Set it, don’t forget it

Serious question: What’s the point of goal setting if you’re not tracking your goals?

Cough there isn’t cough

Setting goals is only half of the picture, the other half is tracking and achieving the goal. 

Tracking goals:

• Ensures clarity and alignment
• Fosters accountability 
• Increases productivity 
• Improves decision making 
• Keep teams motivated
• Helps proactively remove roadblocks
• Celebrates all the wins

If tracking goals have so many amazing benefits then why doesn’t EVERYONE do it?

Here are some reasons your leaders, managers and employees might hesitate: 

• Fear of failure: if your environment doesn’t feel safe some employees may try to avoid tracking goals because of a fear of failure. 
• It’s overwhelming: if you’ve never been taught to write great goals and how to track them, this process can become overwhelming. Too many tasks, objectives or deadlines may feel like a burden to some! 
• They’re unaware: some employees might not understand the benefit of goal tracking. Maybe they’ve always been able to get work done and don’t see the benefit of tracking the work. 

These aren’t impossible things to address! 

Here are two things to consider to successfully track goals:

1. The system you use
2. How you communicate the goals 

Let’s take a look at each one and how they can help your organization get more comfortable with goal tracking. 

What is your system of choice?

Imagine this: all your company, department, and individual goals in one place for everyone to transparently see across the organization? 

As Kate is saying above: DAMN. 

That would be the dream, right?? 

If you pick the right system to store your goals that can actually be a reality. 

BTW: There are a lot of systems out there ranging from free to paid that can help you accomplish this! 

Instead of advocating for a specific tool i’m going to give you my checklist for any tool you’re considering to track goals: 

✅Is it easy to use? (criteria #1 for most things!!)

✅Can you align the goals to department/individual goals easily?

✅Is it flexible enough?

✅Is it easy to integrate with daily work?

✅Can you collaborate easily?

✅Is it motivating? (I love the THRILL of marking something complete!)

You don’t need a big budget to check those boxes, you can accomplish most of that in a Google sheet…  

Don’t believe me?? That’s how I track my goals… 

IRL: This quarter at Workweek, our CEO challenged each department leader to take each of our goals and break them down into week by week tasks that need to be accomplished. At first I was MIFFED. I know how to accomplish my goals!! Why this week by week nonsense??? 

It turned out to be the best dang thing anyone has challenged me to do because it made me think about what was actually possible and break down all my goals into digestible tasks. 

Now I reference that document every single day to look at the tasks I have on hand and how I’m tracking on big projects. 

Want my template? Reply and LMK! 

You can also check out: 

✨ Notion’s Company Goals Templates 

✨ Asana’s Goal Tracking Templates (btw their library is FULL of resources)

✨ ClickUp’s Goal Templates 

You just need something that your employees can reference. 

Don’t overcomplicate this! 

Final note: Having A SYSTEM is better than NO SYSTEM. 

Now, onto communication and the role it plays in goal tracking. 

How do you communicate about goals?

Ahh, communication. My favorite topic!!! 

If you haven’t listened to my podcast episode about communication where Dinah Alobeid, Senior Director of Content and Communications at Greenhouse, dropped some knowledge about how to communicate effectively you’re missing out! 

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, can be communicated better. 

Including goal tracking. 

TBH: If you’re only communicating about goals when they are completed you are MISSING out on a huge opportunity. 

Goals should be communicated about in allllll their stages, I mean:

• When you’re setting them 
• When they’re finalized 
• When they’re being worked on 
• When they’re completed 

Because there is SO MUCH to be learned while accomplishing goals. 

Like:

• What is going well?
• What isn’t going well?
• Are the goals reflective of reality?
• Was an assumption that was made wrong?
• Do you have the right team or skills? 

When a company communicates regularly about goals, it fosters an environment of learning and creates a space where leaders, managers and employees can openly talk about challenges to accomplish goals and mistakes that were made. 

Here’s my ideal cadence:

• Goals rollout at the beginning of the quarter – within 1 week of the start. 
• Weekly company wide communication either async or via company meeting
• Weekly department emails featuring: goal tracking, lessons learned, any resources needed 

You may think, WEEKLY? Yes, weekly is super helpful!

The bottom line: the more you talk about goals, outside the context of completed or not completed you can create moments of real learning and better engage your employees on the journey. 

The role of HR: 

As Selena would say: THIS IS MY HOUSE. 

Last week I wrote about HR’s dynamic role in goals. We’re involved in it ALL aka our house. 

From setting goals, to tracking progress, to helping determine what happens if/when we miss a goal… HR has a lot of responsibilities. 

Don’t forget that an organization’s success depends on accomplishing goals and that you can drive that forward! 

But what if there’s a miss?

Next week I’m tackling a subject that is near and dear to my heart: what to do if a goal is missed??

Missing goals is natural but most companies don’t have a plan for what happens… 

And BTW: missing a goal can create a lot of stress and anxiety for employees. Especially because it can impact performance and compensation!

More on that next week…