{"id":16777,"date":"2015-09-27T21:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T01:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=16777"},"modified":"2020-03-30T18:27:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T22:27:56","slug":"6-simple-steps-to-help-employees-set-and-keep-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/6-simple-steps-to-help-employees-set-and-keep-goals","title":{"rendered":"Six simple steps to help employees set (and keep) goals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Getting employees to put their goals down on paper is easier said than done. That\u2019s why I was intrigued when I heard that at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.creativenationmusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Creative Nation<\/a>, a Nashville-based music services company, setting goals is part of the culture.<\/p>\n<p>Creative Nation CEO and co-founder Beth Laird says, \u201cSetting personal and professional goals is one of the most powerful tools available to help people both identify and reach their potential.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Laird\u2019s employees have embraced the process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d never done this in my career before,\u201d admits Creative Director Jeff Skaggs. \u201cIt\u2019s really helpful. Most of my goals are quantifiable. Others are more qualitative, like what\u2019s happening in our pipeline and what I\u2019m doing to help our team grow. Those are just as important because they are the kind of things that keep us excited about showing up every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Laird shared her six steps for implementing your own employee goal tracking system, setting your company up for lasting success.<\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">1. Make it mandatory. <\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">There is lots of evidence linking the act of physically writing down goals to higher performance, including <\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/85broads\/2014\/04\/08\/why-you-should-be-writing-down-your-goals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this classic Harvard study<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> showing that individuals with written goals were earning, on average, 10 times as much as their classmates whose goals were not written down. This is one of the reasons Laird suggests making goal sheets mandatory for every employee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">2. Make it accessible<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">. Implementing any new employee program can be a challenge, and Laird admits that she didn\u2019t get her goal sheets quite right on the first attempt. Even seemingly small details, like the presentation of the questions, can have a huge effect on participation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first form was very complicated and was all business,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I narrowed the goals down a bit and had someone on our team design the same questions with different-sized colored boxes and circles around them. Now, when I hand them out people say, \u2018Oh, this looks fun! This is easy!\u2019 It\u2019s incredible what a drastic change small design tweaks can have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">3. Make it SMART.<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> All goals should be <\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/SMART_criteria\">SMART<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Laird recommends talking to employees about SMART goals before unleashing employees with goal sheets to help set them up for success. <\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hr.virginia.edu\/uploads\/documents\/media\/Writing_SMART_Goals.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Here is a great primer<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> on SMART goals with examples for anyone unfamiliar with the premise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">4. Make it stick.<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> Upon the completion of each employee\u2019s goal sheet, Laird prints several copies so they are always nearby.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want everyone to see their goals on a daily basis so they remember what they are aiming for,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">5. Make it personal.<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> In addition to company and professional goals, Laird is a big proponent of including personal and individualized goals for each employee, even if the goal seems only loosely related to his or her job description.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always included areas marked \u2018personal, family, and spiritual goals\u2019 and \u2018personal and professional development,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt started because I was just curious about what they wanted in their life and how I could help. If a writer says, \u2018I want to go on a weeklong family vacation every year,\u2019 maybe I can help by booking a house and a rental car for a week and making sure they know I\u2019m making it one of their priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">6. Keep it updated.<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> Laird suggests revisiting (and possibly redesigning) your company\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/go.zinepak.com\/hubfs\/Creative_Nation_Employee_Goal_Sheet.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">goal sheet<\/a> template at least once a year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve evolved our current version over several years and am still tweaking and changing it every year, because we\u2019re trying to get better and better as we go,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: Lauren Kallen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getting employees to put their goals down on paper is easier said than done. That\u2019s why I was intrigued when I heard that at Creative Nation, a Nashville-based music services company, setting goals is part of the culture. Creative Nation CEO and co-founder Beth Laird says, \u201cSetting personal and professional goals is one of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1101,"featured_media":16784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Six simple steps to help employees set (and keep) goals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Implementing your own employee goal tracking system will set your company up for lasting success.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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