If you’re a CEO or hold another leadership role within your company, it’s possible that you’re responsible for setting corporate annual goals. But before you set out on this often daunting and robust task, be aware of these eight common mistakes that enterprises face when setting their yearly goals.
Setting impractical goals
While it is crucial for company leadership to be “big thinkers” when it comes to setting annual goals, it’s just as important to make sure that the goals you set are feasible. When setting company objectives that are rather baseless and are instead rooted in temporary inspiration, you’re essentially setting your company up for failure. Just as you wouldn’t expect yourself to participate in a triathlon in the next week if you haven’t trained for it, don’t expect your company to meet unrealistic goals simply because of your ambition and enthusiasm. In order to avoid this, make sure that the objectives that you set are based on previous benchmarks, roadblocks, accomplishments, and experiences that you’ve had so that you’re giving your team a real chance to succeed at the path you’re setting for them.
Examine every aspect
A common mistake that corporate leaders make is that they solely focus on revenue goals when setting yearly objectives. There is so much more to an enterprise than that finances, such as corporate morale, communication and management. When setting yearly objectives, be sure to take everything into account so that the human aspect of your company is taken care of as well as everything else. You could incorporate this by planning yearly team building events, leadership trainings, and regular meetings to ensure that every department is in full communication and on the same page. The balance between the two will be much more sustainable and beneficial in the long-run instead for sprinting toward solely fiscal achievements.
Set realistic deadlines
When initially setting goals, it’s common to be in an ambitious mindset that will naturally lead you to set unrealistic due dates for tasks. The result is obvious: it only leads you to disappointment and leaves you feeling flustered by being hind. Instead of setting one big date for an overall objective, set mini-tasks with smaller due dates so that you can mark your progress more regularly and ensure that you’re on track.
See the good in the setbacks
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in your leadership role or how much experience you have – everyone experiences letdowns, setbacks and blatant failures in their businesses. The key, however, is not to become frustrated or discouraged by these roadblocks. Instead, look closely at what specifically went wrong and identify where you can improve in the next round. It’s also important to accept that these setbacks, and how you recover from them, determine the strength and resilience of your business overall. Ultimately, don’t reject these challenges or become embarrassed by their impact. Instead, accept what can’t be changed, take everything that you can learn from it, and celebrate the fact that these challenges only make your enterprise stronger. Having this attitude will not only make it easier for you to move forward, but will lift up company morale as well.
Determine goals outside of your expertise
If you had a friend who was an architect and you’re a computer programmer, would you set their annual goals for them? Probably not – you would have no idea where to even start. The same often goes for various departments within an organization. A CEO will set their benchmarks for them without even fully understanding what takes place within the department, what challenges they’re accustomed to facing, what their greatest strengths are, and what they’re already doing to improve. Before setting these goals for ever, make sure that it’s a team effort between you and the department so that you can gain a better understanding of what’s realistic for them to accomplish. Otherwise, you will be thoroughly disappointed once those deadlines roll around.
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By Lena Elkins