individual’s capacity to achieve the objectives; these could
include lack of resources (money, time, equipment, support
from other people), lack of experience or training, external
factors beyond the individual’s control, etc.
■ Agreedby the manager and the individual concerned. The
aim is to provide for the ownership, not the imposition, of
objectives, although there may be situations where individ-
uals have to be persuaded to accept a higher standard than
they believe themselves capable of attaining.
■ Time-related– achievable within a defined timescale (this
would not be applicable to a standing objective).
■ Teamwork orientated– emphasize teamwork as well as indi-
vidual achievement.
Some organizations use the acronym SMART to define a good
objective:
S = stretching
M = measurable
A = agreed
R = realistic
T = time-related.DEFINING WORK OBJECTIVES
The process of agreeing objectives need not be unduly compli-
cated. It must start from an agreed list of the principal account-
abilities or main tasks of the job. It is then simply a matter of
jointly examining each area and agreeing targets and standards
of performance as appropriate. Agreement can also be reached
on any projects to be undertaken which might be linked to a
specific accountability, or maybe more general projects which fall
broadly within the remit of the jobholder.
Define targets
The first step is to identify the key result areas of the job from the
list of accountabilities or main tasks to which targets can be
attached.
Targets are quantified and time based – they always define
specific and measurable outputs and when they have to be
How to Set Objectives 249