Jun 29, 2010

How to Set Business Goals

 


The short-term objectives should ideally have a much narrower timeline. "Increasing sales 24 percent a year is a pretty big number," Dao says. "But increasing sales two percent each month seems totally doable."

Break down specific actions to be taken by specific people, assigning someone in each department involved to be accountable—and to help motivate employees.

Perhaps the most important component of these short-term goals is tying them into the long-term ones. Because you've already identified those long-term goals, it's easier to see how focusing on seemingly small details can be a step toward achieving a broader long-term aim.

For example, one of Becker's long-term goals is to keep costs and overhead under control. When she saw that she was paying over $1,000 a month for pay per click color prints on her publishing firm's copier, she invested the time to figure out why the fees were so costly. It turned out that employees were needlessly printing out e-mails with blue hyperlinks in color, so Becker made it a priority to reconfigure each computer to print in black and white by default.

Baren suggests that inspiration and accountability are also two essential components for turning goals from abstract into reality. "Accountability without inspiration is like a prison sentence," he says.

"Goals are not separate from the culture of the organization," he continues. "It's not an accident that Zappos.com has done over $2 billion in business. They've created a culture of caring—when they ask their employees to do something, they go and do it."

Dig Deeper: The Zappos Way of Managing


Setting Business Goals: Solicit Employee Input

You may have a clear vision of where you want your company to go, but it's also crucial to motivate employees so they're looking in the same direction you are. So, instead of issuing a top-down initiative, try co-creating goals with employees.

"It's really important that there is enthusiastic buy-in from your employees," Baren says. "Everyone feels like they have some ownership in the goal, as opposed to [the CEO acting as] a dictator mandating something."

Once you've asked employees to help you create your goals, get everyone on the same page. "We're very communicative, and very hands on," Becker says. "Know what your neighbor is doing so, you can help each other out." She organizes Monday morning meetings and Wednesday midweek check-ins to keep each one of her employees on track.

"Even a really good boss can't see it all," Dao says. "Get the feedback of people who are executing it on the front line."

Dig Deeper: Meeting business goals takes constant communication to employees


Setting Business Goals: Stay Organized and Focused

The reality is, a growing business will have more than just a few goals. That's when a vigilant focus and a commitment to organization comes into play.

For example, Becker keeps checklists of her short-term goals, and also uses to programs like Microsoft Excel to keep track of them. Each Monday morning, she checks in on the status of her goals. "I don't want to forget about long-term goals because so many tiny things can come up during the week to distract me," she says.

It might make sense to tackle one goal at a time. "If you become unfocused, it's like getting off on every exit of the highway," Marshall says. "You have to pick the exits you want to take very carefully, so you can maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses as a company."

Dig Deeper: How important is small business goal-setting?


Setting Business Goals: Be Consistent

Another problem that can arise with having many distinct goals for your business is the possibility they will conflict with each other.

"Companies will say that they want 100 percent customer satisfaction," Dao says, "but they'll also want the highest margins. Customer service is expensive, so that's not going to happen. You have to pick. Look at the big picture."

Also look out for a situation where you're unwittingly preventing employees from accomplishing a goal.

Dao points to the hypothetical example of a company that wants to improve customer service ratings, but which has an extensive automated phone tree before customers can talk to an actual person. "By the time they're on the fourteenth level, customers are already pissed off," Dao says. "How is that guy they finally speak to going to be able to get customer satisfaction back up to a 10 when there is nothing he can do about the system?"

Dig Deeper: How Sales Goals are Set


Setting Business Goals: Build a Culture of Appreciation

One important (and often overlooked) part of the business goal setting process is rewarding the employees who are actually working to achieve those goals. This isn't always a financial incentive.

"You've achieved a set of goals, and the next day you hand out a new pile of goals to work on," Baren says. "What happened to a simple thank you, and celebrating what's gone right? If you work in a company long enough where that's not practiced, the motivation starts to disappear."

Dig Deeper: Building a Culture of Appreciation
 PREV  1 | 2