10 Strategies to Smash Your Team Goals

Once each department has established its goals in alignment with the company’s overall vision, mission, and long-term strategy, each department must track its performance to ensure that it will achieve them. The managerial role becomes critical for overseeing the team’s performance and motivating everyone to achieve their goals. Keeping the team focused on its goals—or failing to do so—makes the difference between meeting expectations or falling behind in projects.

Here are 10 strategies for tracking team-specific goals so they are not lost in the thick of day-to-day business:

1) Make It Visual

Whether you display a shared dashboard or a large whiteboard in the office, it is important that team members have a constant visual reminder of their goals, so they remain top of mind each day.

2) Break It Down

For your long-term objectives, segment them into shorter goal periods, like 90 days, 30 days, weekly, and daily. If the team knows what targets they need to hit each day and week to stay on target to meet their objectives, their goals become more manageable and achievable. Small steps are what it takes to complete your goals and objectives.

3) Get Personal

Good managers will encourage their team members to set their own personal goals that are tied to the team’s goals. This gives further motivation for everyone to make progress on the overall objectives.

4) Get Technical

Determine which metrics to monitor and use to track progress. Project-management tools like Asana, Trello, or Monday are flexible options that smaller organizations can use to keep track of tasks, to-do lists, and projects. Google Tasks, and Todoist are also good task trackers that individuals can use to stay ahead of their to-do lists.

5) Keep It Simple

Sometimes it feels more concrete to take pen to paper and write out the  team’s objectives and key results. You can track them on a notepad or on a whiteboard, so you have the physical triumph of writing down actions to achieve the goals and crossing off each item on the list.

6) Instill Accountability

Set up weekly or monthly review meetings so the team can report on its progress, tracking key metrics in the department. Team members can share their wins or ask for help where they need it.

7) Be Disciplined

In the day-to-day of the business, there is a tendency to get distracted from what is important. Stay disciplined by reminding yourself and the team of its goals each day. Forgo opportunities that do not support the team’s goals.

8) Be Approachable

If things aren’t going to plan, let your team members know that they can come to you to discuss the problems and to find alternative solutions. Make sure the team members know they can discuss problems without fear of reprisal, then find ways to encourage any team members who may be struggling.

9) Celebrate Success

Boost morale in the team by sharing progress and celebrating successes on the way to achieving the goals. Keep track of important benchmarks and milestones and be sure to give a shout-out to all the team members who contributed to the achievements. Tell them not only that you appreciate their hard work but also what specifically they did and why it mattered to the team; this acknowledgment will keep everyone engaged and feeling valued.

10) Carry On

Use previous goals and experience to set new ones and outline new objectives to continue the success. Let the past work guide your team with the confidence that they can achieve their goals if they stay focused and work diligently. By tracking the department’s goals together, you can prove the worth of the department and its work in larger company-wide meetings. You will have metrics, data, and achievements to demonstrate the value-added to the organization and your department’s success.

For more help in setting your departmental and individual goals, check out the rest of our series of posts on goal setting on the HR (Human Resources) Category of the Poster Compliance blog.