What are your team goals ... short-range and long-range?
Knowing them doesn’t count if you can’t articulate them. If you
can’t speak it or ink it, as motivational expert Denis Waitley says,
you can’t think it. Examples might include:- Increase sales quotas by 10 percent one year from today.
- Schedule every team member for an Excel class.
- Turn over the budgeting process to each team supervisor.
- Implement a “You Are the Customer” service program
next fall. - Bring in outside training for handling conflict and
criticism at work.
Can your team members list your goals? To win, every team
needs to know What’s Important Now (WIN). The key word in
that formula is “now.” For instance, have you ever stared at your
“things to do” list and ended up doing nothing at all? The sheer
volume of work absolutely blew you away! Everyone has
experienced that. But then somehow each of us learns that to get
all our tasks done, we simply have to tackle them one at a time.
First things first. What’s important now? Your team needs to know
that. Only when you tell them the priorities will you see
measurable progress.
In addition, the goals you and your team settle on must be: - Consistent with organizational direction
In other words, no team is an island. Apart from the
organizational glue that holds you together, the team really
has no professional reason for being. Therefore, make
certain that your team goals line up with organizational
directions. Don’t set goals independent of the
organizational structure (i.e., a three-day workweek), or
you will be in for disappointments. - Simple but exciting
In order for your team goals to excite the team, you need
team member input and ownership in each goal. That’s
why some very successful StaffCoaches™ have
established team committees to brainstorm goals, submit
team mission statements and develop a plan for measuring
Coaching, Mentoring and Managing7
W
I
N
Motivational goals
must offer benefits
your team views
as worthy.