Why Goal Setting As A Team is More Successful
Theresa
Goal setting as a team creates a culture of success. Success has never been a story of going at it alone. Success is achieved together.
Goal setting as a team clarifies what constitutes meaningful results for them. It doesn’t matter if they are employees or contractors. If they are working with you to achieve an end goal, they are considered your team. Each team member has a role in the success of your systems and workflow.
The more team members are engaged in setting results they desire to make, the more committed they are to achieving them. Gaining ideas and commitment at the beginning pays off in the longer term and is more successful.
It's essential to frame the goal setting as a team so that the results the team commits to are challenging, precise, and are goals that the members value and recognize as necessary.
Typically this involves a range of steps to realize the goals:
Set and establish the vision and purpose of the team.
Define a clear sense of identity and purpose.
Confirm the goals and intended results with others in the business.
Define the meaningful results the team is attempting to achieve
Develop clear guidelines on the performance required that will help to deliver meaningful results.
Outline the tasks the team must do to achieve meaningful results
Clarify which team members are responsible for which tasks
Involve your team in adding the details to these steps. Think of it as a sports team. By involving them, it drives a business culture of excellence unlike any other. Here are some areas that are influenced when you set goals as a team.
Transparent Communication
Many businesses that have a successful team business culture often are achieved by a substantial buy-in of the vision. Taking that extra time and steps to have your team understand your vision and goals, and giving them the opportunity to believe in it, will likely mean they’ll be more inclined to push forward with you.
Particularly if you have plans to improve upon workflows or systems, it becomes even more critical to include the parties involved. Change is a very uncomfortable movement for many. The fear of change is often the barrier to success. Before you begin goal setting as a team, build an open culture for communication by:
Communicating what your team can expect with the change.
Building trust to move forward together as a unit by listening.
Being transparent in the steps that are needed, big or small.
Allowing for feedback to understand risks, and plan for any gaps.
Building Team Engagement
Goal setting as a team should be specific and intentional. When you include your team of employees or contractors, it develops a unified mindset towards your business success. It's the prime opportunity to incorporate ideas from participants, their buy-in to row in the same direction, and clarification to speak the same language. The more they're involved, the more significant their sense of ownership and commitment will be.
With a staff team, remove silos and bottlenecks with a communication matrix.
Get everyone involved with contributions from their area of expertise.
Set goals as a unit, and goals within roles.
Setting The Framework For Success
As each goal is set together, creativity begins to bloom. Everyone has different tactics to accomplish goals in their own way. To build a team with a focus on the business goals, set a framework on how to prioritize the activities to keep everyone moving in the same direction.
One of the best frameworks I’ve used with my teams to inspire high-performance is using the Golden Circle that Simon Sinek speaks on. Approach each activity with the understanding of why we do, how we achieve it and what it will look like. Once we’ve determined this framework, we can then take action to DO, DELEGATE, or DUMP it. This will keep momentum and mitigate getting stuck.
Team Alignment
I can’t express how important it is to gain team alignment on goals and initiatives. If you don’t want to involve success together, then you’ll end up going at it alone. When you have your whole team aligned with the goals and initiatives, you also have their buy-in into the WHY, the benefits, and the results They’ll be more inclined and motivated to achieve this together as a whole unit.
To maintain team alignment, it’s best to:
Communicate metrics effectively with your team consistently
Set metrics for measuring the goal progress
Set up weekly 1:1 check-in meetings
Set up monthly check-in meetings with the whole team
Stimulate Team Collaboration
I’ve been in business cultures that have built silo mentalities. This is when several groups or areas of business do not wish to share information or knowledge with each other in the same company. This impacts efficiency, effectiveness, and collaboration.
To foster collaboration in your team of employees or contractors, here are a few tips:
Communicate expectations. Make it clear that collaboration is the minimum standard. Every team member needs to take responsibility for good outcomes. Communicating expectations will define roles, responsibilities and cultivates accountability as a team.
Foster a creative environment. Promote questions, feedback, brainstorming and an open framework. Nurture inspiration and cultivate a “yes can do” attitude.
Build cohesion. Include everyone in as many decisions as you can. Reduce duplication and redundancy through workflow communications. Conduct daily team huddles or toolbox talks to keep everyone in the same direction, building a cohesive team collaboration and culture.
Don’t let yourself become the bottleneck in your business and the key barrier to reaching your goals in your business. With a timeline and guidelines, team collaboration will get you there faster.
Team Motivation
Goal setting as a team is more successful because it unites everyone. Have you ever been to one of those rallies, conferences or events where there was an energized or powerful speaker on stage? When they say, “Who’s with me?!!” and the crowd goes wild and responds “yes, we are!” By rallying your team around your goals, it opens up the possibilities in their mind that they don’t have to go at it alone.
A sense of ownership is developed within the team, and everyone can make strategic decisions to make improvements autonomously or as a team. When your team is motivated, not only are their eyes set on the prize, but they’ll be actively looking to improve by being open to feedback from their whole team. It'll increase productivity, effectiveness and ultimately the profitability of the business.
Your Move
If you haven’t yet finished setting your goals and you have a team, take some time to include them. If you’ve completed your goals already, share them with your team. Be open to feedback, suggestions, and adjustments. Remember that success is together!
