How effective is your goal setting strategy?

Setting goals is the propelling force behind a company’s growth. Unfortunately, many companies don’t follow an organized process in creating them, or place too much emphasis on the future.

A better approach is to focus on making current operations more efficient. Each year, companies should identify 5 to 11 major goals that define their focus. These goals should be broken down into the following categories, where 80 percent of the efforts are focused on present issues:

                3-5 Current operational problems

                1-3 Marketing improvements for current products

                1-3 Future products and services

The goals created should be a culmination of ideas from a variety of sources and departments throughout the company, and an organized process should be followed to generate those ideas.

• Gathering and organizing potential goals. Executive staff members should each be tasked with creating a list of potential goals using the formula above.

• Aggregate the information. Create a master list of all the goals created by the executive staff and distribute it back to them with instructions to agree or disagree on the ideas of their counterparts.

• Creating the big picture. Schedule an uninterrupted day at an offsite location to conduct a brainstorming session with your executive staff.

• Finalizing selection process. At this stage, the CEO should review the company goals in private and create a final list, which sets the stage to begin planning for each goal.

• Planning business strategies. Re-create a template with company and corresponding departmental goals.

• Creating the master list. Consolidate the above information into a master list of goals, and publish it for the entire company to see. Creating organization-wide visibility ensures all employees are on the same page.

Goal creation, and communication of those goals, is critical to establishing an efficient working environment. With clear objectives, each staff member and department will have an understanding of what their role is within the bigger picture.