Objective planning is a universally recognized career development process. In any job, you will be asked to set your own objectives and be given certain objectives that your manager expects you to achieve throughout the year.
Objectives allow you to keep track of your progress and give you some purpose and direction within your role. Building your career is hard work, and often we get so used to ‘doing it’ that we lose sight of how far we’ve come, how much we’ve improved and developed during the process.
As a manager, it is absolutely essential you provide this structure for your employees and ensure they’re working towards achieving overarching business goals and aren’t feeling lost. There really is nothing worse than feeling like you have no direction and you’re waiting to be given tasks from the top down rather than able to define your own structure and way of working in order to meet your objectives and contribute to the business goals.
You have a responsibility as a manager to maintain motivation and morale within your team and setting objectives is a great way to do this.
However, setting these objectives isn’t as easy as randomly selecting a few things you think are easily trackable – they should be designed to challenge your team and help them build skills they may be currently lacking.
An objective should embody focus on all facets of an individual, their role within a team, and the larger organization around them.
For example, at the start of the year, I set my Head of Marketing, Sian an objective to win three new campaigns this year, primarily focused around the SME market. Every week, she will send me an update and outline the steps she’s taken to make this happen. By setting a clear, measurable, achievable and relevant objective, Sian is able to clearly outline her weekly tasks, always keeping her objective in mind.
Apart from setting yearly objectives and goals for your employees, you should also set objectives for the week that align with the ‘bigger picture’. Asking for weekly reports from your team will also help you keep track of progress and identify any struggles people are having that require your attention.
At the end of the day, this is all about giving your employees purpose. Everybody wants to do something they feel gives them purpose, something rewarding and worthwhile. How are they supposed to experience this if they don’t have clearly set out objectives to help them get there?
By James Caan CBE
Serial Entrepreneur and Investor
