Setting goals is essential for successful business development. A competent leader should be able to set the bar, convey them to his employees and monitor the implementation. A correctly formulated goal is the basis of the final result.
Setting Goals
The work goal set by the leader is a task that employees must strive to achieve. As mentioned above, the director must be able to correctly set out the goals, otherwise a completely opposite result may be obtained than was originally intended.
Smart goals
A correctly formulated goal must meet smart criteria. If you look at the English dictionary, it reads: smart translates as "smart."
Smart goals involve several criteria:
- Specificity.
- Measurability.
- Reachability.
- Significance.
- Correlation with a certain period.
This is how the criteria of a correctly formulated goal in business look. Now about each of them in more detail.
Specificity
Specific means "specificity" in translation from English. When the leader sets the task for the contractor, the final result of the work is formed in his head. It often happens that the director’s vision does not coincide with how his subordinate understands the task. The result is a completely different result than required by the leader. He begins to blame the performer, not thinking that he himself is wrong.
The statement of the problem requires specifics. For example, a manager wants to receive a report on accounts payable to a client. He gives the task to the contractor, without specifying what exactly needs to be done. The subordinate does a lot of work, getting a report on the customer’s sales volume at the exit. The manager did not get what he needed at all. Setting the task, he had to say: I need a report on accounts payable of this client. But the director vaguely formulated the ultimate goal: I need a report on such a client.
Measurability
How to correctly formulate a goal in business, we described above. Now we are talking about its five main criteria, the second of which is measurability. By it is meant the determination of how much the goal has been achieved.
Measurability criteria are as follows:
- Percentages and ratios. For example, a goal was set to increase sales by 50%. A detailed analysis of the level of its achievement revealed that sales increased by 30%. The goal is gradually achieved, most of the work is completed.
- Assessment from the side. They are guided by a criterion when they wish to increase the level of service of a company. For example, a positive customer review about the taste of ordered pizza will be an objective assessment from the outside.
- The frequency of what is happening. Again, an example on pizza: the presence of regular customers testifies to the quality service.
- Time for which it is necessary to achieve the goal. An example is a 50% increase in sales in three months.
- Bans. They are useful in rare cases, but are necessary. Store employees are systematically late for work, which is why they do not have time to prepare the windows for opening. Delays are prohibited, impose penalties on the perpetrators.
- Compliance with corporate standards. How many companies, so many standards of how work should be done.
Reachability
How to formulate goals and objectives for employees as a leader? There are several criteria, we talked about two above. Now we will talk about reachability. What should be the director of the company guided by when he decides to make adjustments to its work and set new tasks for his subordinates? Readers will be surprised, but the main focus is on employees. The leader must understand who is capable of what, for it is foolish to demand from a non-initiative worker to reach for the stars.
There are several types of employees:
- Ambitious and experienced.
- Experienced and proactive, there are ambitions, but in moderation.
- Experienced, loving routine and stability.
- Experienced, with a lack of initiative, a fear of innovation.
- Recently come to the company.
For each of them there is a bar that a person is able to fulfill. Below are a few options for trims for each type of employee:
- Gradual increase. Suitable for beginners and coward workers. Let them try their hand, and the leader oversees their abilities.
- An increase in the result of activity by 50% of course possible. The method is suitable for experienced employees who can hardly tolerate changes in the workflow. They will resist, of course, but competence will allow you to complete the task.
- Improving performance by 80-90% of the course possible. Experienced and proactive, but slightly ambitious, staff members will be happy with this task.
- The goal is higher than the possible end result. There are experienced and very ambitious people in the team. Such a task is a challenge to their skills.
Relevance
The last criterion in order to answer the question of how to formulate the goal. When setting a task for an employee, the manager must convey its importance in terms of higher goals.
Formulation of goals in pedagogy
How to correctly formulate the purpose of the lesson for the teacher? Break the wording into several levels:
- Introducing students to the material.
- Identification of knowledge deposited in their heads through retelling, examinations, essays, depending on the age of the students and their skills.
- Learning the necessary skills and abilities to solve a particular problem.
Here's how to correctly formulate the goals and objectives of the lesson that serve for the development of students.
The formulation of goals in psychology
Psychology states that the achievement of goals depends on their proper setting. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the difference between desire and purpose.
Desire is an intermediate between simple desire and balanced choice. Its main characteristics:
- The realization that a person wants to receive.
- Having an idea about the implementation of the desired. How will an individual act to get what he wants.
- Reflections on motivation. A person wonders why he needs what he wants.
The goal is a real object that a person wants to possess, and performs actions for this.
Here are the signs of a goal:
- The desired item has a shape. That is, a person does not just dream about a car, he means a specific brand.
- If an individual is asked why he needs a car, he will be able to accurately answer this question. As can be seen from this, the motivation is clearly formulated.
- Concrete steps are taken to achieve the goal. An individual does not just dream about a car; he takes a loan to buy it, for example.
End justifies the means?
With how to correctly formulate the goal, we figured out. Is she always justified?
It all depends on the ways to achieve the task and its final result. Let's go back to the car example. An individual needs an executive car. Such a means of transportation is expensive, a person receives a small salary. By his own efforts, he can save up on the desired brand, but this will last for decades.
An individual decides on a loan to buy a car. He draws it up without calculating possible options for the future. For example, a person over 45 years old, he takes several million from a bank. For a period of ten years is a rather long time, during which many changes can occur with the economy of our country. Age contributes to poor health, which can fail a person and lose his job. And the most important question: why do you need such an expensive car for an ordinary worker? She does not emphasize his high status, which is absent. The point is to satisfy their own ambitions, hardly worth a long-term loan. In this situation, the means to achieve the goal do not correspond to its final result.
Conclusion
Proper setting of goals and a thoughtful approach to their implementation are required both in life and in work. Without this, one cannot achieve what one intended.