Aligning individual goals with organizational goals to #getthingsdone

As the Covid-19 crisis continues to linger, one of the outcomes is the potential that many of us will be working from home indefinitely. Organizations are considering which roles can permanently move to remote work, which become a hybrid, and which should eventually return to in-office. There are many studies that reflect what we have all learned during this time.

• We can be more productive at home.

• Not having to commute is wonderful and cost saving.

• We actually work more at home.

According to Forbes, some of the key ways a manager knows team members are being productive include consistently delivering results, taking initiative and displaying expertise. The challenge I see for team members is they want to do these things but leaders are not giving them the new direction. Each organization has made adjustments to short and long range plans. Many team members are not sure how their work needs to change to support the new plans. As leaders, we need to connect the business plans to our team’s daily work so they can be productive. How do we do this?

Aligning individual goals to organizational goals

Each organization has different performance management cycles. The goal of performance management is to allow everyone to succeed and be as productive as possible. Regardless where you are within yours, take time to pause and update the targets given Covid-19. At the beginning of the cycle, you and the team member (I hope) developed 2-3 goals, or what Dr. Stephen R. Covey called “big rocks”. These should have been aligned to the organization’s goals. By working on and moving those rocks forward, the team member felt productive and valuable; you felt the same. The challenge here is that team members do not know if the organization’s goals have shifted. A review and update needs to happen to ensure the goals are still well defined. The outline for the conversation might be something like:

Original (pre-covid-19) goal map

• Organization goal - increase outpatient revenue

• Department goal - design and implement outpatient appointment reminders

• Individual goal - technical lead on implementation; achieve project goals and become technical expert in selected solution

New (post-covid-19) goal map

• Organization goal - increase outpatient revenue (updated with target)

• Department goal - design and implement telehealth solution to handle 100% appointments virtually

• Individual goal - technical lead on implementation; achieve project goals and become technical expert in selected solution

Everyone probably knows some of this shifted because some work had to be done but what is the official organizational goal, department goal and individual goal now? How will individual performance be measured? On what “big rocks” should each person be working to be productive and deliver value?

We all want to deliver value to our organizations. We want to be productive, contributing members of our teams. Now that the initial crisis is over, we as leaders need to have intentional conversations about where the new finish line is for this performance review period and ensure everyone is measuring in the same way. Having these conversations on a regular basis will help everyone stay focused on the big rocks and keep from drowning in sand.