By | Mike Moyer | www.entrepreneur.com
As important as it is to set goals with your team — and it is important — the goals themselves are not the end game. The process of setting goals is more important than the goals themselves. In my experience, however, the process of setting goals is somewhat contemptible and, not surprisingly, rarely leads to any interesting change or improvement of behavior.
I once had a boss who set goals that he thought were hard to reach. But when I easily attained them, he backtracked on the promised bonus payments. His reasons for doing so were understandable, but now he had a high-performing employee who no longer trusted him. The poorly executed planning process left him looking for a new VP.
I had another boss who set stretch goals that were so lofty the whole exercise was pointless. People rolled their eyes when reviewing the documents of which he was so proud. When the goals appear impossible, what is the point of trying?
Yet another company I worked for left the goal-setting process so subjective that it literally provided incentives to employees to bribe their immediate supervisors at the end of each year.
