How to get your team excited about big business goals: 7 important things to do

Many businesses have big dreams and ambitious goals, and so they should. However a common challenge often arises: they can’t quite get everyone on board. Despite their best efforts, their employees just don't seem fully engaged with the company's vision and objectives. The problem? The struggle to set clear goals and translate them into terms that everyone can understand and get excited about.

Picture this scenario

Every Monday morning, the CEO gathers all the employees in the (virtual) conference room for a big announcement. He talks about the company's goals for the upcoming quarter, using lots of fancy words and complex charts. But instead of sparking excitement, his speeches often leave the employees feeling confused and unsure of what is expected of them.

As a result, many employees simply go through the motions, doing their jobs, trying to achieve the set KPI’s, without fully understanding how their work contributes to the company's overall objectives. Some even begin to feel disheartened and disconnected from the company's mission.

Clearly, good intentions don't always yield desired results. So, how can businesses turn the tide?

The solution lies in adopting a different approach to goal-setting and communication – Instead of relying on complicated charts and jargon-filled speeches, break things down into simpler terms that everyone can understand.

Here are 7 important things you can do, to bridge this gap and foster better understanding

• Simplify Goals: ?Start by clearly defining the company's goals in simple, easy-to-understand language. Instead of talking about abstract concepts like "increasing market share" and "maximizing shareholder value," say you want to "make more people happy with our products" and "earn more money to grow the company." Just make sure it is measurable and progress can be shared.
• Use storytelling: Replace long speeches, by communicating the company's goals through short, engaging stories. Use examples that everyone can relate to, like how your new product can help solve everyday problems for customers.
• Visualize how daily tasks contribute: Create charts or an digital dashboard that shows how each department's daily activities contribute to the company's overall goals. Employees can then easily see how their own work fits into the bigger picture, which motivates them to do their best every day. After all who does not want to be part of a winning team?
• Measure What Matters: Identify a few key metrics that are easy to track and understand, like the number of products sold or customer satisfaction ratings, or when you have plans to grow your business, how the numbers increased based on specific activities. Instead of overwhelming employees with too many numbers, focus on the ones that really matter.
• Collaborate: Nurture a collaborative culture by organizing enjoyable team-building exercises and challenges, they can even be linked to your business goal or a learning activity. This will encourage employees from diverse departments to collaborate towards common objectives, fostering unity and teamwork.
• Improve on Feedback: Encourage employees to voice ideas for improving the company. Make sure to listen to everyone's suggestions and agree that they implement the ones that would help the company achieve its goals, or make their work easier.
• Celebrate and Learn: Make a point of celebrating and sharing every success, no matter how small. Whether it is reaching a sales milestone or solving a customer problem, make sure that credit is given to whom it belongs, to recognize and reward employees for their hard work, even the ones that are not that obvious. And when things don’t go as planned, encourage using it as an opportunity to learn and grow together as a team.

By adopting doing these, businesses can create a more engaged workforce, where employees understand their role in achieving strategic success. Believe me, your business and your people will thank you for it.

If reading this article has triggered some questions relating to your situation, feel free to get in touch if you want to discuss how to tackle your own challenges.

I'm available to talk and offer advice suited to your needs. Let's connect and work together to find solutions:

ann.polley@thrivetogether-consulting.com