SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 210,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
How effective is your organization’s goal-setting process?
- Very — we have clear and actionable goals all the time: 20%
- Somewhat — we set goals for big items but not smaller ones: 31%
- Not very — our goal-setting is inconsistent: 40%
- Not at all — what’s a goal?: 9%
Set a Destination. It’s hard for your team to know where it’s going and why their work matters if they’re not clear on the destination. You have a responsibility to set clear goals that the team can focus on and drive toward. Without those goals in place, they won’t know if they’re working on the right things or if their efforts have been successful. Sit down and set some targets today. Your team will appreciate you doing so. 80% of you aren’t being as effective as you can be. With a little effort, you can set clear goals that your team can rally behind.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, author of the upcoming book “The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved” and “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”