Techniques for Using Goals to Drive Business Execution: When Just Being Smart Is Not Enough

Techniques for Using Goals to Drive Business
Execution: When Just Being Smart Is Not Enough

Speaker: Steven Hunt
Principal Director, Business Execution Practices
SuccessFactors

Moderator: Daniel Margolis
Managing Editor
Talent Management magazine

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Daniel Margolis
Managing Editor
Talent Management magazine

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Steven Hunt
Principal Director, Business Execution
Practices
SuccessFactors

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Techniques for using goals
to drive business execution:
when just being SMART is
not enough
Steven Hunt, Ph.D.
Principal Director, Business Execution Practices
E-mail: shunt@successfactors.com

SuccessFactors Proprietary and Confidential © SuccessFactors Proprietary and Confidential © 2011 SuccessFactors, Inc. All rights reserved.
2011 SuccessFactors, Inc. All rights reserved. 7

Role goals play in an integrated talent
management process

Right People Right Way Right Things
Goal Management,
Staffing , Promotions & Performance Management,
Collaboration &
Workforce Planning 360 & Compensation
Compensation

Who you are How you act What you achieve
Skills
Competencies,
Aptitudes Goals
Values, Behaviors
Interests

Right Development
Goals define why
Succession, Career Create learning through experience exist!
jobs
Development, 360,
Learning, & Collaboration

SuccessFactors Proprietary and Confidential © 2011 SuccessFactors, Inc. All rights reserved. 8 8

In 90% of the studies, specific and challenging
goals lead to higher performance than easy goals,
“do your best goals” or no goals.
Locke, Shaw, Saari, Latham, 1981
Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 90, page 125

SuccessFactors Proprietary and Confidential © 2011 SuccessFactors, Inc. All rights reserved. 9

What makes goal setting difficult?
•  People have difficulty translating generic
goals to specific goals for their role
•  Perfectionism aspiration
•  Time consuming to create clear goals
•  Coming up with ways to effectively measure
goals
•  Keeping goals consistent with changes in
the strategy or environment


The problem with SMART goals

•  The SMART framework does not reflect how people
actually set goals
–  Do I have the right goals? Attainable and Relevant
•  This is about the goal setting conversation
•  It depends on having a good goal setting process
–  Do I have clear goals? Specific, Measurable, and Time-bound
•  This is about how you write the goal
•  It depends on the structure of your goal plan

The SMART concept often distracts people from what should
be the main focus of goal setting: do people understand
what they are supposed to do and why it is important
to the business and their careers?

Critical Issues in Goal Management
Design

1.  Ensuring employees have well defined goal plans
2.  Aligning employees’ goals to the business strategy
3.  Making goals meaningful and motivational
–  Using goals to support employee development and career growth
–  Creating a relationship between goal accomplishment and
employee pay, promotions, and recognition
4.  Measuring employee goal accomplishment
5.  Coordinating goals across employees to foster
communication and collaboration
6.  Using goal data to guide business execution
decisions

12

Why goals are important

Strategic Direction
Performance Feedback
Intrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic Motivation
Personal Confidence


The computer company and the horseshoe
crab: a tale of poor goal management


What is your level of goal maturity?

5. Operational: goals are frequently reviewed at
all levels to actively manage business execution

4. Coordinated: people across departments
collaborate to accomplish interdependent goals

3. Meaningful: people see a link between career
success and accomplishment of their goals

2. Aligned: employees’ goals can be linked to
overall strategic objectives of the company

1. Tangible: everyone in the company has a
clearly defined, measurable set of goals


What a goal plan should define
The purpose of your job; what you are paid to
achieve, create, or maintain.

Metrics showing what you contribute to the
company. If someone never saw you work, what
evidence could you provide to indicate you are
successfully performing your role?

Priorities. The 5 to 10 most important things you
are expected to accomplish.
SuccessFactors Proprietary and Confidential © SuccessFactors Proprietary and Confidential © 2011 SuccessFactors, Inc. All rights reserved.
2011 SuccessFactors, Inc. All rights reserved. 16

Commitments Outcomes Deliverables:
an alternative to SMART
•  Short phrase describing what you are doing and why it

Commitment: is relevant to the business – it should have a verb in it!
•  Improve customer service levels in the stores I manage

What I’m doing

•  Results you will create by achieving this commitment;

Outcomes: Why “evidence” that will demonstrate you were successful
•  Scores of 90% or better on customer surveys

I’m doing it •  Increase year on year store sales by 5%

•  Actions you will complete to meet the commitment;

Deliverables: tactical strategy you are taking to drive the outcomes
•  Provide customer service training to employees

How I will do it •  Review monthly customer survey results with team
•  Implement customer suggestion program


Guidelines for effective goal plans
Have at least 5 goals & no more than 10

Define goals to be independent of each other

Do not list personal development objectives
•  Goals can (and should) drive personal development, but are not the same as
development objectives
•  Example: instead of listing a commitment like “Learn Excel”, write the business reasons
driving this development objective, such as “support project X “ which will require
“learning Excel”

Personalize commitments to your job
•  Change names of cascaded goals; make them relevant to your role


Aligning goals to company strategy
CEO: Decrease operating costs by $5 million per
year

COO: decrease hospital acquired illness by 10%
over the coming year

Facilities Director: Implement occupational health
and safety programs in all departments

Cafeteria Manager: Develop and enforce proper
food handling procedures

Dishwashers: Ensure all dishes are cleaned using
water heated to a level that will kill bacteria


Goal cascading using commitments, outcomes,
deliverables method
1.
Manager
cascades
one
of
her
commitments
to
an
2.
The
employee
translates
this
into
two
commitments

employee
on
their
team
that
has
mul7ple
parts
based
on
those
aspects
that
are
relevant
to
his
role

Commitment Commitment 1

Employee’s Goal Plan
Manager ‘s Goal Plan

•  Improve product quality and reduce costs •  Re-engineer product inspection process
created by re-work Outcomes
•  Decrease product defect rate to less than 1
Outcomes per 10,000 units
•  Decrease product defect rate to less than 1 •  Shorten product inspection time by 5%
per 10,000 units Deliverables
•  Lower cost per unit manufacturing costs by •  Conduct Kaizen workshop with
5% manufacturing team during Q1
•  Document and train supervisors on new
Deliverables process by end of Q2
•  Re-engineer product inspection process
Commitment 2
•  Hire a process maintenance engineer
•  Implement alpha quality training across the •  Implement alpha quality training across the
manufacturing team manufacturing team
•  Re-negotiate vendor contracts to obtain Outcomes
higher quality raw materials •  Decrease product defect rate to less than 1
per 10,000 units
•  100% certification of manufacturing team
on Alpha quality process
Deliverables
•  Develop quality training curriculum
•  Arrange for training department to deliver
training for all employees by Q2

Making goals meaningful & motivational
Business
Objectives

Balancing what the
company needs, the
employee wants, & what
the employee can do

Career Employee
Objectives Capabilities

Not everyone wants the same thing
•  Want to be part of a •  Want to be confident
collective team that is they can do what is
fulfilling its mission expected of them
•  Goals that emphasize •  Goals that provide
a common vision recognition around
being a valued team
member
Group Oriented
Security
“Part of
something bigger “I have a clear &
than myself” important role”

•  Want to know what it •  Want to build and
takes to get tangible demonstrate their
rewards capabilities
•  Objective goals •  Goals that reflect a
directly tied to higher mission; going
objective rewards beyond status quo
Transactional Mastery
“Show me the “Be the best I
money” can be”


Integrating business goals & career objectives

5
Complete MBA
Lead Acquisition
Team
Self-Focused Business Driven
4
Development Goals Development Goals
"Stretch" Build New Project
Group
3

Conduct College
2 Under-utilization Recruiting Core Functional
(busywork) Goals
Write monthly Track & Manage
department newsletter Revenue Targets
1

Importance 1 2 23 3 4 5

Assessing goal accomplishment:

People who always exceed their goals are not setting difficult goals

24

Creating collaboration among
people with similar or shared goals

25

Using goals for business execution: shouldn’t
we talk about them more than twice a year?

Goal Creation Goal Updates

26

Use reporting to make goals relevant
and apparent to senior leaders

27

What managers and employees say
about good goal management

…better
relationship with
customers
…first time in 18
I understand
years that I’ve had
…improved how I fit in….
objectives…
accountability

More meaningful
discussions….


I hope we can continue the
conversation!

For more information and
a talent process maturity
assessment please
request a copy of the
white paper “Doing the
right things: Using goal
management to drive
Business Execution”

www.successfactors.com


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Techniques for Using Goals to Drive Business Execution: When
Just Being Smart Is Not Enough
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Techniques for Using Goals to Drive Business Execution: When Just Being Smart Is Not Enough

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