived poor performance, when in reality, the fault lies with us for not outlining exactly what we expected from them and defining what success for this team would look like. Many unhealthy work environments can be traced back to this very issue. Most employees want to produce good work, and by properly equipping them, you can help them avoid frustration and truly thrive.
A tool I like to use when setting business performance goals with teams is called SMART goals. This metric has been helpful to many teams in defining and communicating success.
SMART goals are:
Specific: The goal describes specifically what the person needs to accomplish and describes it in a way that the whole team will clearly know whether the goal has been achieved.
Measurable: The goal includes a metric to allow the team to track the progress toward achieving the goal and to determine whether the team is on track, ahead of schedule, or falling behind in their progress toward achieving the goal.
Achievable: The goal must be something that can realistically be achieved, not something that is just aspirational.
Results-focused: The goal must be something that, when achieved, will contribute to the success of the overarching goals for the team.
Time bound: The goal must include a specific time for the goal to be achieved and is even better if it includes milestone progress dates to help track progress along the way.
I have seen teams set a goal like, “Increase sales in 2020.” This is simply too ambiguous and difficult to measure, and it is not a SMART goal. Instead, the team should set a goal such as, “Increase purchases of product X by 5 percent in Q1 by employing Facebook advertisements and Paid Search Ads” This is Specific (geared toward a specific product and defines tactics for reaching stated goal), Measurable (the team can continuously measure sales compared to last quarter), Achievable (seeking reasonable, modest growth), Results-Focused (increased sales of one product can lead to increased sales of others with repeat customers), and Time Bound (defined by Q1).
Only your team can define what is an achievable goal and what goals will contribute to the overall success of the organization. That is why goal-setting should be a collaborative process where your team collectively agrees to strive for the stated goals. Once everyone is on board, you will see greater synergy and, ultimately, greater results from your team members.