Why is goal setting important in performance management?

When it comes to performance management, goal setting matters. This is what your team needs to strive for. Not only does it push them to challenge each other and themselves, but this is the push that every employee needs for their career development. Once they reach their goals, they’ll be able to look back and see how far they came. What’s more rewarding than that? But why is it so important? How can this change the leadership development within the team?

What are the benefits of setting goals?

There are many benefits of setting goals. Setting goals improves employee engagement and productivity. Goal setting also helps employees to be more engaged in their work and be more productive.

Setting goals is a great way to stay focused on what you want to achieve in life or at work. It gives you the chance to have something to strive for within your career. Even if you’re someone who doesn’t know what kind of goals, you’re after, you can always opt into career and leadership coaching.

What are the best practices when it comes to goal setting?

Poor goal settings mean less work gets done, it creates barriers within individuals, but it also creates barriers on how work can get done. Strategic alignment becomes significantly difficult, and this is where Transformative Executive Coaching can help. You don’t want your employees feeling disconnected, as this is a sure-fire way to get them to look for work elsewhere. So, what are some of the best practices for goal setting in performance management?

Begin by making goal setting more collaborative

While it is important for individuals in the team to have their own personal goals, you can’t skip out on collaborative goals either. Giving out collaborative work will put an end to just the solo activity and will switch goal setting towards team activity. Allow for conversations that evolve the goals with your team as this can be a great way to give peer-to-peer feedback, rather than just top down management.

Allow for updates in goals.

Goals create significant changes in roles and expectations amongst oneself and their team. Certain circumstances may require goals to change - whether this is due to a new role or changing within the environment through Executive Coaching, [new projects, or even just a switch in personal preferences. Allowing for flexibility in the goal-setting process can help employees massively with their career development. It lets them evolve nicely into their roles, and it helps them stay on track rather than reluctantly trying to work towards a goal they have little interest in.

It creates a link with company strategy

Some managers are just out of touch with their department either through fragmentation due to covid or poor communication structures. Goal setting allows for aligned team goals and gives managers key information. Not just that, but it helps with the overall business strategy, as the manager can step in and delegate when it comes to certain tasks or actions. Having the manager know and understand the contexts of the employees will enable the perfect link between the company strategy and the work that the employees do. This leads to a greater sense of purpose, fulfilment and engagement in the work being done and the way in which the culture is experienced and enjoyed by all those part of it.

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