Management: How and Why Set Objectives?
28 January 2012
Read by 2454 persons
Setting objectives for a team is a necessary and unavoidable act that every manager faces.
How to set objectives?
Common sense should prevail. Indeed, to set objectives, they must be:
• simple: The risk, the trap many managers fall into, is that of plurality. It is not a matter of getting lost in a multitude of objectives, of wanting to perfectly manage actions, without forgetting anything, to reassure oneself... Quite the contrary!
• easy to define and understand: If we want them to act as a real guideline, there must be no ambiguity, no hesitation, no perplexity in the minds of the employees.
Why set objectives?
There are three main dimensions to objectives:
1. A dimension specific to the manager
Indeed, the construction of objectives is a strong management act. It allows the leader:
• to instill their will precisely to their team and thus strengthen their leadership,
• to direct action in coherence with the strategic and operational axes chosen by the company,
• to create a framed, channeled action, therefore likely to be evaluated.
2. An organizational dimension
Organization designates the action of the one who designs, structures, arranges and organizes. Organization is above all the search for results.
It is an act that helps to:
• coordinate teams through the distribution and content of objectives,
• schedule resources by focusing actions according to a defined plan,
• supervise, control and measure the actions carried out.
3. A human and psychological dimension
Setting objectives is to put in place this powerful mental engine that will facilitate everyone's commitment within the action. More motivated, more involved, employees will draw the best of themselves while feeling positively empowered.
-Objectives should be dated, written, and quantified.
-Objectives should be achievable: if the bar is set too high, discouragement will win.
Let us not forget, moreover, that setting objectives is also and above all doing so under the control of the employee concerned or the team, if any, who must be able to have total control over this same objective.
Article written by The ReKrute.com team
Posted online January 28, 2012.
How to set objectives?
Common sense should prevail. Indeed, to set objectives, they must be:
• simple: The risk, the trap many managers fall into, is that of plurality. It is not a matter of getting lost in a multitude of objectives, of wanting to perfectly manage actions, without forgetting anything, to reassure oneself... Quite the contrary!
• easy to define and understand: If we want them to act as a real guideline, there must be no ambiguity, no hesitation, no perplexity in the minds of the employees.
Why set objectives?
There are three main dimensions to objectives:
1. A dimension specific to the manager
Indeed, the construction of objectives is a strong management act. It allows the leader:
• to instill their will precisely to their team and thus strengthen their leadership,
• to direct action in coherence with the strategic and operational axes chosen by the company,
• to create a framed, channeled action, therefore likely to be evaluated.
2. An organizational dimension
Organization designates the action of the one who designs, structures, arranges and organizes. Organization is above all the search for results.
It is an act that helps to:
• coordinate teams through the distribution and content of objectives,
• schedule resources by focusing actions according to a defined plan,
• supervise, control and measure the actions carried out.
3. A human and psychological dimension
Setting objectives is to put in place this powerful mental engine that will facilitate everyone's commitment within the action. More motivated, more involved, employees will draw the best of themselves while feeling positively empowered.
-Objectives should be dated, written, and quantified.
-Objectives should be achievable: if the bar is set too high, discouragement will win.
Let us not forget, moreover, that setting objectives is also and above all doing so under the control of the employee concerned or the team, if any, who must be able to have total control over this same objective.
Article written by The ReKrute.com team
Posted online January 28, 2012.
