As the year starts to wind down, the final few weeks of work is a great time to start thinking about setting goals for the new year.
Dorkily, I love setting goals. They give me purpose, help me define where to focus, and keep me organized.
Why Goals Matter
Goals are an indicator the organization moving toward more strategic success. However, goals also help our departments get better at the work each member brings to the table.
I also think goals serve prevent us from getting complacent and teach us a growth mindset. We can always learn something new, improve a practice, and goals help us create that culture for ourselves and our teams. We never arrive, and setting goals helps keep our work aspirational.
In a world where marketing and communications teams must continually show ROI and impact, I think goals are also a valuable way to show how we’re moving the needle on important projects and developing processes that help the institution as a whole.
Ways to Think About Goals
There are several ways to approach setting goals, and I think these all have value. If you’re in a leadership position, I’d encourage you to visit with your leadership about what makes the most sense for your organization. If you’re not in a leadership role, visit with your leader about how you should be approaching your goals for the upcoming year.
The moral of the story is the more conversation the better! Better goals. Better alignment. Better outcomes.
Strategic Plan
A great place to start thinking about professional goals is through the strategic plan. At UA Little Rock we have a university strategic plan, and we have built a marketing and communication strategic plan to align with the university plan. Then, we’ve broken up that plan by what we want to accomplish in each year. When working with the team, I’m then able to use that document to have conversations with each member about what goals make sense for them, based on what is in the goals our department has agreed upon for the year. Last year was the first full year we had this level of detail, and I think it helped to ensure the goals served a key business purpose. Additionally, when others on campus had goals for us, it gave us the ability to counter those if they didn’t align with the strategic plan.
Marketing Maturity Model
Our team has built a marketing maturity model in the last year and has assessed where we stand in each area of our model. It’s a project in infancy, but I suspect as the team gets more comfortable with this work, we’ll see goals begin to come from this as well. For example, we have a goal in the plan to have a champion for each piece of MarTech. That champion (our hope) is will fully explore the software and bring learnings to the group to help us streamline, standardize, and be more efficient. As such, I could see some of those champions set goals related to time learning their software and presenting what they’ve learned. This is just one example from the plan, but I cans see several instances where the plan begins to drive individuals goals of the team members.
Personal Development
Another important way to think about goal setting for the team is understanding where the person wants to go professionally. If a person has a desire to advance in three years, what are the things we can be doing to support that? Are there specific projects they can play a role in to give them experience in an area? Are there people they can shadow to learn more? Are there small ways to give them leadership opportunities to help them develop leadership skills? This first step in this involves knowing the team member and what they’re looking to accomplish in their career. Higher education (unlike many places) does not have great succession planning or career development, so I think it’s important as a leader to really work on this with the team. While this is important, I also think it’s critical to make sure that it aligns with the overall work of the team. We have to serve our people, but we have to find ways to do it within the scope of work that’s happening. If we start creating projects to give team members opportunities that’s time we’re not spending on the work that matters. This just means we have to be intentional within the work to give people meaningful opportunities.
Encouraging Your Team in Their Goals
Model the behavior
I set goals for myself each year and follow the same model of matching goals to both the strategic plan and my personal development. I also tell the team my goals. I want them to hear from me what I’m planning for myself to help them understand how the ripple effect might impact them and their work.
Check In
I also think it’s critical to not only create goals but have regular check ins. I try to check in every other month in our staff meeting and monthly in 1:1 meetings with team members. I think both of these help keep goals top of mind. Additionally, this regular touch in helps keep everyone on track and helps to minimize end of year stress of trying to meet goals that haven’t been worked on.
Celebrate the Wins
Something I haven’t done yet but am thinking about is finding a way in staff meetings to celebrate when a team member completes one of their goals. I want the team to see others succeeding in the work and beginning recognized for it. I’m not sure how that would work yet, but it’s something I’m mulling around.
Need Your Help?
What’s missing? How are you thinking about goals for you, your teams, and your organizations? What are things we can learn from your process?
If you have a great idea, please comment on this post. I’d love to hear it!
And Carrie On 