Organizational goals are strategic plans made by a company to help reach expected outcomes. Apart from providing guidance, these goals facilitate planning and motivate employees for increased efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
Organizational goals can be categorized into two main types:
- Official goals: These are the goals which a company aims at and wants to achieve. These are mostly qualitative goals and help build the organization’s reputation.
- Operative goals: These are concrete steps to achieve the desired result. These are short-term and are measured quantitatively. These may include day-to-day tasks to achieve specified business growth.
There are several ways to align individuals with the organization to reach a common specific goal. Some of the crucial methods are:
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Teach Individuals to understand organizational goals
Most individuals are unaware of what a company’s goals are. It is noted that only about 40% of employees know about their company’s goal. They don’t know what is expected from them, apart from daily chores. Managers are required to let the individuals understand the mission of an organization, even to those who might directly not be responsible for it. As reaching a common objective is a collective team effort, so no single person must be kept unfamiliar.
Discuss with all the employees for the company vision and strategy. Be specific and clear so that all may understand easily. Remember that clearer the goals are, the easier will be to understand the vision of an organization. Indistinct ideas will lead to uncertain results. When accountabilities are clear, employees are likely to perform 2.8 times more.
Employees have to perform various tasks every day. When they know how their performance will affect the organizational goals, they will prioritize their daily routine accordingly, to help take the company forward.
Guide the employees to set their own goals
Individuals are noted to set their personal goals more challenging. So, guide them to set goals within the company framework. Teach them that the work is not defined by working for a number of hours, instead, it is a contribution to achieve the vision of the company.
Personal goals are most effective and immediate when clearly explained to the individuals. Guide the employees with strategic, clear, and consistent goals, at every level of an organization. The goals must be a futuristic vision to be shared by all, and not rudimentary like to achieve a sale of ‘X’ number of products in a month.
Managers are required to help employees establish the baseline for every personal goal. It is impossible to improve without first knowing our initial return rate, or what we have to measure against. The goals will be purposeful only when employees can track their progress from a standard baseline, to know where they are heading.
Stick to company basic standards while following organizational goals
It is important to stay well-aligned with the company’s values and standards while achieving desired targets. Adhering to the company’s guidelines while carrying out the daily chore, is a key to reaching organizational goals effectively.
Seniors must coach employees to help recover from job dissatisfaction and teach them to drive by their need for achievement. Management techniques to guide the team for the company’s mission with a sense of responsibility are equally important to reach a collective target.
Standards of quality have to be consistent as per the company’s guidelines. It takes a long time to build trust so, it is critical to establish standards while setting goals. It is good to avoid any big changes when they have been implemented for an organization’s betterment. However, if any change is still required, then it is better to outline the impact on a company’s goal and the effect on its growth.
Help individuals to achieve their goals
Remember that no organization can succeed without a team effort. The individual’s support and dedication help a company achieve its goals. So, helping employees to achieve their targets becomes crucial. Some of the supports can be:
- Clearly defining company’s goals and teaching individual’s role while going for new recruitments
- Making employees understand where to go when they want any help and support
- Frequent employee training and development programs to build and maintain their skill levels
- Providing the right resources and best tools to help achieve the set targets
- Consistent support from managers and regular feedback to help employees understand that they are moving in the right direction
- Employees must ensure that their manager knows about their individual goals so that they know that what contribution they are making for the betterment of the company
- Individuals need to be taught that their individual goals are at low priority than the organization’s goals
The flexibility of the Individuals to change when their goals are not aligning with the company’s goals
Individuals should understand and must be open to adopting changes when their goals no longer line up with the organization’s goals. It may be extremely difficult for a particular employee to change their direction, but in the long term, it will be fruitful for both – the company and the individual.
It is the responsibility of the management to teach individuals that as long as their work is aligned with the company’s vision, they will be able to find more opportunities in the future to accomplish their personal goals. The ever-changing business impacts the priority and what is important today, may not be the same in a couple of months. So, individuals must be open-minded and flexible to reset their targets as the company’s goals change.
One should understand that they should not be a part of a problem, but be a part of the solution. Aligning individual’s efforts with set targets will help uplift an organization as well as the individuals.
References:
- Successfully align individual work with organizational goals | Gartner
- Aligning Individual Goals to Organizational Goals | Strengthscape
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