A business is only as good as the team making it work
A successful business requires a motivated team, and in order to reach new heights, you need to set clear goals you can aim for. This is true not only of your own goals, but those of your staff members too.
Setting goals for your staff is a great way of helping them maintain perspective and witness their own progress, but it’s important to ensure that these goals are both reasonable and worthwhile.
With that in mind, here are five key ways to make sure your staff members are motivated to meet their goals. Let’s take a look.
Create goals that are both challenging and achievable
Any goals you set for your employees must be both practical and realistic, and giving them near impossible goals to meet will only lower their motivation and reduce their job satisfaction. Goals set without taking skillset and experience into account will eventually cause your team members to hit a wall, making their productivity suffer.
To avoid this, ensure that any goal you set is SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timely
Goals that meet all of these areas are more likely to feel attainable to staff members, giving them the motivation to get it done.
Offer a mixture of short term and long term goals
It’s good to have long term goals, but if everything you’re aiming for is going to require months or even years of work, it can leave your employees confused about what they should be doing right now. Any long term goals you have should be broken down into smaller steps, giving your team members a clear idea of what they should be doing and when they should be doing it.
Putting short term goals in place will help your team members see their achievements for themselves, building confidence, experience and skills in the long term.
Be flexible with your expectations
Even the most thorough plans can be derailed by life. For the sake of both you and your employees, you need to be flexible enough to handle any hurdles or delays with a cool head.
The best businesses are those that can overcome challenge and triumph even when there are obstacles in the way. Ensure that any plans you put in place contain enough wiggle room to manoeuvre during potential difficult times.
Offer plenty of constructive feedback
There shouldn’t be any air of mystery when it comes to running your business. Having a system in place for providing feedback creates a more transparent process between you and your employees. By giving your employees regular feedback on their work, you’ll set them up with the tools necessary to do their job without confusion or resentment. Just make sure that any feedback you give is constructive, in order to keep motivation levels high.
You should also make the effort to reward good work, whether through a grateful email, a lunch or by having an organised rewards system in place.
Update goals regularly
Like any aspect of a budding business, goals can change. What was paramount three months ago may not be as important today, so it’s vital that you revisit any goals you set regularly, and discuss any changes with your staff.
Sometimes we can be too rigid when setting long-term goals, and this can cause you to miss out on opportunities for change and growth.