Most organizations today are goal-driven and analytic-oriented. Setting the right goals is key for driving performance and moving the organization toward its long-term vision.
Team goals are performance objectives that require the contributions of everyone on the team. The best team goals are co-created with the team members and aligned with larger organizational goals.
Team goals have some important differences from the goals you might set for yourself. Think of the difference between an individual sport (tennis) and a team sport (basketball).
As an example, a coaching client of mine recently came to a coaching session saying her team needed to improve on communication with internal stakeholders. She is the senior director of a team that provides enterprise-wide support, meaning many different divisions of the tech company have simultaneous projects that need her team’s attention. The team had recently doubled in size, with new hires brought on board to meet the increasing demand. And while they were excelling at the quality of the work, many internal stakeholders complained to my client that they were not receiving status updates on their projects.
Benefits of team goals
Setting team goals collaboratively with your team has many benefits for you as the leader, your team members, and the organization as a whole.
Team goals help team members understand how their individual work fits within the group.
Team goals provide a clear direction and plan-of-action for your team.
Team goals facilitate better accountability and encourage ownership
Team goals create opportunities to build trust and collaboration.
Team goals contribute to the professional growth and development of new skills among team members.
Team goals provide a structure for measuring individual and group-level progress.
Creating team goals may help you identify overlooked or unassigned priorities.
Team goals can be used to evaluate performance.
Team goals clarify the contribution the team is making to the organization.
The practice of coming together to define and agree on goals is beneficial in and of itself, giving the group time and space to reflect on where they are, what the team has accomplished, and where it wants to go. The process should raise points of misunderstanding, provide opportunities to clarify, and highlight conflicting priorities. Finally, the exercise allows everyone on the team to feel, and truly be, more bought-in to the goals and more invested in the results. Team goal-setting is a valuable exercise that shouldn’t be rushed through or done as proforma.
