Principles of Management

Goal Setting: A Managers Role vs. the Employee’s Role

“How do you get your employees to perform better?”

“Are your employees focused, motivated, organized and driven?”

“What goals have been established for your employees?”

These are a few of the many questions I asked to multiple managers within the company that I work for. Being a relatively new employee, working there for a little over a year, I wanted to ask these questions. Not to see how different managers felt about specific employees, but to get an overall view of how their jobs as managers directly affected each and everyone’s job performance.

Management is a science of how an individual works with a group of people, oversees their performance, and tries to effectively and efficiently get them to exceed the goals set forth by the company. It is a science that has guidelines and rules to follow, but varies from one employee to the next.

There are four basic pillars to success when it comes to managing your employees: plan, organize, direct, and monitor . These pillars can be incorporated into many different aspects of management, but no other aspect is more important than that of goal setting.

Management starts with planning, and good planning starts with the formation of goals. Without a proper plan in place the achievement of goals will never come and if

they do they won’t be repeatable. An effective manager will figure out what the goal is and then figure out the best possible way to achieve the goal. I asked our sales manager late last week (Hodsdon, Len Personal Interview, May 10, 2005), “Would you agree that planning is the first step in forming goals?” He answered:

“I would have to agree. Planning is a very important part of goal setting, if not the most important. If you don’t have a good plan of attack and knowledge of company direction, you won’t succeed in setting forth either obtainable or stretch goals for your employees.”

Once you have a plan the next step is to organize everything you need to execute your plan and prepare your employees for the goals you have established for them. As a manager you have to ask yourself, are your employees prep...

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...even better, while failing to meet an unrealistic goal will be disruptive and will make them less inclined to

set goals next time.

(A = Attainable) When setting a goal the employee should ask themselves, “Am I going to achieve this goal?” “What steps do I need to take?” Assessing these issues will become the basis for the action plan to realize your goals. The goal would be challenging but at the same time be attainable.

(R = Relevant) This is a crucial step in the formation of goals. Here lies the step in which the employee develops their goals to be fundamentally relative to overall business success. The employee must believe that their goals are worthwhile. Before the employee commits to the goal, they should check its value against the goals set forth by the company.

(T = Time Bound) Set an attainable, yet challenging deadline for each goal and check your progress at intervals to gauge your success. An easier way to do such is by finding ways to break up your deadlines to make them easier to reach. This can help both the employee’s goal setting and the manager’s time management skills.