Goals are the destination and plans on how you're going to get there. For that reason, you need to first set your goals and objectives carefully by following a few suggestions. First, align departmental goals to organizational goals. Think about what's best for customers and other stakeholders and how to make that happen. Number two, assess departmental strengths and weaknesses. Can you meet objectives with existing resources? If not, try to get more. Make the most of your strengths and limit the negative impact of weaknesses. Third, look for ways to improve quality, cut costs, or provide better service. Fourth, get the support of people who's help will need to execute your plans. Involve employees in setting goals to increase their commitment. Fifth, put first things first, determine the importance of goals and attack the most important ones first, then move down the list. Sixth, watch out for roadblocks. At some point something's going to get in the way. Try to anticipate and plan your way around them. Supervisors are concerned with both the goals they set and those set for them by higher-ups. As a supervisor, your goals would be fairly short-term in nature, lasting from a few days to several weeks. They will concern things like desired output, quality of workmanship, and allowable costs, or in employee related areas like attendance, turnover, and safety. Longer-term goals are usually set by upper management. Properly set goals should be specific and quantitative, like raise production by 10 cars per day, rather than vague. Make more cars, to facilitate consistent, meaningful measurement of results. Here are four good ways to make goals more compelling. First, focus on results, not activities. Your efforts along the way are important, but achievement is the ultimate goal. Goals should give people a sense of achievement and pride when they're achieved and should give a team a sense of shared accomplishment. Second, concentrate on a few important goals. There's no point in setting lots of goals that you don't accomplish. The third way is to identify at least one superordinate goal. A lofty inspiring objective that captures hearts and minds, evokes emotions, and generates a powerful commitment from all. An example is the Apollo 11 moon landing, the pursuit of which inspired an entire nation and required the work of thousands of people. Fourth, a goal should be smart. Smart goals have five characteristics. They are specific, the more specific the goal the better. It's easier to make an action plan to increase online store sales by 30 percent over the next month than increase web traffic. They are immeasurable. Focus on quantifiable outcomes such as increase sales by 10 percent. Things that are measured tend to get done. They are attainable, but challenging. The most effective goals are achievable with hard work and skill. Unachievable goals are doomed to fail and a waste of resources. Don't bother with really easy goals either. They don't challenge employees. They are also relevant. The best goals are directly connected to the organization's mission and strategy, used to be able to track each individual goal you set to some higher level goal of merit. Last, There are time orient. Every goal needs to have a deadline. The targeted outcome must have a specific time frame like sell 500 cars in 2020. Everyone needs to know when something needs to be done in order to act toward that goal. Goal-setting has a lot of benefits. Setting and attaining goals stimulates employees to take a greater interest in their jobs, heightens feelings of effectiveness and diverts energy from less important activities. Goals motivate people by using their depth of knowledge, increasing their pace of work, and encouraging them to persist in their efforts. Consistent goal achievement also results in promotions and higher pay. Unfortunately, goal-setting fails when supervisors make some all too common mistakes. Goals that are made into threats like, sell 10 percent more next month or we will be having a talk about your future, often backfire and lead to insubordination or defiance. Discouraging risk-taking can remove the incentive to innovate, but emphasizing it too much can lead to rash decisions and actions. A little competition is good, but too much, may lead to conflict. Goals that put too much pressure on employees are always counterproductive. This is why it's so important to set achievable goals. Not having a plan of action for achieving a goal is planning to fail. Finally, having too many goals is confusing, so concentrate on a few important ones. To make goal-setting work, you absolutely must ensure that people have the skills, knowledge, and resources they need to accomplish the goals. Trying to achieve goals without having everything you need is like trying to drive a car with no tires. You're not going to get far. You also need to instill strong employee commitment to the goal. Leading by example, by making your own commitment clear, is a good way to start. If you aren't committed, why should they be? Always remember that employees need periodic feedback from you on their progress, particularly when goals will take considerable amount of time and effort. Lastly, do everything in your capacity to remove obstacles to employee success. If they get blocked, it will slow progress and frustrate them. When you do these things and do them well, goal-setting will become one of the most effective tools in your supervisory toolkit.
