CHAPTER 1

Using This Book to Write Better Performance Goals

Before we start you on the path to writing better performance goals, and beforewe explain how to use this book to help improve both individual work performanceand overall performance of your work unit or company, we need to placeperformance goals within the business and management context and examine whyit's important to take the time to establish performance goals for employees.

No. Scratch that. Important isn't the right word. Crucial, critical, andessential are better. If you want better employee performance, engaged staff,higher productivity, and, believe it or not, better morale, you MUST haveemployees who understand what constitutes their jobs, what they need to achieve,and the levels of achievement needed. Goals and objectives do all that.

Wait, we're jumping ahead.

After all, if you don't see the sense or value in working with employees to setgoals, it's not likely you're going to do it.

What Are Performance Goals Used For?

There's a popular misconception that the way to improve performance, whether onan individual basis or for a work unit, is to appraise and evaluate it after thefact. You're probably familiar with the performance appraisal process that isoften used once a year. You know the one. It's the time of the year wheremanagers and employees would rather crawl across cut glass than meet to do theappraisals.

Eventually, if nagged enough, manager and employee sit down to discuss andevaluate performance for the past year, or at least the employee's performance.Forms are used to record the conversation and convince everyone that somethingvaluable is going on. They don't convince anyone.

Sometimes the process goes smoothly and sometimes not. More often than not, theappraisal meetings do little to meet the needs of employee or manager, andneither considers them helpful. Or worse, they dread them. Mostly they dreadthem.

The performance appraisal can be valuable, but not as a stand-alone process. Infact, the many benefits of managing and appraising performance are lost whenmanagers focus solely on the appraisal process as the end point. It's likedriving while looking in the rearview mirror: you see what's already past andbeyond your control.

If we want to improve performance, we need a forward-looking process toprevent performance problems. We need a forward-looking process toharness and coordinate the work of individual employees so we increase theeffectiveness of the work unit and the company in general. After all, that'swhat we really want—for each employee to contribute to the effectivenessof the whole and, to whatever extent possible, to have everyone win: themanager, the work unit and company, and, most of all, the employee. When theperformance management is used to help the employee "win," everyone ends upwinning.

The secret of success—for organizations, managers, and employees—isto put more emphasis on making sure employees and managers know what needs to beaccomplished in the present and future. When an employee understands what he orshe needs to do to succeed, it's much easier to contribute. It's also mucheasier for managers to do their jobs, to improve productivity, and to manageproactively, rather than spend time stamping out small fires after the fact.Clear purpose helps everyone succeed, and, bottom line, that's what we all want.

Enter performance goals. Like the bull's-eye on an archery target, performancegoals specify what the employee needs to aim at. Let's look at how they canhelp.

For the Organization

To succeed, organizations need to be able to coordinate the work of individualemployees and work units, so that everyone is pulling in the same direction.Performance goals provide the foundation to allow this kind of coordination tooccur.

The process of setting individual performance goals provides the mechanism fortranslating the goals of the organization as a whole into smaller chunks thatare then assigned or delegated to individual employees. That's necessary becauseorganizations achieve their overall goals to the extent that each employee doeshis or her part in completing the right job tasks in effective ways.

For the Manager

It's easy to think about performance management and goal setting as "overhead."In a world where many managers are exceedingly busy, there's a tendency to thinkthat performance management and goal setting are ways to create more worthlesspaper that has little to do with the manager's success.

That's not true. Yes, the process takes time and effort. What's easy to miss isthat goal setting is an investment that pays off through higher productivity.Let's look at how properly set goals help managers.

First, most managers want employees to do their jobs with a minimum of directsupervision. Employees who require constant guidance and direction eat up a lotof managerial time, not to mention patience. Where do performance goals fit?

When an employee knows what he or she needs to accomplish and what is expected,it's a lot easier for that employee to work with minimal supervision. Also,helping employees understand how their individual work contributes to theoverall goals of the organization enables them to make better decisions on howto spend their time so that their work is consistent with the priorities of theorganization.

The result? Employees know what they must do, how well they must do it, and whythey are doing it. That means there's much less need for ongoing supervision.Also, clear performance goals allow managers to empower their staff to makedecisions relevant to their work without having to consult the manager on everylittle question. For those of you who are believers in the "employee engagementmovement" you'll also recognize that clear goals, through creating empoweredemployees, encourage employees to find meaning in their work and increase theirengagement.

Second, clear goals allow employees to monitor their own progress year-round andcorrect their efforts as necessary. If employees know what they need toaccomplish, they can look at their results as they go and identify barriers toachieving those goals AT THE TIME. Once again, this ability to self-monitor andself-correct means less managerial time is needed to supervise and guideemployees.

Third, the performance appraisal/review becomes much easier, causes far lessanxiety, and goes much faster when there are clear performance goals. In fact,the better the performance goals, the clearer they are, and the more measurablethey are, the less managers and employees have to venture into the realm ofvague opinions about performance during the appraisal process. Combine this withthe fact that performance goals allow employees to monitor both their effortsand results throughout the year and we get an appraisal process that is muchmore effective and yields no surprises for the employee.

Finally, let's consider the value of performance goals in helping to proactivelyidentify barriers to performance. It does little good to identify poorperformance after the fact or after it has affected the organization. Clearperformance goals make it much easier to monitor performance throughout the yearand catch situations where performance may be veering off course. What followsis a diagnostic process in which employee and manager can figure out what mightbe causing performance deficits and take action early. In other words, the goalsserve as the basis for an "early warning system," because they are specificenough to allow employee and manager to gauge progress all year long.

For the Employee

Most employees want and need to know four things about their work so they cancontribute and feel comfortable about where they are in the organization:

* What do I need to accomplish?

* Why am I doing what I'm doing?

* How well must I do it?

* How am I doing?

Job descriptions are of some help in outlining what an employee needs toaccomplish, but they usually don't specify the "how well" part. They are oftenout of date. Performance appraisals can provide information about how anemployee is doing, but they are usually not done often enough to provide enoughinformation.

Ideally, performance goals specify what employees need to do and how well thework should be done. They are more specific than job descriptions and are basedon what an employee actually does, not on what the job description says theemployee does. This helps the employee have a better understanding of his or herjob. That's always a good thing. The more an employee understands the job, themore likely he or she can contribute.

Of course, employees want to know how they are doing. As we mentioned earlierregarding the organization and the manager, clear performance goals helpemployees to monitor their efforts and assess their results during the year andprovide a basis for performance appraisals and reviews. The goals can also serveas a basis for ongoing discussion between manager and employee or, for thatmatter, among employees, aimed at improving work contributions. Employees canreceive recognition for accomplishments throughout the year, since it's easy toidentify when an employee has met or exceeded a performance goal.

The bottom line here is that performance goals help employees know where theyneed to go and what they need to do to get there, and they help them determinehow they're doing.

Where Do Performance Goals Come From?

Performance goals don't appear out of the blue, and they aren't created fromnothing. Where do they come from?

Since performance goals are used to coordinate and aim employees so they cancontribute to organizational performance, they need to link to the goals of theorganization. Performance goals can't result in better performance unless theyare derived from the goals and priorities of the work unit and the company. Werecommend that performance goals be based upon the needs of the organization.That's where they must originate to be most effective. (In the next chapter,we'll map out the sequence that links individual goals to organizational goals.)

It's not uncommon for managers to pull or generate performance goals from jobdescriptions. That's not a good idea.

Job descriptions are notorious for being out of date and far too general toprovide meaningful yearly goals for employees. Also, they do not take intoaccount the individual strengths and weaknesses of any particular employee,since they don't describe people, but positions. Job descriptions may be usefulas background material for setting goals, but keep in mind that it's quitepossible, and even desirable, for different people in the same position, withthe same job description, to have different goals that take into account theirunique strengths and capabilities.

Finally, individual performance goals develop from corporate goals throughdiscussion and dialogue between the manager and each employee. The goals are setand negotiated individually and collaboratively. They are not imposed, dictated,or "given" to the employee. Why? Here are the main reasons:

1. Most employees—those who have been in their positions for awhile—know how they can best contribute. They know their jobs and how wellthey need to do them. Employees are in the best positions to set their owngoals.

2. Since we want employees to buy into the goals and treat them as relevant andimportant, they need to participate in developing the goals that apply to them.When people are active participants in setting goals, they tend to work harderto achieve them, since they have a feeling of ownership.

3. Performance goals, by themselves, are important, but so are the discussionsthat generate them. As you will see later, the discussion between manager andemployee serves many purposes, the least of which involves writing down goals.The discussion helps employees understand where they fit in the organization andprovides meaning and context for their work. It helps employees understand theimportance and larger purpose of their work. We know that when employees feeltheir work has meaning, they tend to be much more motivated and diligent intheir efforts to achieve those goals.

So, to summarize, performance goals are based on the needs of the organizationand are generated through discussion and dialogue with employees. If you skip orgloss over the dialogue, the process becomes less meaningful and more a paperchase.

How to Use This Book

Developing performance goals isn't easy. It requires an investment of time andeffort by the manager and each employee. The purpose of this book is to make theprocess a bit shorter, less frustrating, and easier for all parties.

The book is organized into two parts. The first part is this one. READ IT! Don'tsimply assume that you know what's in the first part, since it's absolutelycritical that you understand the details of performance goals and goal setting.We'll provide those to you and map out how to go about setting goals so theywork and how to go about using the goals you've set.

Once you've read this first part, you'll be ready to make use of the goalphrases in this book. You can use it in several ways.

First, you can use the statements in this book "as is," to the extent that theyfit your situation. We've tried to generate goal phrases that will fit a widevariety of jobs and job responsibilities, and we've categorized them to makethem easy to find. However, you must make sure that the goals you use reflectyour situation; your company; and the needs of company, management, andemployee. That means you may need to customize extensively.

Second, you may find that one of the strengths of this book is that it canstimulate employee and management thinking about goal setting. These phrasesprovide good starting points for reflection and discussion. Just keep in mindthe point—performance improvement and coordination.

Generally, it's a good idea to read relevant parts of this book prior to sittingdown with employees to set goals. Before meeting with each employee, take a fewminutes to go through the sections you think are relevant to him or her, andtake note or jot down any goals you think may be applicable.

Consider sharing the book with employees beforehand. To reduce the time youspend in goal-setting meetings, provide a copy of this book to the employee andask him or her to go through and identify a certain number of goals—let'ssay, 10–15—that might fit his or her job. This will work only if theemployee understands the job well and also understands where your work unit andcompany are going in the next year, so consider spending a few minutes with theemployee before the goal-setting meeting to discuss those issues.

What's Next?

Now that we've covered some of the basics, we'll guide you step by step throughthe goal-setting process and provide you with valuable suggestions for ensuringthat everyone benefits from the investment in goal setting. As you go throughthe book, remember this: Every minute you spend in setting proper goals andobjectives with your employees is going to be returned to you over and overthroughout the year by removing the need for strict supervision, increasedemployee engagement, and reducing the time you spend during performanceappraisals. Goal setting saves time. Invest in it!

Setting Performance Goals That Work

What are performance goals? Different people use different terminology, likeperformance objectives, or standards of performance, which have slightlydiffering meanings but have in common some central aspects. All of thesedescribe what an employee needs to achieve in order to contribute to the overallsuccess of his or her organization. Usually the statements describe the resultsan employee is to create rather than specify how the result is to be obtained,but there are numerous exceptions to this rule. If an employee achieves thegoals or exceeds them, he or she is doing well. If not, then it's important todiscover why the shortfall occurred and take remedial action.

Specific and Measurable Goals? A Balancing Act

Despite the rhetoric of "experts" there is no one "right" format for performancegoals except to observe this:

The right format for performance goals is that which allows you tocoordinate employee work, improve productivity and effectiveness, and reducemisunderstandings about what is expected.

There are formats and ways of writing goals so they tend to be more useful, butwording performance goals is often a balancing act. Ideally, performance goalsshould be as specific as possible. The more specific a goal is, the more likelythe employee and the manager will have a common, shared understanding about whatit means. That's important.

An example might help. Consider this phrasing:"Ensure that all work is doneproperly." This is an example of an exceedingly vague goal. It will mostcertainly mean different things to different people. When the time comes todiscuss or evaluate progress toward the achievement of this goal, thesedifferences in understanding will cause conflict. This goal is simply toogeneral.

(Continues...)