Date: 1/27/2016

Title: GOALS AND ACCOUNTABILITY – Part 3

By Jennifer Erickson

The third reason for setting goals is to help team members focus on a common goal and work together. In other words, you need to keep score. Steps in keeping score:

• Identify the most important key result areas (KRA)
• Select units of measure in each key result area
• Assess current performance in each key result area
• Set goals to make improvements

Key result areas are generally related to quality, internal operations, development, or finances

Units of measure have to do with deciding how you’ll measure the KRA, where the measurement is obtained, how often it is measured, and how and to whom it’s communicated

Current performance is your benchmark. It’s what you use to build your goals

Setting goals is done via SMART method: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time oriented

The best way to have this conversation is to guide your team in developing the results areas, setting the units of measure, and establishing goals with a timeline. When I’ve worked with teams, I often hear the leader complain that teams aren’t functioning as well as they could be. She says they aren’t achieving their goals. A quick review of the process sometimes reveals that the KRA and goals were set by “upper management” with no input from the team. The goal wasn’t “a common goal”. The team had “no skin in the game”. They hadn’t been part of setting the goals, measurement, or timeline.

To learn more about how to practice this understanding, contact Results Group, LLC at www.ResultsGroupLLC.com or 515-330-2866.