Achieving Goals - 3 Ways to Encourage Performance Improvement

Your organization has several goals. These goals have been aligned at the division, department, and staff level. Your employees even have specific goals in their performance plans. But this doesn't necessarily mean that all those goals will be achieved "when" you want and "how" you want. So what can you do to encourage your employees to deliver the kind of performance you want? Try these three strategies.

1. Give employees a goals-alignment chart.

Employees want to see the Big Picture when it comes to achieving goals. And they want to know where they fit in that picture. The greater their awareness, the more likely they are to deliver the kind of performance you want. You can create this awareness by sharing information about goals with employees.

Start by looking at the goals in your employees' performance plans. Then create a one-page chart that shows how these goals are linked to at least one staff goal, one department goal, one division goal, and one organizational goal. Depending on your organizational structure, you may or may not have these layers or office names. Whatever the framework and titles, the main point is to show a clear connection between your employees' goals and the goals at each organizational level.

2. Place a goals-alignment chart in a visible place.

You want employees to have a physical and frequent reminder of what everyone is trying to accomplish. This keeps you and your employees focused. It also gives support to the idea that you are working toward a common goal and for a common purpose.

Set an example by placing a goals-alignment chart on your office wall or cubicle. Consider other places where employees congregate or visit. Possibilities include areas like hallways, elevators, meeting rooms, or break rooms. By devoting wall space to your goals, you communicate that you place a high value on achieving them. You also give yourself a visible "point of reference" that can be used to reinforce positive performance.

3. Make goal-achievement part of your standard dialogue.

You have daily interactions with employees about work issues. These include meetings about general issues, workload problems, change initiatives, new assignments, etc. Your interactions also involve one-on-one and small group discussions. Use those instances to reference a goal at some level within your organization. Consider comments like these:

"This will allow us to achieve our goal of..."

"That idea is similar to the one which resulted in the achievement of ___ goal."

"These new customers will help us achieve our goal in..."

"Our change in policy will allow us to do a better job in meeting the ___ goal."

Reinforcement Is Useful

Your personal goal is to ensure that employees deliver the kind of performance to successfully achieve organizational goals. You can make this happen by doing things to reinforce the importance of goal achievement. It's also useful if that reinforcement is visible and ongoing. Create this reinforcement by starting with the strategies in this article or by adding them to ones you already use.

Barbara Brown, PhD shows managers how to improve employee performance by linking performance to results. Her E-Books contain phrases and examples for discussing performance, improving performance, and reinforcing performance. Her E-Courses provide strategies for motivating employees to cooperate and contribute.

Click on "FREE STUFF" at her website to download tools to manage performance discussions.

Website: http://www.LinkToResults.net