Setting Goals: A Brief Guide for Your Company Goal Setting

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"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." - this is a famous quote by Tony Robbins.

As a company owner or entrepreneur, you know the challenge of being able to stay on top of the competition. You need a team with focus, motivation, and a clear vision of company success. That is why it is critical to establish company goals that will assist your staff in aligning with the company vision.

Company goal setting is the process of defining what your business wants to achieve in the short, medium, and long term. It is a process that will set a clear direction for your company and its employees. It will enable you to create a roadmap to guide your team toward success.

Most company goals are usually related to financial performance, growth, and profit. They can also be related to customer satisfaction and employee retention. Revenue, operating expenses, and profit are often the most prominent business goals.

Benefits of Setting Company Goals

#1. Goal Setting Lets You Monitor Team Performance

Setting goals for your company is a way to measure your team's success. It makes it easier for you to keep tabs on your team's activities and progress. You can gain insight into how well they are doing in reaching those goals and make adjustments as necessary.

With goals established for each individual or team, you can keep track of those accountable for certain company developments. You can then use these collected data and create incentive systems for high-performing employees. While for underperforming ones, you can develop action plans, such as training videos, to enhance their performance.

#2. Company Goals Help You Focus Your Efforts

Setting goals allows you to direct your company's efforts toward what is essential. When there are too many things to do at once, it can be challenging to organise your team process. Having a specific team goal in mind allows your employee to prioritise their work and focus on what's the most relevant.

#3. Clear Goals Boost Employee Engagement

Satisfied and engaged employees are more productive than those who feel irrelevant or unmotivated. Everyone who works at a company wants to be involved in something important and meaningful.

When you set clear goals for each employee, they will have something concrete to strive toward—which can increase their motivation over time. This will aid you in creating a culture of productivity where the company will thrive.

Types of Goal Settings

There are different company goals, depending on what you want to achieve. Some are better suited than others for specific situations or scenarios. Below are three of the most frequently used types of goals to set for your company.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

S.M.A.R.T. goals are the most widely used type of goal for companies. They're easy to understand and use and work well for different businesses. Arthur Miller, George Doran, and James Cunningham curated this goal setting style in 1981.

S.M.A.R.T. goal is an acronym for:

• Specific: Goals should focus on a clear, concise, and particular scope.
• Measurable: Goals let you track your progress over time.
• Attainable: Goals should be challenging but achievable with the available resources, tools, and time.
• Relevant: Goals must relate back to your mission statements and align with your overall strategy toward success.
• Time-bound: Goals should have an exact date for their completion.

S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals

An upgrade to S.M.A.R.T. goals, S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals added two letters to the acronym to fill the lack of evaluation and assessment. S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals retain the first acronym plus E.R. for:

• Evaluate: Goals should be evaluated at regular intervals to see if they're still relevant and need to be adjusted.
• Readjust: Goals should be flexible and can be modified based on changing circumstances.

C.L.E.A.R. Goals

Popularised by Adam Creek, C.L.E.A.R. goals enable the company to create a positive and productive workplace. These are usually big goals that ignite a sense of unity and camaraderie among teammates toward a common goal.

C.L.E.A.R. goals, according to Adam Creek, are an acronym for:

• Collaborative: Goals must incorporate a social context that creates momentum and encourages task completion.
• Limited: Goals should be time and scope-constrained.
• Emotional: Goals should strike an emotional bond with employees, igniting their energy and passion.
• Appreciable: Big goals should be split into smaller goals so that you can achieve them more quickly and easily in the long run.
• Refinable: Set goals with a firm and unwavering objective, but allow yourself to revise and adjust them when new situations or facts occur.

Ways to Effectively Set Company Goals

Now that we know some popular types of goals and their benefits, let's proceed on how to effectively set goals for your company.

#1. Identify Your Company's Strengths and Weaknesses

Before you can set goals for your company, you need to know where it stands. Take some time to do a self-assessment or conduct a SWOT analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

This will determine how your business should move forward to reach its goals. It will also show your company's constraints and essential areas to prioritise.

#2. Set Team and Individual Goals

Setting team goals promotes collaboration and unity, whereas setting individual goals empowers employees to grow and develop their skills. These two elements, when combined, can help you keep track of company performance while also increasing motivation, productivity, and efficiency.

#3. Write Down Your Goals

Dominican University's study confirms that writing down your goals is significant in achieving success. There are a ton of plausible explanations for this, but one is that writing down your goals aids you in visualising, remembering, and understanding what you want to accomplish. Your company can start writing and posting your goals on bulletin boards or the company wiki.

#4 Coordinate With Professionals and Mentors

The same study from Dominican University shows that sharing your written goals with another person results in the highest possible goal achievement. Accountability and commitment have the greatest influence on these results.

You can submit your company goals to someone with a goal-setting background. They could be a mentor, coach, or professionals willing to hold you accountable and assist you in reaching your goals.

#5 Leverage Automation and Software

There are many ways to automate your goals and make them more effective. You can use free software like Google Calendar to schedule tasks according to your calendar. It can also be used to set up reminders, meetings, and other company activities that need a time frame.

In monitoring and tracking company performance, you can use tools like Notion or create your own Knowledge Base for large video file sharing. You can also use software like Trello to make visual representations or VEED to create a video presentation of how to set and achieve your goals.

#6 Learn From Your Previous Goals

The last on our list is to learn from your previous goals. You should evaluate the things that lead to your goals' achievement and the mishaps that lead to failure. These gathered data can guide you in establishing better goals for future projects and activities.

Takeaways

Remember that company goals are the foundation for your company's future vision. That is why setting goals for your company should be a vital part of your company's strategy. Make certain that each of your employees is aware of how crucial these choices are.

In the end, setting a company goal is an effort that should involve everyone on your team. You can also seek external support from your mentor, industry experts, and other professionals. Keep in mind that company goals are meant to assist your company in its development and progress - stay consistent and committed.

Recap

Three benefits of setting goals for your company include the ability to monitor team performance, help you focus your efforts, and boost employee engagement. We've also discussed the three most common goals acronyms: S.M.A.R.T., S.M.A.R.T.E.R., and C.L.E.A.R. goals.

Again, here are several ways how to effectively set company goals:

• Identify your company's strengths and weaknesses.
• Set team and individual goals.
• Write down your goals.
• Coordinate with professionals and mentors.
• Leverage automation and software Learn from your previous goals

This article should briefly guide you to get started on setting goals for your company and make them more achievable.

This article was guest written by King Fanoga.