4 important ways goal setting isn’t just about goal setting

?If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else

-Yogi Berra

What more appropriate quote for this topic as baseball spring training slowly starts rolling with pitchers and catchers reporting to training camps last week, analogous to the renewed plans and goals many organizations like my own are embarking upon for the year.?

As a leader, you know the importance of setting clear and realistic goals for your organization.? In the customer and product support space, teams that are engaged and empowered around common goals are the fuel for high velocity service operations muscle .?

But setting goals is much more than just picking outcomes and attaching targets.? Well-defined, mutually crafted goals serve to define clear directional outcomes for a team and help individuals understand their purpose within the organization. Research has shown that when employees feel an ownership in setting goals, they tend to feel more connected to their organization.? The correlation between personal goals and the greater organizational purpose also instills a profound sense of ownership- team members ?understand how their contributions directly impact the organization’s success and how they are vital components of a larger purpose.

Done collaboratively, thoughtfully and well, goal setting with your team will:

Increase engagement: Employees who are engaged in defining their goals feel valued and respected by their managers and peers, and have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and how they can get there.

Improve intrinsic performance: They are also more likely to deliver high-quality results and exceed expectations through a sense of autonomy and accountability, and -with regular feedback and recognition- higher confidence and morale.

Enable more meaningful collaboration: Teams with a shared understanding of the organization’s objectives and their individual alignment with them are able to collaborate and communicate more effectively with their colleagues and stakeholders. ?We all know the direction we’re rowing, so there’s more clarity about mutual success.

Reduced turnover: Individuals also feel feel a stronger sense of belonging and attachment, appreciating the growth and development opportunities that goal setting provides and increasing their ambition to advance their careers within the organization.

With clear goals driving great team alignment, it'll be time to play ball! ?

?If you’re looking for good inspiration and resources around collaborative team goal setting, this article may be helpful: How Leaders Use The Power Of Goal Alignment (Forbes)

About me: I am a results driven customer support leader, passionate about customer experience and customer support as core to the product value proposition, who builds and leads high performance support organizations for new products/channels, scales organizational capabilities for in-place teams, and innovates support strategy for growing products and companies.

[email protected] | www.dhirubhai.net/in/robarmstrongpm/