As a leader in your organization,  it is your responsibility to engage your team and keep them motivated.   While leading by example is important to all business owners, it's also important to put tangible action plans in place to ensure your team is on the right track.  Doing this correctly will bring visibility not only to you and your business, but also your employees ensuring they are not left guessing whether or not they're successful in their role, and creating accountability on both sides. 

So how do you go about creating efficient and effective actions plans that are both achievable and challenging?   At  ITBD, we call this setting S.M.A.R.T. performance objectives.   Each letter stands for a quality that should be attributed to your performance objectives. 

S  is for Specific 

Be specific about the action items you expect your team to complete on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.   Leave no grey area to ensure both you and your staff are clear on exactly what needs to be accomplished.   For example, don't ask your sales leader to create an effective sales strategy; that's too generic.  Understand what contributes to an effective sales strategy, like consistent touch points, and make that part of your performance objective.  

M is for Measurable

You can't manage what you can't measure.  Make sure you have metrics in place for the objectives you want your team to achieve.  This allows you to measure the success of the each one of your objectives.  It is also a clear and fair way for your team members to track their performance and see where they stand against the goals set for them.  

A is for Attainable 

When creating the objectives you want your team to achieve, make it a collaborative effort.  This ensures you are creating goals that your team members feel comfortable with.  Your staff knows their own capabilities better than anyone else.  Let them be a part of the process so you can create an action plan that they feel they can actually attain.  

R is for Realistic 

Don't ask your employees to shoot bullets at the moon and expect them to hit it.   The idea to is to keep your team motivated to consistently move forward.  Setting unrealistic objectives does the opposite of this, completely demotivating your staff.  We all know how good it feels to hit a  goal or complete a specific task.  Give your team the opportunity to do so by creating realistic objectives.  

T is for Time Bound

 All your objectives should have a timeline or deadline for completion.  If you don't set a specific time frame to your objective,  it will stay in progress forever.    Setting daily, weekly, and monthly objectives along with deadlines for larger projects fosters consistent forward progress for both your team and your business.  

Following these guidelines will help set the right expectations for all members of your team.  It also allows your entire team to have a clear understanding of what is considered important.  You can then work together towards one tangible outcome; the success of your business.  

Here at IT By Design we use dashboards to measure, monitor, and maintain our S.M.A.R.T performance objectives and we're always happy to share.  If you're interested in getting an example of our Engineer or Sales Daily Dashboard, please fill out the form below, leaving your request in the comment field.