Setting Business Goals, Measuring Progress and Adjusting Implementation
Business goal is a measurable objective that provides you close to achieving your vision in business. For the business goal to be efficient it should be specific and also have a defined time factor. For example, business manager may strive to raise revenue by 20 per cent in a single year – this is a good example of really efficient business goal.
This goal is quantified, specific and includes a time line. This more efficient than genera goals that are described as statements that have no meaning for employees. Example of poor goal setting is the statement “we need to grow sales”.
Determine your business goals together with the specific jobs to be executed and also provide instructions for identifying if the performance is acceptable. Goal is doable if that includes action word or verb that describes action. When goal is set the right way, it should immediately trigger a way to quantify and measure your results. For example, sales growth can be measured in dollars and percentage growth compared between two different periods.
Gauge the outcomes not just the activities required to be executed by the employees. For example, if the organization wants to improve the revenue, gauge the units the organization has produced and sold.
Set up checks and balances to establish if the defined timeline and execution plan are on track or must be changed based on your strategy. If the organization is achieving the goals even better than expected – change the schedule and adjust the plan to deliver even better results. Evaluate periodically. Depending on your goals and business this might be generally daily or weekly.
Communicate with your employees on how the progress is developing in terms of accomplishing the previously set goals and objectives. In addition, employee feedback and employee appraisals could identify important issues and opportunities.
Pay attention to employee motivation and work with your employees and teams to continuously motivate their performance and encourage creativity and innovation on goal execution.
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