If you own a business, you want your team to hit the ground running as soon as the new year begins.
And if you want to make sure that happens, you can’t wait until the spring to set business goals, define accountabilities, or decide how you’re going to evaluate your employees – you need to do it now before it’s too late.
This way, everyone on your team will be on the same page about the goals of the business, what they’re going to be held accountable for, and how they’re going to be assessed, and this will make it that much easier to attain the goals you’ve set out to achieve.
Now, this might seem pretty overwhelming, and I can’t say I blame you.
The fact of the matter is most business owners don’t meet all the goals they set out to achieve.
For example, in a survey of small business owners from Clutch, nearly 65 percent of respondents said they met more than half of their goals in the last year, but only 5 percent were able to achieve all of their goals.
That’s pretty dismal in my humble opinion. Can you imagine a doctor only performing the right medical procedure five percent of the time?
The survey also pointed out that while 77 percent of respondents are somewhat or very confident in their ability to achieve their goals, 95 percent are still unable to meet all of them.
So, as you can see, it’s not enough to just set business goals and be confident in your ability to achieve them.
Being able to move all your goals past the finish line requires proper planning, and a committed team that knows what your strategic goals are and their role in helping you achieve them.
So, if you’re looking to set business goals for 2023 before it’s too late, and you want to learn more about what you’ve got to do to reach them, then you’ve got to keep reading.
Because in this article, I’m going to explain how to set business goals, while ensuring every member of your team fully understands what those goals are, and what they’re going to have to do to help you achieve them.
Why Is Now the Best Time to Set Business Goals?
As I said above, if you want to stand a chance of reaching your business goals over the next year, you can’t wait to set those goals – you’ve got to do it now while we are still early in the first quarter.
But why is it so important to set business goals at this time of the year?
Well, first of all, it gives you a clear picture of where you want your business to go, providing the perspective you need to define each and every aspect of what it’s going to take to reach those goals.
And secondly, if employees understand what your goals are, buy into your strategic vision, and know what’s in it for them, then they can and will help you get there.
This allows your employees to see the big picture of where you want to take your business over the next year, gets them excited about working toward those goals, and helps to encourage greater collaboration between colleagues, as everyone knows what they’re responsible for before too much time has elapsed.
But if you don’t have clear goals, don’t communicate them to your employees in a way that’s easy to understand, or wait until the middle of the year to tell them what they are, then how can you expect them to have any success in helping you to achieve those goals?
That being said, what better time is there to explain all these things than now?
How to Set Business Goals
To many of you, this might seem pretty straightforward, but truth be told, it can be very intimidating.
There are a plethora of things to consider, tons of interrelated aspects, and it’s really easy to overlook something.
But although it can be overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. You just need to think about where you want your business to be a year from now and consider what you and your team will have to do to make that happen.
And remember, these goals shouldn’t be too overwhelming or unrealistic, but they also have to be significant enough to make a difference and be worth working toward.
If they’re too easy, then they’re probably not worth putting too much effort into, and you and your team will underperform. If they’re too difficult, they’re going to seem impossible, and you and your team will be more likely to give up, so you need to try to find that balance.
So, if you’re looking to set business goals, here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Where am I spending a lot of money without being profitable?
- How can I put those funds to better use elsewhere?
- How much money do I want my business to bring in next year?
- How much money do I need my business to bring in next year?
- What do I want to achieve this year in terms of my own personal/professional development?
- What personal/professional development goals do I want my employees to achieve this year?
This list could literally go on forever, but at this point, I think you can tell where I’m going with it.
That being said, I also want to explore one of my favorite goal-setting methods, which involves what are known as SMART goals.
What Are SMART Goals?
The term SMART goals refers to a method of goal setting that looks at goals through the lens of five different kinds of criteria, in an effort to ensure that the goals you’re setting are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
SMART goals are great for anyone who wants to set business goals because they focus on the results you’re looking to achieve, so they’re more inspiring, and at the same time, they’re designed to promote a clear, mutual understanding of the goal in question, and what kind of performance and/or professional development will be required of each person involved in order to attain that goal.
This makes it much easier for a team of people to achieve a goal, as it allows the entire team to understand the results that goal will deliver, and what they and their colleagues will need to do to bring it to fruition.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at each aspect of SMART goals, so you can have a better idea of how to make use of this method when you set business goals.
Specific
This aspect aims to ensure that the goal you’re setting is specific enough for everyone to understand it, and know what they’re going to have to do to contribute to the achievement of that goal. This means that each team member will need to come up with their own goals in order to support the business’ strategic goals.
Here are some questions to ask yourself in terms of the specificity of your goal:
- What am I trying to accomplish with this goal?
- Why is this goal important?
- Who will be involved in helping to achieve this goal?
- What will I/they have to do in order to make this happen?
Measurable
The point of this aspect is to ensure you and your team understand the metrics that will be used to determine whether you’ve achieved your goal or not.
Here are some questions to ask yourself if you want to ensure your goal is measurable:
- How will I and my team know when this goal has been accomplished? What are the success metrics?
- Which indicators will we look for when considering the progress and/or success of this goal?
- What kind(s) of data are we going to use to measure this?
- Do we have this data readily available, or will we have to come up with ways to get the baseline and then track progress?
Achievable
This next aspect is meant to motivate everyone by looking at how important a goal is, whether or not it’s doable, and what, if anything, will need to change to make that happen.
Here are some questions to ask yourself if you want to make sure your goal is achievable:
- Do I and my team have the resources and skills required to achieve this goal?
- Do we have the right people assigned to it? If not, how can I choose the right people?
- If the answer is no, then is there a way for me to come up with a solution?
- What’s it going to take so that I and my team are capable of doing this?
- Can this goal be achieved in the desired timeframe?
Relevant
The point of this aspect is to consider whether or not your goal is aligned with where you want your business to be, and relevant to the broader goals of your business.
Here are some questions to ask yourself if you want to determine if your goal is even relevant:
- Why is the result of this goal important?
- Is this something that’s actually worth doing?
- Does it align with my business’ mission, values, and culture?
- Is there any way for this goal to get in the way of my other business goals?
Time-Bound
This aspect aims to create a sense of urgency by setting time constraints and ensuring that the goal you’ve set can be achieved within a realistic amount of time.
Here are some things to ask yourself when setting the time frames of your goals:
- When do I want this goal to be achieved?
- Can I and my team realistically accomplish this in that amount of time?
- How far along will we be after half of the allotted time has passed?
- When will the execution of each part of this goal take place?
How to Explain These Goals to Your Employees
You can set business goals all day long, but if you and your team aren’t on the same page about what those goals are, what’s required to achieve them, and what each person is responsible for doing, then your goals are basically dead in the water before you’ve even started.
So, how can you communicate this stuff to your employees in a way that ensures they’ll understand what’s expected of them, how they’ll be evaluated, and what the outcome of all their hard work will be?
Well, there are several tactics I like to recommend, and they all boil down to communication.
First things first, the head of each department in your company needs to fully understand your goal and determine what will need to be done differently over the next year to ensure that it can actually be achieved.
Once the department heads understand all this, then they can work with their teams to create goals they will be accountable for.
Chances are you’ve got some pretty smart people in these positions, so try to let them tell you what needs to happen to achieve these goals and ask them what support they need from you.
In any case, your managers are going to have to know how to have the right discussions with employees they’re managing, which should entail some sort of casual conversation where these goals are explained, and the employees can help define what they have to do, and what they’re going to get out of it.
That being said, this is a situation where key performance indicators (KPIs) are incredibly important, as this will allow employees to know how they’re being evaluated, what’s expected of them, and what’s in it for them when they do, or don’t, meet these KPIs.
And if you want your employees to stay motivated to work toward whatever goals have been set, then they also need to believe that you’re going to be fair in terms of how you’re evaluating them.
This means you need to be at least somewhat flexible, and you need to be open and honest with employees who may feel like you’re asking too much.
For those who do feel this way, try to sit down with them, hear them out, and be honest about whether or not what you’re asking of them is reasonable.
Regardless of whether they think it is or not, if you maintain that flexibility, you can always adjust the goals when appropriate, and provide further incentive to reach those higher goals.
Last but not least, make sure to have regular meetings with your managers to share important information about upcoming projects, progress toward reaching metrics, and make sure everyone’s on the same page.
The last thing you want to do is wait until the end of the year to find out that your team is confused about what it’s doing, struggling to reach its goals, or wasn’t doing what you asked to begin with.
Do you need someone to help you set business goals, and teach you how to effectively communicate them to your team? Contact us today to find out how we can help you reach your business goals.
Business Leadership, Business Management, Productivity