Goals

You have identified a strategy for the year, and how each role contributes, but how do you help your folks with alignment? Yearly GOALS! Goals are stepping stones towards long term success, and setting goals up for the year has many positive advantages.

But wait, before you jump in and start writing goals, look back and ensure that your roles and levels are clearly documented.  When I say clear, I mean that the employee should be able to look at the list and see for themselves exactly where they are in terms of performance at their skill level. You also need to do your own evaluation of the employee against the role expectations so you can determine where they are. Are they underperforming, hitting expectations, or exceeding expectations? Once you have a clear picture of where they are, you can start formulating the yearly goals to help that employee improve. In addition to aligning on role expectations, the goals can also be used to correct behavior. Do you have someone who repeatedly misses required meetings or who should show more respect to colleagues? Goals are a place to record your expectations and document improvement.

When I formulate goals, I document what it means to hit expectations, the expected outcome for their current level, and exceed expectations for each. Exceeds expectations means that they are working above their job level for that particular goal. Giving clear objective measures helps the employees know exactly where they are and gives them something to shoot for. For an employee that is close to the next level, you also might have a goal that ONLY has exceeds expectations as you look for a demonstration of readiness for promotion.

It goes without saying that you will have role expectations that tie to goal expectations. It is good to have objective role expectations, but it is essential to have objective goal expectations. You don’t want someone wondering if they did enough, and you CERTAINLY don’t want to be at an end-of-year discussion with a misalignment with the employee on whether or not that employee is ready for promotion or if they underperformed.

This brings up a good point - this seems like a lot of work - but it will MAKE YOUR JOB SO MUCH EASIER. When your employee knows EXACTLY what the next level looks like and EXACTLY what the expectations are, the reviews are really just paperwork and the first check-in for next year’s goals. (Most companies have a mid-year review check-in, but even if yours does not, check in on goals with the employee at least a couple of times a year to coach, align, and adjust if needed) 

Here is a basic example of tying roles to goals

Role Expectations:

Level 1: ’Able to update existing modules’ 

Level 2: ‘Able to build new modules from design’

Level 3: ‘Module designer and code reviewer’

Goal Expectations:

Level 1:

Meets expectations: x module updates released to production

Exceeds expectations: x new modules released to production

Level 2:

Meets expectations: x new modules released to production and code reviewer on x module updates

Exceeds expectations: x new module designs

Level 3:

Meets expectations: x modules designs, reviewer on new modules and updates

Exceeds expectations: Hold training sessions and provide mentoring 

It is worth reiterating that the objective nature of these goals makes it VERY clear to everyone what is expected. Of course, this is helpful for the evaluation, but the clarity given to the employee when the goals are formed is of equal importance.

Do not assume that you do not need to be clear with the goals for overperformers. It is easy to think, "they know what to do," or "I do not want to micromanage them." This way of thinking is a disservice to your high achiever. The folks who most often come to me and say, "I could have done better," "I should have gone farther in this particular area," are the employees who exceed expectations. Give their goals as much attention as anyone else. High performers also need a measure to track themselves against to stay motivated and positive about their performance.

You should also let your resources write some of their own goals. Perhaps they want to achieve a certification or get better at public speaking. By allowing them to contribute to their yearly goals, you are directly empowering them to help set the direction of their year and are committing to helping them achieve these objectives. This is a powerful way to show that you are a partner in their success.