I worked with a manager once who explained his rationale behind goal-setting: Without goals, no one will do anything! There's no accountability on the team. People don't take their commitments seriously. They give me silly excuses. Whenever I turn around, they are chatting on Slack or on Reddit. I'm not sure what they do all day. It feels like we are going in circles. Without goals, it will be impossible to keep score, and if I need to manage someone out, it will be hard! So yes, goals are important!
Amen to the "goals should do . . . " list. I've found success with goals when I hold quarterly planning and review sessions, and regular (no less frequent than every 2 weeks) 1-1s. And those 1-1s use as their agenda the current quarter's goals. I've put goals into 3 categories: 1) Things I plan to get done; 2) Things I plan to learn or getter better at (knowledge and skills); and, 3) People I plan to work with (create or build a relationship). In the planning session at the start of a quarter, we do a retrospective on the past quarter and then set goals for the next quarter with a healthy dose of realistic expectations. As a manager, I make the commitment to support my direct reports to accomplish the plan we create and hold myself accountable not to do things that would get in the way of their success.
Amen to the "goals should do . . . " list. I've found success with goals when I hold quarterly planning and review sessions, and regular (no less frequent than every 2 weeks) 1-1s. And those 1-1s use as their agenda the current quarter's goals. I've put goals into 3 categories: 1) Things I plan to get done; 2) Things I plan to learn or getter better at (knowledge and skills); and, 3) People I plan to work with (create or build a relationship). In the planning session at the start of a quarter, we do a retrospective on the past quarter and then set goals for the next quarter with a healthy dose of realistic expectations. As a manager, I make the commitment to support my direct reports to accomplish the plan we create and hold myself accountable not to do things that would get in the way of their success.