text for their work. It helps employees understand the
importance and the larger purpose of their work. We know
that when employees feel their work has meaning, they
tend to be much more motivated and diligent in their
efforts to achieve those goals.
So, to summarize, performance goals are based on the needs
of the organization and are generated through discussion and
dialogue with employees. If you skip or gloss over the dialogue,
the process becomes less meaningful and more a paper chase.
How to Use This Book
Developing performance goals isn’t easy. It requires an invest-
ment of time and effort by the manager and each employee. The
purpose of this book is to make the process a bit shorter, less
frustrating, and easier for all parties.
The book is organized into two parts.The first part is this one.
READ IT! Don’t simply assume that you know what’s in the first
part, since it’s absolutely critical that you understand the details
of performance goals and goal setting. We’ll provide those to you
and map out how to go about setting goals so they work and
how to go about using the goals you’ve set.
Once you’ve read this first part, you’ll be ready to make use
of the goal phrases in this book. You can use it in several ways.
First, you can use the statements in this book “as is,” to the
extent that they fit your situation. We’ve tried to generate goal
phrases that will fit a wide variety of jobs and job responsibilities
and we’ve categorized them to make them easy to find. However,
you must make sure that the goals you use reflect yoursituation,
yourcompany, and the needs of company, management, and
employee. So that means you may need to customize extensively.10Perfect Phrases for Setting Performance Goals