Meeting company level objectives are crucial to the success of any business. However, equally imperative is the achievement of personal goals. The two don’t need to contradict whatsoever. There are some things that the company, HR, and leadership can do to ensure that their team successfully aligns their personal goals with company goals, and other things that individuals can do to align their objectives with company objectives.
Interesting fact: Andrew Grove is considered to be the person who invented “Objectives and Key Results”, and a keen student of his, John Doer, took it to the next level by implementing collaborative goal-setting, and ensuring that individuals don’t just set easily achievable goals, but that each of the goals is measurable.
Aligning your personal goals with company goals: why it’s important
Before getting into how goals can be aligned, let’s understand why they are important.
- Meshing personal and company goals makes it easier to create a more solid, effective, and measurable strategy for businesses. It is essential to include your workforce’s personal objectives as milestones in achieving the overall objective.
- As an employee, when your goals are aligned with company goals, contributions, efforts, and results are much clearer. From a company perspective, employees are more driven to contribute when their personal goals are met even as the company achieves its goals.
- From a personal perspective, checking your growth and having a sense of security about your value to the organization allows you to focus more on your job, rather than the worth of your job to yourself and others.
- Companies can set annual goals, monthly goals, and even weekly goals, but if your team doesn’t see how such goals factor into their personal goals, you won’t get very far. Set clear objective key results for the company, then break those down further to include how each person can contribute, and what’s more, how each individual can meet their personal goals in the process. More clarity is ensured with a clear idea of what they get out of it and what the company gets out of each milestone.
- Disengagement can often arise when employees assume their contributions are not being valued. This can also happen when they perceive they are contributing a lot of their time and effort for the company, while their personal growth or goals are not being achieved. This is especially the case when it comes to teams working together; if an individual, team, and organization are not aligned towards the same goals, rupturing disengagement can be very unfortunate.
- Meanwhile, when each individual and team work towards the bigger picture, with their roles in the bigger picture clearly defined, the team, and hence, the organization as a whole becomes more engaged, motivated, and will likely achieve company goals easily.
How companies can help align personal and business goals
Set clear organisational goals
Organisational goals can be set from the top, or can be created with input from all levels of an organisation. The most important aspect is to ensure that the goals are clearly defined, easy to understand, and measurable.
Allow employees to contribute in setting goals
A key part of setting organisational goals is to involve your team. After all, they will have to meet the objectives, find out which goals they think are important, and attempt to incorporate them into the overall strategy.
Ensure leadership is vested in achieving these goals
Goals may be set by operations teams, HR teams, or even finance teams. The key to ensuring that your workforce adheres to these goals is ensuring that the leadership effectively backs these goals. This means they have to be vocal about their support, and proactively exhibit their desire to achieve these goals.
Communicate goals clearly, consistently, and to everyone involved
Ensure that everyone involved knows what the goals are, understands how each goal can be achieved, and that they are updated on even minor changes. Communicate the goals, update teams on the success of achieving the goals, and ensure communication is transparent.
Support your team in achieving their goals
Once your team knows what their goals are, make sure they have the tools, skills, and knowledge required to achieve the goals. This may mean providing them with the right equipment and training them.
Hire the right fit
A crucial aspect is hiring the right people. If your goals are ambitious and require long-term commitment, you need to hire people with similar mindsets. You also have to ensure that your new-hires fit into your organisational culture.
Rewards
Companies will find that individuals who are rewarded for achieving company goals will work harder towards achieving them. Ensure your employees have a stake in your business growth, and they will achieve your goals; after all, their goals and yours align.
How individuals can align their goals with company goals
Express your wants
Talk to your leadership and let them know exactly what kind of goals you have set for yourself. Next, have a sit down and figure out how you can contribute to the organisation while pursuing your own goals.
Work on developing new skills and attributes
If your goal is to get a promotion as a project manager, you must be able to showcase your skills and attributes that are relevant for that role. This may mean stepping out of your comfort zone and learning new things. You may also want to look at getting specific certifications to ensure you have the knowledge to execute the job.
Be a part of the process
Don’t hesitate to offer your feedback and input wherever you think it will help. Once you’ve done that, don’t sit back. Follow up and ask what is being done about your feedback. You are on the ground every day, and while management likely has a great overall strategy, you may be able to offer details that are imperative to the overall success of that strategy.
Set your own goals
While you probably have a set of objectives that the company wants you to achieve, set short-term goals for yourself. Be clear on what you want and understand how you can achieve each goal.
Find a balance
Company goals are important; you should work to achieve each one and ensure that you hit your targets. It is equally important that you find time to fit your goals into the picture and achieve each one of them. If you find you are achieving company goals but not your own, or vice versa, you need to take a step back and ask your leadership for help.
Allow your work to fit into the big picture
Whether you are talking about departmental goals, overall company goals, or even personal goals, keep in mind that you are part of a larger team that is working towards achieving something. You may be a senior lead on a project; however, your contribution goes into a much larger pool of contribution that many people add to.
Some final tips
Be a team player: Take the time and effort to understand how each member in your team is contributing, and work towards helping and supporting each other. Find out the gaps in meeting the goals and address them openly, discuss, and come up with a joint plan to resolve them.
Be patient: You probably deserve a promotion, you probably want to take on different responsibilities, or maybe you want to improve your current career path. Whatever your personal professional objectives are, be patient. Set a clear calendar and give yourself and your organisation time to achieve these goals.
Be consistent: Perseverance pays off. While some of your personal goals may be lofty, don’t let that stop you. Create smaller goals to build up the bigger one, and check them off one at a time. If you find that you are unable to achieve your goals, you may want to consider changing your strategy.
Get the right tools: This is crucial for companies. You need to have a great strategy and the right set of tools to be able to realise that strategy. Mesh offers a powerful platform for all your needs, whether it is setting and communicating goals to all your team members, or creating personal action plans for everyone. With cutting-edge technology created by professionals who understand HR, aligning personal and company goals becomes easy and efficient.
