There’s nothing more essential than good old-fashioned communication in order to get your team on the same page with your goals for the business and personal. I was recently reminded this past weekend when I made the purchase of a trailer for travel. Anyone’s first experience with backing the trailer’s twenty-eight feet to a small space is accompanied by two issues:
1.) Someone who can help you.
2.) A lot of stress.
If your team, or in my case, my spouse, isn’t aware of precisely where you’d like to travel, how to get there, and what you need to do to complete the task, effort and time are frequently wasted. I was assuming that my wife understood that ‘if I don’t have mirrors, I’m not able to see you.’ Hand signals work better than shouting.
I could have stopped my camper in a matter of minutes and with less stress if I’d simply followed these three basic rules to communicate objectives:
1. CLEAR
vision Does your team understand precisely what you intend to accomplish, the reason it’s important, and how they have to work to achieve success for all. If it’s as simple as ‘we must remain within five feet distance of connections in order to get water and power. It’ll require you to remain at my feet and indicate to change direction, either to the left or right’ or your team must start 45 new accounts over the next 30 days and provide them with instructions and tools for how to do it. It can be done either one-on-one or during the course of a meeting. In either case, it is essential to write down the goals as well as a step-by-step plan of how they are going to complete these.
2. Team Buy-In
My former boss once said that even a five-year young person could establish and communicate goals. However, making your team take them on as their own to believe in them and fervently pursue them requires the leadership of a leader. One of the simplest ways to make sure that your team buys it is to allow your team to be an integral part of the goal-setting process. Have you ever asked your employees to list three goals they wish to accomplish in the month ahead? I’m sure you’ll be amazed. The majority of employees will set higher goals than you want to set them. Accepting them or even going against them will guarantee that you’ve got someone who’s dedicated to your goals.
3. CONSTANT FEEDBACK
My very first attempt at backing into the trailer, I was aborted frequently with stop you’ve gone too far. I was then forced to move forward and then start from scratch. Instead, your team should receive weekly or daily ‘check-ins’ and ‘check-outs.’ They should also be aware of them and what time you’ll hold them accountable. Most employees will instantly believe that you are trying to manage them by micromanaging their work process. Therefore, it is crucial for you to establish the expectations and timeframes prior to when you set goals. Be sure that they know the importance of your input. Vital to ensuring their efficiency. Make sure they know that it could be just as easy as “Great job” Continue the great work.
In the end, regardless of whether you employ one person or parking attendant or an entire team of 25, the effort and time that you invest in setting goals and communicating them are more crucial than actual goals.
