Reaffirm goals before year end reviews

So much has changed in our home and work lives these last months. Few of us are working on initiatives that were launched at the beginning of the year.  But in the chaos we’ve experienced, have you taken time to reaffirm the goals and commitments of your team?  Performance-based cultures are driven by clear goal articulation and then celebrate goal accomplishments. Leaders are responsible for establishing, and when necessary, updating a work group’s performance goals and then tying them to the larger organizational mission. 

Leaders who do this well,

·        Work with their team to clearly articulate objectives, define targets for achieving objectives and timelines

·        Engage their team to adopt performance objectives and truly listen to concerns about timelines or resource constraints.

·        Regularly check in with each team member on progress of goals and discuss barriers to success.

·        Activity remove barriers to success for team members.

·        When necessary, update or adjust goals when market conditions evolve and communicate revisions to team members.

·        Explain the “why” behind a goal and how it connects to departmental or organizational targets.

When employees have clear or updated performance goals, they have a compass to guide their independent work.  Understanding the “why” behind deadlines fosters a shared ownership. Explaining how the work fits into the broader organizational goals drives insights and deeper connection to the broader whole. 

Want to develop a performance culture on your team, even in a rapidly changing environment, build a shared mindset in your staff: 

Foster question-asking before they’re stuck. Leave time for questions at the end of every meeting.  Respond quickly to questions and suggestions raised in staff emails.  Provide context by reminding team members how their project connects to the organization’s strategy.

Encourage debriefs of major projects, milestones or deliverables. Applying lessons learned in new and different situations is called learning agility. The first step is to use three simple debrief questions: What went well? Where did we get stuck? What should we do differently next time? Encourage your team to discuss completed projects. Keep notes on these discoveries. Implement changes now, and then review the notes regularly to identify patterns, trends and options that might be useful later.

Share the organization’s strategy continuously. This is not a one and done exercise.  Update your team when you have information or put their questions in a broader organizational context.  Share industry trends from trade journals, TED talks, or your favorite podcast. 

Celebrate progress regularly. Take time to recognize accomplishments privately or publicly. 

Find a simple, repeatable formats to communicate progress on accomplishments and risks weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.