3 Mistakes You Should Avoid When Setting Your Goals
Goals are essential for the success of your business and projects. Clear objectives help to achieve your tasks better. However, personal goals are much different from team goals. Personal goals are often based on your own feelings, beliefs, and values. But you can’t lead a team based on your personal feelings and opinions.
Most Common Mistakes You Should Avoid When Setting Team Goals
Unfortunately, many managers and business owners still mistake mixing personal ambitions when setting team goals. Because of this mistake, you may set unattainable and unreal goals. As a result, the team loses much money, time, and, most importantly – motivation.
So, let’s discuss what you should avoid at all costs when setting team goals.
- Setting Too Many Goals
Having ambitions is one thing; overplanning is another. Of course, it would be ideal if everyone could multitask and work on several projects simultaneously. And although it is possible, this tactic can easily overwhelm and demotivate your employees. After all, most people can focus on one thing at a time, and constant multitasking will affect their mental health.
Do you want to focus on content marketing? Great! But don’t ask the people working on this task also manage your PPC campaigns. If you keep adding goals all at the same time, all your plans will remain not achieved.
- Setting Goals Based on Your Gut Feeling and Not Data
As mentioned above, mixing personal feelings with a team project is not a good idea. Unfortunately, many managers try to guide the team based on their individual beliefs. But doing this, you risk making all the wrong decisions. If you fail, it will stop the company’s growth and damage your authority among employees.
What you really want to do is base your goals on previous data. This is when ERP software can help you significantly. This type of software is not only effective for managing current operations but also for analyzing data. Learn from your past by analyzing previous project results and setting your goals according to them.
- Setting Goals Without The Team’s Input
Goal setting can’t be based only on your opinion or previous data. Often, people who work on projects know the task the best. Chances are, your team members already know all the underwater rocks and issues from previous projects. So why not use their opinion?
You may get impressive results when you collaborate with your team instead of ignoring their opinion. Additionally, you may achieve the goals much easier and with less budget than expected. After all, it may turn out that less expensive online brochures work a lot better than expensive physical advertisements.
Final Thoughts
Leading people is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. Managers and business owners have their hands complete with different tasks and responsibilities. Moreover, the most critical responsibility – setting team goals, is also on their shoulders. You have to consider various issues that may arise among the way.
However, there are several mistakes you surely want to avoid. We have only scratched the surface, but now you have a basic understanding of what not to do as a leader. You want to rely on this information and set attainable and realistic goals to lead your team in the right direction.
