Have you ever wondered why each & every (well, almost) organisation sets up goals?
How successful they are in achieving these goals or even executing the entire process, is a different thing altogether. But they do desire that goals are set & achieved.
For corporates, intent of goal setting mainly has been – to increase employee motivation (forward looking) & to assess their performance (looking back). The goal setting theory points to a few more pointers when asked the question – why goal setting? Namely –
As seen in the first chapter, the workspaces have become so fast paced that it is next to impossible for someone to remain focused. With unlimited knowledge at your fingertips & technological opportunities knocking on your door, there is a high chance of losing focus. To ensure only those tasks which are leading us towards our goal are performed & the irrelevant ones are discarded, employees need to be focused. And that focus comes from goals that are easily accessible & highly relatable.
Most of the time, flying a plane on auto-pilot is preferred than manually controlling it. Reason is – once the pilots provide it with the directions, it pretty much manages the complex stuff itself. Same is the case for getting work done. If you try to micromanage, not only that will hamper your productivity but also add to dissatisfaction among your employees. Rather, the best use of your & their time is to provide them with a direction & let them use their expertise to steer the organisation in the right direction.
By setting goals of appropriate difficulty, companies open doors for employees to innovate. It is a well documented fact that goals that do not challenge as well as the ones that are overly difficult tend to demotivate employees. For them to succeed in achieving their potential, they need the goals just at appropriate difficulty. Such goals inspire employees to keep going despite hurdles, big or small. Finding this sweet spot for all employees is truly a herculean task.