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Part 3 • Motivating
Putting a time target on each goal is important because it reduces ambiguity, but keep in mind that deadlines should not be chosen arbitrarily. The reason is that people tend to stress whatever time span is attached to any given goal. If daily goals are assigned, the time focus will be 1 day. If quarterly goals are set, actions will be directed accordingly. The message here is twofold. First, to rephrase Parkinson’s law, effort toward a goal will be expended to fill the time available for its completion. Give people a month to complete a task that requires a week, and they’ll typically take the full month. Second, overemphasis on short-term goals can undermine long-term performance. Short-range time targets encourage people to do whatever is necessary to get immediate results, even if it’s at the expense of achieving long-term goals. 5. Prioritize goals. When someone is given more than one goal, it is important to rank the goals in order of importance. The purpose of this step is to encourage the employee to take action and expend effort on each goal in proportion to its importance. 6. Rate goals according to their difficulty and importance. Goal setting should not encourage people to choose easy goals in order to ensure success. This is an extreme illustration, but no employee should be able to say, “My goal was to do nothing and I’m pleased to say I achieved it.” Goal setting needs to take into account the difficulty of the goals selected and whether individuals are emphasizing the right goals. In this step, each goal should be rated for its difficulty and importance. When these ratings are combined with the actual level of goal achievement, you will have a more comprehensive assessment of overall goal performance. This procedure gives credit to individuals for trying difficult goals even if they don’t fully achieve them. An employee who sets easy goals and exceeds them might get a lower overall evaluation than one who sets hard goals and only partially attains them. Similarly, an employee who reaches only low-priority goals and neglects those with high priorities could be evaluated lower than one who tries for important goals and only partially achieves them. 7. Determine coordination requirements. Is the achievement of any person’s goals dependent on the cooperation and contribution of other people? If so, a potential for conflict exists. It is important in such cases to ensure that these goals are coordinated. Failure to coordinate interdependent goals can lead to territorial fights, abdication of responsibility, and overlapping of effort. Obtaining Goal Commitment The mere existence of goals is no assurance that employees accept and are committed to them. However, certain actions by managers can increase acceptance of and commitment to goals.12 1. Managerial support. Managers need to create a supportive climate in which goals are seen as a device for clarifying employee expectations rather than as a manipulative tool for threatening and intimidating subordinates. Managers exhibit support by helping employees select challenging goals and by reducing barriers that stand between employees and the attainment of their goals. This means, for example, making sure employees have the necessary equipment, supplies, time, and other resources to complete their tasks. Managers are supportive when subordinates view them as goal facilitators. 2. Use participation. Employee participation in goal setting is a key to getting goals accepted. To be effective, however, the participation must be authentic. That is, employees must perceive that managers are truly seeking their input. If a manager merely goes
