Great Time Management - Goal Setting

Goal Setting in the Workplace

Annual Goal Setting at work every year was always a pain in the you-know-what for me. It always seemed so fake and incongruent with what was really going on. No matter what I tried my goals never seemed to make much difference at the end of the year when I had my annual appraisal and pay increases were passed out.

Every year around Goal Setting time, the same old things would happen:

• It’s January. Time to write up something to satisfy the requirement for annual goals and objectives.


• Well let’s see, what did the boss write on last year’s review that might give me a clue as to what I should include.


• Check the political wind direction. Yep, I can come up with 3–5 things that look like they might be connected and am pretty sure I can complete.


• Oh yeah! Don’t forget to add a couple of personal development ideas with maybe a March training session in Florida around spring break. (A good way to see what my golf swing will look like this year.)

Is this what Goal Setting looks like for you each year? If so, and, you want to break out of this rat race, let me share some of the goal setting methods I have found that will help you set more realistic objectives and move your career forward.

Golden Rules for successful Goal Setting:

• understand your corporate strategies – Typically your company will have 3–5 strategic objectives that they believe will make the company more successful.Learn what these are and fully understand how these objectives impact your facility or business unit.


• understand your facility or business unit strategies – Once your corporate strategies are published, your facility or business unit will develop annual objectives to fully support them. Talk with your supervisor or boss and learn what your facility objectives are and what your team is expected to do to achieve them.


• link your objectives to corporate strategies – Develop 3–5 actions, aligned with your job description, that are drop dead important and if successfully completed will significantly improve your teams performance. These actions are consistent with your normal duties but are focused on a specific need. Each objective should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic and Time Based).


• create your own personal strategies – Build a case for your objectives following these two rules of influence


• Show the value each of your objectives has for your team and your boss.
• Show how you plan to reach each objective.

When you apply these rules of Goal Setting you will begin to see positive changes in your personal market value.

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Article by John Golden