Goal setting allows for a quicker execution of company strategy. Without good alignment to strategy, every bit of forward motion is a struggle. With everyone working together towards the same objectives, your company can execute strategy faster, with more flexibility and adaptability. Essentially, goal alignment strengthens your leadership and creates organizational agility.
Using goal alignment to communicate expectations, document progress, and identify employee strengths and weaknesses enables management to act and make strategic decisions rapidly. By ensuring that your employees understand what your organization is trying to achieve, and how his or her role— and performance — contributes to the organization's core mission, you can focus their efforts on your company's most important goals.
Clearly communicating aligned goals ensures that valuable time is not wasted on unrelated tasks. It is important for everyone at an organization to understand how their work supports the short and long-term goals of the company. When employees execute on individual goals that are aligned with the overall organizational goals, they are effectively sharing the responsibility for reaching the same objectives. When goals are aligned and someone misses their goal—managers can identify it simply and step in with necessary coaching or additional resources to get back on track more easily.
Managers can make a positive difference in an employee’s performance, but only if they are crystal clear on organizational needs or else their well-intentioned coaching may miss the mark.
