Forums

 Hello fellow goal-oriented managers!

Bluf: goals have demotivated a direct of mine.

And: Dan Pink says: "dont do bonusses all the time" 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_pink_on_motivation.html 

---

The story so far:

We had establishes bonus oriented goals. at the end of the year this direct hast reached two of three goals and he had overachived one goal.

Because we have a kind of matrix organisation although he has worked on the goals in my department another person were responsible for deciding wheter the overachivment could compensate the failure. The decision was: no.

(writing this i realize even more that it is somehow not the best type of organisation, but this is not the point here)

Now this direct says to me: ok, i will not look left or right (a german saying), i will concentrate on this very goal wheter it makes sense or not.

- You have to know that for this person is money oriented.

And: i will not try to overachive another goal.

There are some more aspects but i dont want to make the case more complicated...

 

Questions:

Do you have experience with the factor that goals narrow the focus too much?

And: is it helpfull in any way to change goals in the middle of the year if they appear to be unreachable?

I am looking forward to a helpfull discussion!

-g

jhack's picture

All goals narrow the focus.  It is VERY hard to establish goals that don't work against other behaviors you would like to see.  Well crafted goals are very challenging to create.  If you focus on revenue, margins suffer, and so forth.  

Poorly constructed goals that drive unwanted behavior are, unfortunately, common.  

There should be no ambiguity in the bonus calculation.  Each of the goals should contribute some % of the total bonus.  There should be clear measures for each goal, and a calculation that yields a clear percentage value for that particular goal.  

So let's say his total bonus target is 1000 dollars.  Goal 1 contributes 40%; goal 2, 30%; and goal 3, 30%.   Goal 1 is a sales quota:  if you fall below 75% of quota, you have zero contribution.  between 75% and 120% of quota, you get your full amount ($400) and anything over 120% is paid out at that percentage of 400 dollars.  If you double your quota, you double the 400.  

You could also cap the payout for some targets (such as number of cold calls). 

Clarity is the key.  The employee should be able to calculate his bonus by himself; it should not be a judgement call. 

John Hack