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Performance Goals -- Effortless Performance Goals in Just Minutes

August 4, 2011 -- (by Alex Work) Performance goals can be one of the easiest ways to motivate your employees and yourself. When you give someone performance goals you are challenging them to achieve a clear target. By having these targets in front of them (and you), one is far more likely to achieve great things.

Essentially performance goals aren’t much different from goals. You give yourself a clear target. You create a timeline for your success. You build a plan to get you there. Sounds simple, right? Then why do people fail at their performance goals?

Glad you asked! There are several main reasons that people fall short on their performance goals—

1. The Performance Goal is Not Crystal-Clear. Performance goals must not be subjective. They cannot be open to interpertation. They cannot be wishy-washy, unclear or foggy. I am sure you have heard these types of performance goals before—

performance goals“I want us to have a really good quarter.”

“I want to have better staff morale.”

The problem with these goals is that they are impossible to achieve. What is a really good quarter to one person is utterly different to another. And how do you quantify staff morale?  Performance goals have to be quantifiable. If you can’t measure a performance goal it isn’t a performance goal – it’s wishful thinking.

2. Performance Goals Often Lack a Realistic Time Schedule. Let’s face it, we are an impatient society. We want success, money and results now. We are conditioned to believe this. Out of this often time we create deadlines that are not realistic. Be brutally honest with yourself and your performance goals.

3. The Performance Goal Has No Perceived Casuality. There has to be a clear cause-and-effect for your performance goals. How many times have you been asked to do something, only to wonder to yourself why you’re doing it? When we don’t understand the rationale behind something we are asked to do it, we give a lack-lustre effort. Take the time to understand precisely why this performance goal is being carried out, and it will be performed with zeal.

4. We Become Demoralized When Things Don’t Work Out Right Away. Let’s face it,. Life will always have a curveball or two up her sleeve. Sudden illness, changes in the markets, whatever it is, there are only so many things we can control in our lives. The way we decide to react to these changes, however, is something we have complete control. Do not allow yourself to be knocked off your path (or your employees be knocked off their path towards their respective performance goals) the moment a roadblock hurtles down the hillside. Adapt, adjust, and move on.

Now that you know the most common pitfalls for those who set performance goals, here is two quick checklists that you can apply to either yourself or those under you.

A Quick Guide for Establishing Performance Goals for Your Employees.

  1. Make it a Colloborative Process. Get your employees involved with their performance goals. When you make them a part of the process it’s not just them working for a company, but now it’s for a team.
  2. Be Willing to Challenge, But Don’t Push or Threaten. Reward people with positive outcomes instead of scaring people into performing so that they avoid a negative outcome. Positive goals will inspire, negative goals will demoralize and humiliate.
  3. Be Clear About Your Expectations. Employees start coloring outside the lines soon as they don’t see them. Make sure they know what is expected of them. Avoid confusion by having exact targets and deadlines within which it is expected to achieve them.
  4. Give Them a Reason to Follow You. Setting performance goals for your team is like giving orders to an army. Give them orders they don’t believe you yourself would follow and you might as well throw the whole campaign out the window.

A Quick Guide for Acting on Your Performance Goals.

  1. Be Clear About the Desired Outcome. Get an Exact Figure. Have it Quantified. If you have any questions or uncertainty, ask your employer. If you are self-employed, be realistic about what you can expect from yourself.
  2. Your Performance Goals Must Be Positive. They should invigorate and motivate you, not scare you.
  3. Be Prepared to Evaluate Your Performance Goals, Sometimes Ruthlessly. Analyze what is working and capitalize on your strengths.
  4. Prepare Yourself to Accept Failure. As mentioned above, life is far from perfect. We won’t be able to predict and control everything. Be willing to accept that things won’t go perfect, and you will be able to bounce back faster than ever.

Now that you have a broad idea of how to get started on setting powerful performance goals, take the next step and learn about YourGoalBook, the Ultimate Goal Setting Manual. 

performance goalsYourGoalBook is the easiest way to achieve your goals and start living the life of your dreams. You will learn how to make mouth-watering, crystal-clear goals, and create your own plan of action that will give you the white-hot, scorching motivation to begin living the life you deserve.

You will also find out--

 The RIGHT WAY to build a rock-solid foundation for your success by surrounding yourself with the people who will get you to your goals in life the fastest. Learn how to pull more from the positive influences in your life while dropping the people who only live to pull you down. (You will be stunned the moment you discover who some of these people are!)

 YourGoalBook is a plan for life. Included is a 52 week agenda (with annual updates for life absolutely for FREE) especially designed specifically to help you blast your goals away at will! Which means that no matter where your goals take you, or whenever you want to create scalding motivation, YourGoalBook will be at your side.

performance goals Everything in YourGoalBook is explained with easy to follow instructions. It doesn't matter if you have tried  setting goals before or if you are a total goal setting newbie-- YourGoalBook takes you and guides you through the entire process so that you can achieve superstar goal setting skills in no time flat. No guesswork, no confusion.

 And there is much, much more to be discovered. So much more that I have developed a page just to outline all the other stuff! Learn even more about how YourGoalBook can help you start achieving any of your performance goals today! Click here to get started.