Achieving Goals_ Define and Surpass Your High Performance Goals - Kathleen Schienle [18]
Your position as manager gives you the opportunity to energize both groups using goals. Let them set fresh goals and responsibilities or tackle them in ways that promote independence and innovation. Encourage them to handle new personal and group performance goals, and to rethink their contributions as part of the big picture. If they can challenge themselves to increase their knowledge and capabilities, they can envision a future at the company beyond today or this month.
Begin your energizing campaign by holding meetings with your team—first as a group to build team spirit and momentum, and then individually to brainstorm the answers to these questions:
How do your goals contribute to the company’s objectives?
Which of your skills and abilities do you use at work?
Which of your talents are untapped when working toward your goals?
What aspects of your goals are challenging and rewarding?
In what areas would you like more responsibility?
If you could revise your goals or job responsibilities, what would you change?
Help your discontented employees renew their energy and commitment to their jobs. Several strategies are effective:
Expand teamwork. Form self-directed, cross-department project teams. Give them the freedom to set their goals, make decisions, and allocate work as they see fit. Let everyone follow through on projects from start to finish.
Switch tasks. Giving bored workers some fresh goals can give them a lift and enrich their skills—a benefit to your whole team.
Keep communicating. Make talking and listening to your employees an everyday occurrence, not just part of an annual ritual. Employees want frequent input on how they’re doing, good or bad.
Broaden staff roles. Employees feel empowered when they can make decisions that affect their work day—decisions about finances, scheduling, or ways to juggle the whole group’s work load. Another benefit of this level of involvement is that it highlights the big picture: employees learn that even the smaller decisions they make can support company goals.
POWER POINTS
MOTIVATION
Motivation is key in setting and achieving goals. If you want your employees to perform, they must be dedicated and motivated.
Hold regular meetings to set goals and encourage team spirit.
Keep communication lines open at all times and listen to the comments and concerns that are raised.
Engage employees in tasks that broaden their individual roles.
Let your employees do the job they were hired to do by demonstrating confidence in their ability to perform well.
To counter boredom, give creative employees stimulating goals and innovative challenges.
Create projects that involve teamwork. Give teams the freedom to make decisions and set goals.
Be supportive of their creative endeavors and bright ideas.
Be a strong, supportive leader and you will have productive employees who will strive to meet goals.
Make creativity a buzzword. If you don’t give employees the chance to think for themselves, they may lose their urge to be creative. Without it, they will quickly stagnate. Support creativity and reward bright ideas. Challenge your people with new goals, and give them the freedom and resources they need to achieve them. Support every idea. Many ideas that initially seem mediocre simply need modification to shine.
Another significant thing you can do as a manager to keep your employees energized and focused on meeting their objectives is to let them perform the jobs they were hired to do. Presumably you hired them for their skills and abilities, so allow them every chance to demonstrate—to you and to the organization—what they’re capable of. Make it clear you’ll supply any help they need. Listen to their comments as they go about tackling their goals: the more you listen, the better the job they’ll do. Exhibit confidence in them