Setting Performance Goals

The New Year is a great time to establish new performance goals with employees and to clarify your performance expectations for the coming quarter and year. A Gallup Organization poll of over 1 million employees and 80,000 managers found that "knowing what is expected" has great impact on employee satisfaction and effectiveness. Effective supervisors know what they expect from their employees and they communicate those expectations clearly and frequently.These tips, from Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day to Day Employee Performance will help you develop goals and expectations that are supported and embraced by employees:•    Offer the employee examples or suggestions of some goals and/or expectations •       Give them time to prepare their own goals and expectations before you meet with them •            Ask the employee to contribute their ideas in writing – written goals are more "real" than goals that are just in the employee's head•           Encourage creativity and ownership in the goals/expectations•     Ask employees to "stretch" and maximize their individual potential•    Be prepared for ideas that you have not considered--just because you didn't come up with a goal yourself doesn't mean that it is not appropriate or challenging for the employee •        Give the employee your full attention when discussing their goals and performance expectations Performance goals and expectations should be set with employees, not for employees. Remember, people support what they help to create. If employees are not full participants in determining the expectations against which they will be evaluated, they are less likely to succeed in achieving them. This year, involve employees in a discussion about what's expected of their performance on the job