Personal vs. business goals

One more thing you need to consider when setting “S.M.A.R.T.*” goal for your team: their personal goals and preferences.
*(S-Specific, M-Measurable, A-Achievable, R-Realistic, T-Time-bound)

Whether you are a team leader of a small team or a CEO of a big corporation you always have to think in terms of multiples: multiple personalities, multiple tasks, multiple interconnections etc. You always have to be aware of all the diversity aspects you have among your employees. There are no clones, so no matter how similar your team members may be, you will always have to consider certain level of diversity, in every dimension.

In this article I will give a short overview on what to take into consideration when setting the goals for your employees. As well as how to think about the diversity of goals that are present in your team and dimensions about which you have to think when setting those goals. The more levels of reporting structure you have, the more diversity you have to include in setting your team’s (company’s) goals.

Corporate goals
Corporate goals are usually straightforward to set. Each company has its targets and goals given by its owners and those are derived from the strategy company has chosen. Once you have corporate goals set, you need to break them down into division, department, group etc. goals. Each business unit is assigned its goals. This is a comprehensive task that needs to be done properly, with lots of preparation and planning. The larger the organization, the more comprehensive and exhausting this work can be.

But the real deal comes when each of those managers leading a division, department, group etc. has to set the goals for its subordinates, the individual employee goals. Again, it is rather easy to set goals that are aligned with the corporate goals you were given from your superiors. In setting those goals it is just lowering the division goals one level below and cascading it through the organization. But the difficult part here is when you have to align those goals with the personal goals and personal preferences of each employee.

Personal goals
Sure, you can say: “I do not care what my employee’s personal preferences and goals are, he/she is here to do what they have to do and what I tell them to do.”

Well, you can do it that way, but that will certainly not result in the maximum or even optimal, or hardly any productive and motivated employee.

In my experience the best employees are those whose business (or career) goals are aligned with their personal goals. Those personal goals can also be diverse and on many levels, for example “career goals” (which are then still “business” goals in some sense) or even pure “lifestyle” or “life stage” goals. For example someone wants to work only part-time as they are working on their PhD or a book or are having significant projects in their family life.

Typical career goals aligned with business goals would be putting a young and ambitious manager that wants to advance on a challenging and important project. This type of project may require more than usual levels of effort to be put into it, longer working hours or more travel. On the other hand such project will give a visibility and high learning curve to the young and ambitious manager. If you put this young manager on such task his/her motivation will be high and they will give their maximum. If on the other hand you give them easy tasks that do not occupy their full time and engagement, they will not only be very frustrated, but will most likely not even complete the task as they are supposed to and very likely will leave the company.

On the other hand, if you have an experienced expert who, for example, values the fact that he/she wants to be able to always leave “on time”, align his/her goals with that fact and find for them such roles where they can be useful the most while still respecting their aspirations.

Of course, always take into consideration meritocracy principles, as each level of job difficulty as well as contribution to the company’s bottom line need to be justly measured and rewarded.

Conclusion
Although it may seem trivial, I find it important to keep repeating the opinion stated in this post, as we often tend to forget it and we try to force certain task to employees that do not want them or cannot do them. It is important that the employees’ personal goals are aligned with their corporate and business goals. Only in that way you will be able to have the maximum engagement of those employees and they will be maximally motivated.