Individual and Team Goal Setting can be a powerful experience. It forces you to write down exactly what you hope to accomplish in a given time period, and gain commitments for goal achievement. The entire process, however, is meaningless without effective measurement of results throughout the process.
Good measurements will be your key indicator(s) of progress towards achievement of the goal. Significantly, well-defined measurements will also cue employees to what is really important, and provide early warnings to you if someone is off-course.
"We're lost, but we're making good time."
- Yogi Berra
A common mistake made by new managers when establishing measurements is confusing effort with results. We all at times want to reward and recognize hard workers; however, without the corresponding results, goals will not be met. Focus your measurements on results, not efforts. A second common mistake is waiting till the end of the measurement period to review success or failure. During the period of work, did you celebrate incremental milestones towards the goal to reinforce behavior? Did you make necessary mid-course corrections to behavior to increase the odds of ultimate goal achievement? Don't write goals for the team and hope for the best. Be an active participant in meeting your goals.
There are three key areas where measurements will apply:
- - Process Outcomes (How well are projects managed?)
- - Project Outcomes (Did the project outcomes meet intended objectives?)
- - Business Outcomes (What was the impact/ROI?)
The measurements of goal achievement should fall into one of these three categories.
