Your Employees Have Created Goals, Now What?

Earlier this month I shared with you 5 Tips for Creating Effective Employee Goals. Creating the goals, though, is only a beginning.  How are you going to ensure that those goals are achieved?  Communicate, support, review and recognize!

Communicate with your employees on a regular basis through informal meetings (e.g., weekly one-on-ones) and more formal quarterly check-ins. Encourage them to take the lead in initiating and scheduling the meetings (to develop their accountability), but don’t let it drop if they fail to do so. Ask questions and listen to determine how they’re tracking to the goals and any issues they’re having.  Share with them any changes to organizational or team direction that might impact the nature or timeline of their goals. Nothing is more frustrating to an employee than putting effort into something that is no longer needed or no longer relevant to the big picture.

Provide support in terms of resources and guidance as they work on their goals. Are they having trouble getting the input, effort or approvals needed from others in order to complete the goal? Are there roadblocks? Use this as a coaching opportunity and work together to develop a path forward. If too much of the goal is dependent on someone other than the employee for it to be achieved, it’s not truly a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) goal.

Review the goals on a regular basis. Not just progress and issues, but evaluate whether the goal is still relevant and if the timing still makes sense. Have priorities shifted? Revise goals accordingly. If the deadline is in peril, break the goal into components and prioritize and schedule those that are achievable.   It is important to stay on course and keep track of their accomplishments.

When goals are achieved, recognize the achievement. For especially challenging or stretch goals, spend some time with the employee discussing his or her approach, lessons learned, things that could have been done differently.

Then roll that learning into the next year’s goals!