How to Set Annual Goals (Part 2 of 3)
January 6th, 2008In this cast, we continue our conversation on setting annual goals.
Last week we discussed our general thoughts on Goals, and particularly our thinly-veiled disdain for SMART goals. Today, we continue our conversation and discuss our core rules for setting goals.
Next week, we’ll conclude the series with our story of “John and the Gate Guards.”
Extra Content
Legend: 
Members-Only 
Premium 
Interviewing Series
Members-Only Premium Interviewing Series
Stumble it!Trackback URL for this post: http://www.manager-tools.com/2008/01/how-to-set-annual-goals-part-2-of-3/trackback/
January 8th, 2008 at 2:23 am
The use of MT goals is awesome in the way it ties into your advice of updating your MT based resume every quarter. It puts an added focus of making sure you are on track throughout the year.
Keep it up!
Bill Ramos
January 9th, 2008 at 2:00 am
You guys are so awesome…I am a chiropractor and partner in a small business. I have done some very expensive leadership training in the last two years and what you offer is far superior. I work out and listen to you several times per week. I actually catch myself saying “What would Mark and Mike do?” Some of the Corporate structure stuff goes beyond me, but learning how it’s done is helpful-your cast about compensation was eye opening for me.
Finally, I finish our staff meeting with a Manager Tools bit of wisdom each week. My staff loves it…
Regards,
Cheri Carlson, DC
January 10th, 2008 at 2:31 am
I am going through a goal setting process with my staff and City Council. The MT Goal direction comes “just in time” to be a great help.
Larry Paine
January 10th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Larry-
Well done you sir. And be cautious. I have done this before with elected officials, and it is much heavier lifting than in a corporate setting.
Mark
January 10th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I think you guys need a challenge. How does the “MT” goals work in a church setting? I am an Army chaplain where measuring results is a bit more challenging. I appreciate your input.
-Jim+
January 10th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Fr Jim-
Happy to help, though our expertise is management…we’re just regular Army sinners here.
What kind of areas do you want to address?
Mark
January 11th, 2008 at 11:18 am
The difficulty with goal-setting in ministry is measuring results. Attendance, offerings, and responses to appeals are easy. How does one quantify the REAL important part of clergy work - spiritual change and growth in the individual?
My bias is that ministry needs better management, so having you all comment is exactly what I need.
Thanks for your insights.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
As always, this is a great pod cast. You are dead on about people creating goals with “escape hatches” built-in. I’ve seen goals created by true masters of the craft. I have always recommended your pod cast to my peers and directs. The MT Goal cast is one that I am loaning out my I-Pod and insisting my team listen to.
One concerned I have was Mike’s example of zero “Trouble Tickets” as a goal. I’m interested in how he maintained his teams focus on achieving a goal after the first Trouble Ticket? When trouble ticket No. 1 popped up didn’t the members of your team realize the goal as lost? What strategy did you employ to them focused on the goal after it became unachievable?
Keep up the great work.
January 11th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Brian,
I’m sorry I wasn’t clear. The organization I took over had an *inventory* of over 600 troubles tickets — and had for almost 5 years. It had been in a state of clients opening a new ticket for every one resolved/closed. So, we didn’t have the issue you described as we were working down from the 654.
However, you raise an excellent point — How do you set goals of ZERO without completely destroying morale when the goal is blown, potentially in the first week!!??? First, there are many cases where I will simply, without hesitation, set a goal of ZERO. Is there a risk? Yes. Does it require judgement? Yes. Sorry, we haven’t figured out how to eliminate the managerial requirement for judgement. But, assuming that this is one of those cases I want a little wiggle room, here’s a technique I’ve used.
Assuming I have a goal of zero and although I believe the goal is realistic (ok, let’s don’t go down the SMART argument here [grin]), I also realize the because of sheer randomness, it is possible that I get one bad sample, effectively ruining the chances of achieving the goal. HOWEVER, I don’t want to set a Goal of “1″ … I get no emotional juice from that. So, I will set a goal that sounds like, “Produce 0 mold defects in 11 of the next 12 months.” So, essentially, we end up resetting the clock every month. If we blow it one month, we acknowledge our mistakes, assess what we’ll do differently, and start over. If I was less aggressive, or the problem more intractable, I might set a goal of “10 of 12 months” … you get the point.
Mike
January 11th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Mike,
Thanks for this explanation as it helps answer my post under part I.
regards, TD
January 12th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I’m a regular listener and am enjoying the premium content as well. I’m always looking to improve and these are great resources to support me. Keep up the great work!
I am looking for the link between goals and performance rating. I’ve searched the site, but having difficulty finding it.
Our process at a high level is as follows:
- Set goals and select behaviors for each role at the beginning of the year. Goals are each designated with a weighting.
- Review and give feedback throughout the year
- Staff does self evaluation against goals and behaviors at end of year
- Manager does evaluation on each goal and behavior. Performance rating is calculated by using each goal or behavior rating x weighting. Scores map to categories such as Needs Development, Meets Expectations, Meets Plus, Exceeds.
- Calibration process ranks staff in similar roles with their overall ratings (Meets, Exceeds, etc). These dscussions focus on overall expectations of each role.
- Managers with calibration changes go back and adjust individual goal/behavior ratings to score within agreed upon overall rating.
That last step can be a challenge and I believe it will get harder as we get better at doing MT goals and there is less subjectivity. I would love to understand the Manager Tools approach to performance rating and how goals and calibration play into it.
Thanks,
John
January 14th, 2008 at 5:33 am
fr_jim
I’d start by reading Peter Drucker on Managing Non-profits. He’s likely to give you a whole new perspective on whatever it is you are interested in. If you haven’t read any of his material yet it’s worth every page.
However on the spiritual formation and change part it’s a bit more difficult. Without turning the wonderful Manager-Tools posts into theological comment here is a few brief thoughts.
You need to decide what the goal is. The goal of traditional Christianity is to love God with your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself. While it is hard to make these measurable these are still things you can coach people in this (see M-T on coaching). Another goal is to make disciples. This is perhaps easier to measure. Are your efforts realising this goal? Do the people you minister to take the message on themselves? The ideal end product is a person who is not only a disciple but a person that seeks to replicate themselves. The big issue is that since much of Christianity is individual, while you can manage a church well using the M-T material, much depends on the individual. A year-long goal with one individual may just be measured as giving up some bitterness towards another, while success in another might be that they learn to invest in other people. I’d recommend reading The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman.
It is interesting that a few posts ago that Mark (or was it Mike) said that if they could teach only one thing for the rest of their lives it would be one-to-ones. I agree that this is vital. I work with a student discipleship ministry and our main focus is one-to-ones and coaching. The management trinity (with its silent partner) are crucial in management and Christianity.
In conclusion, sorry I’ve meandered, goals often depend on the individual
but one-to-ones and coaching are still the bedrock of investing in people for the long term.
My e-mail is lincolnrozelle@gmail.com if you wanted to discuss this further.
Have a great 2008!
Lincoln
p.s. Apologies to anyone who would prefer the religious chat kept to a minimum.
January 14th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
As it is posted today, the mp3 has only 58 seconds
How can I download the entire podcast?
January 14th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
aurelbadea,
You are most likely suffering from an incomplete download being stuck in your browser cache … here’s a link to a conversation on the discussion forums that you may find useful: http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2473
Mike