Improving Action On Achieving Goals

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One of the common frustrations of business owners is that their people don’t seem to achieve as many of their goals as they would like. When you ask more questions around this, generally the real problem becomes evident. Firstly , it is worth mentioning that most business owners are entrepreneurs, someone who started it from just an idea years before. These people often then expect that their people are going to have the same motivation and drive that they have.

Well this simply isn’t likely as people are all different, but also it is probably for the best too. If you had a business that was filled with people who had the entrepreneurial drive and ambition, then it is likely that you would have different challenges. Those who started the business typically are not the same as the people who see the ideas into action. So if you are going to have someone to build y our product or deliver y our service then you need people who have different skills. The need for setting goals is talked about in many different books and articles. But where I think that business owners and leaders could improve is in the accountability for those goals. I saw this during my employment, the small team of five or six of us would get together and identify the goals for the quarter.

These would then be broken down into the different milestones and specific actions that we needed to take. But, because we were very busy doing the day to day work often progress was slow. This was complicated further when all team members were trying to get together to work on the goals, particularly taking into account part time worker hours and existing diary commitments. Where progress really worked well, was to have what Google term the DRI (Directly Responsible Individual). Now by this I don’t mean that one person was responsible for completing all of the work to achieve the goal. That would not have been fair. Instead the responsibility for seeing the goal through to completion was allocated to one person.

They then were the one who held the others in the team accountable for taking the necessary action. So, if your people are not achieving what you want them to, or if you are about to set team goals ask yourself… Am I expecting too much of them? If the answer is no, then consider who is responsible for driving the action on the goal?

About Joanne

I have worked for over 9 years with business owners helping them to improve their businesses, their teams and ultimately their lives. This has provided me with a strong understanding about how to improve a business and build an effective team. That is why I created SMART Support for Business Ltd. I am committed to helping business owners to achieve their goals and improve their businesses, their results and their teams. Whether that is by supporting you to take that step back and look at your business strategy, or formalise your business goals and to plan that first step; to understand what is really driving the results and what systems are helping or lacking; helping to give you a better understanding of the people in your team; or maybe even recruiting the right person for your business the first time.


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