OK, so this is not what you may have expected from this blog. It is economically related though, at least in a micro economic way. I read an article today from Salary.com about a culture of accountability to sales goals. And while I do agree that goals are a great thing, and there needs to be accountability, I disagree with the article in that accountability must follow goals without deviation.
What are goals? This is my first area of less than comfortable questions. Accountability is good, but only as good as the goals that are set. There are a number of different ways to set goals. First you can just pick a number, divide by those pursuing that number, and that is their goal. You could also use the prior year as a template and arbitrarily inflate to get to new goals, you could temper by using the last quarter to adjust goals based on current performance, the point is there are different ways to set goals, but goals are just that, wistful thinking, especially in tough economic times. But what if you pick the wrong number? Should those pursuing that goal be responsible, or the person who picked the wrong number? In my experience, the pursuers are the ones who didn't hit the goal, and they get the blame.
I'm going to use 2 examples to explain what I mean. The last 2 companies I worked for (and I will not name them) set goals by what the company needed, not taking into account what the economy had to give. The first was a Telecom company. This company was merged into a little larger company. The new company set goals based on what just one side had done prior to the merger. If you were on the side that was not chosen, there was little chance you would hit those goals. And over time, by holding the reps accountable, the 'wrong' side was eventually dismissed, primarily for not hitting goals. Was there accountability? In a word yes, however, this style of accountability depressed morale, especially on one side of the equation. When it was apparent that goals were unreasonable, most gave up, or tried to move to the other side where the goals were easier, or looked outside to find other companies to work for.
Company 2 was in the home furnishing area of the economy. Past sales growth was strong. At points in time it was 30% or more year to year growth. Then came the 2008 recession. Sales growth went negative across the entire organization, and at one point the company was close to bankruptcy. And in fact became a target of takeover by a firm that had the reputation of selling assets to inflate the numbers and then dumping the stock before it fell. This company set goals prior to the start of the fiscal year. They did not react and change them, morale fell. To their credit at one point, management admitted their mistake and sent a bonus to all employees. But, there were management changes. The new mid level managers, rather than continue the effort to build morale, used goals as a club. They picked favorites and adjusted goals lower, reassigning the difference to those that were not in favor. Morale fell drastically. They never explained why some were more accountable than others. This company seems to be thriving again, but the morale still remains somewhat low, so how can they ever achieve the great growth they had in prior years?
A lot of good employees were released because of the inability of these organizations to react to macro economic trends. Not once did the goal setters get told to rethink their goals. In tough times, morale is all that most organizations have, and to lose that is a huge disadvantage.
We should all set goals in our lives. Goals, if properly set and managed are a great tool to personal and professional growth. These goals need to be realistic and attainable, one part that seems to be left out of discussions on goals as tools for managers. And when those goals seem to get hit hard by bad economic times, adjustments need to be swift to make goals attainable.
Set your own goals and push to acheive them, you will get closer than if you do not set goals. Goals should push the talents, but should not be a club.
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