When I started working, I did so in what was essentially a start-up. Start-ups, by their very nature, don’t lend themselves to goal-setting and future planning, beyond the next few sales, and the next few cost-reduction exercises.

My move to a large multinational at the cutting edge of the Internet in early 2005 taught me otherwise, and since then, I’ve learned to blend what each company (and all my subsequent companies) have taught me.

Short- versus mid-term

According to the economist John Maynard Keynes, in the long-run, we are all dead. Therefore, I’ve learned the most effective way to approach planning and goal setting is at the quarterly, six-monthly, and annual levels (with an eye to longer, if needed).

In addition, all goals can essentially be broken down into just two areas: revenue generation and cost savings.

Naturally, for any business, annual revenue targets are a necessity, especially for smaller companies. However, a realistic, accurate quarterly division of targets over four quarters allows for much more focus, keeping your team centred on a quickly-approaching goal.

Alongside revenue, operational efficiencies and cost savings are essential to every company, whether the smallest start-up or the large multinational. Again, having an annual cost saving figure (and/or a percentage reduction in resources required to achieve the same results), broken down into a series initiatives with a 3- or 6-month timeline for achievement, can impact a company’s bottom line massively.

So, when setting your company’s goals, have annual targets in mind (stretched, but realistic), and work with your team to divide these up among owners, into a number of initiatives if it makes sense, with shorter timelines for achievement of sub-targets.

Company goals and individual goals

One of the worst things to do is to have someone’s individual goals not match with those of the company. Everyone’s individual goals should either:

• Feed into the overall company goals, or
• Help the employee grow as an employee and a person, to allow them to achieve all their goals, and stay motivated in your organisation.

As a business owner/manager, provide the company-/team-level goals, but make sure they are formed from both top-down, and bottom-up – work with everyone you manage on their individual goals, and allow them to feed back into (and change if required) those company/team-level goals.

Is SMART smart?

In all my jobs, I’ve had it drilled into me that all my goals should be SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, results-based, and timely. All I can do is support this – while it is an acronym that is overused, ensuring that your own, and your teams, goals, are defined; that both parties know what success  looks like; and allows your team to know when they’ve achieved, and over-achieved, their goals. Goals are, of course, fluid, and can change and morph over time, but keeping your goals as SMART as possible makes it easier to manage and motivate your team.

Thinking laterally

Stating the obvious, but every goal will have multiple paths to achieving it, and you should leave it up to your team (with your guidance, of course) on how to hit their goals. As a manager, I work with everyone I manage to find the balance between giving them the autonomy to hit their goals as they see fit, and ensuring they know I’m always there to mentor, guide, and occasionally cajole.

Whether it’s hitting revenue targets or coming up with ways to reduce the amount of time spent on daily tasks, getting the input of every single person on your team is essential to generate the ideas that might really move the dial for your business – from the creation of a directory of websites (and selling advertising in that directory) to the establishing of an Internet group to allow the users of your product to answer each other’s questions (to save your team having to answer customer queries).

Stepping back

Quarterly/six-monthly goals will get your team focused on hitting their targets, but can have one drawback – people focusing on short-term achievement, and losing the view of where the company is going, and their role in that. One of your own goals in the successful running of your team should be to work to allow your team see the bigger picture – where the company is going over the next couple of years (and beyond), the role of the team and themselves in that, and how important they are in the success of the business. Review quarterly goals and celebrate successes once each quarter ends, and make sure everyone feels invested in success.