How To Set Team Goals? (9 Steps)

Having goals makes us productive in every hurdle in the work and business environment. It serves as our gasoline to have our lives run smoothly and accordingly. However, goal setting can be hard and tricky especially if you are the manager, businessman, or team leader. 

Accomplishment and success begin with goals, both in business and in life. Teams can unlock their full potential by setting challenging but attainable goals. Without them, progress and development are sporadic at best.

One of the most difficult aspects of management is setting goals. 

It is such a great opportunity to be able to manage a team or a big project because honestly, it is one of your dreams. The leader in you wants it! But how do you create team goals?

How to set team goals? First, identify the goals your team needs to achieve, make them measurable, prioritize each objective, and let your team create their own goals. 

Make sure your team sticks with the deadlines and tracks their progress by assisting them. Learn from your mistakes and don’t forget to celebrate the very success of your team. 

In this article, we will help you and your team streamline your goal-setting process and give your team a head start on improving their performance.

9 Steps On How To Set Team Goals

The difficulty of setting team goals doesn’t matter whether your company is just you and your co-founder or if you have 200 employees. Even though it can be time-consuming, it is essential to the success of your company.

Setting specific and challenging goals has been shown to lead to increased performance in the workplace. Individuals, teams, and the organization’s goals must all be in sync for this strategy to work.

If everyone understands how their work contributes, they will have a better chance of achieving their objectives.

Despite this, only 7% of employees have a complete understanding of their company’s business strategy and what they can do to help achieve organizational goals. 44% of those who are aware of the organization’s goals are unable to name them. 

In reality, there is a huge discrepancy between what is happening and what people expect to happen. To get the most out of your team, here are 9 steps you can take to set goals and monitor their progress.

1. Identify what you want to achieve 

As the team leader, you must first identify what you want to accomplish. You can begin by identifying areas of weakness in your company and establishing a goal to close these gaps.

As an alternative, you can set short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals for your business, campaign, or project. The important thing is to make sure that your team’s goals are challenging, but not out of reach.

2. Make the goals measurable

There are times when it’s tempting to set broad goals. The most effective way to set goals is to quantify them and give them a numerical value. Measurable outcomes allow you to see whether or not your team has met its objectives quickly and easily.

If you don’t have a way to track your progress, you won’t be able to achieve your goal. Having a successful month may be true, but how do you measure that?

Ascertain whether or not your objectives are measurable. Use the SMART goal framework to simplify the process. Your goals should be:

Specific: Your team will have a difficult time achieving its goals if they aren’t specific.

Measurable: Will you be able to track your progress in terms of dollars? Headcount?

Attainable: You can’t achieve a goal if you don’t believe you can succeed.

Relevant: Is there a connection between your goal and your company’s goals? If not, your time is being squandered.

Time-based: Decide on a realistic time frame. Is it possible for you to finish the project within a week? A month? 

3. Set goals at the team level

As soon as you’ve decided what you want to accomplish, set team goals. Teams function better as a unit when they have clear, challenging objectives to work toward.

It encourages them to work together rather than compete against each other. As previously mentioned, team objectives can be subdivided into more specific individual objectives.

Make a list of your objectives after you’ve identified them. Writing down your goals increases your chances of achieving them by 80%, according to research.

4. Prioritize team objectives

Setting team goals may seem like an obvious one, but it’s also possible for team members to have their own goals that they’d like to pursue. Having a set of goals for your team gives each member a sense of direction and provides a focal point for their efforts.

Everyone at the company can devise their plans to improve themselves in a way that will help the overall success of the company’s main objective.

5. Let your people create their own goals

After determining the team’s goals, give people the freedom to develop their own goals that are subordinate to those of the team. For their role, they should be able to identify key projects and goals that will contribute to the overall team’s success.

You should be available to assist them in developing meaningful and attainable goals by teaching them how to use the SMART framework. Measurement is a critical component to achieving team and organizational goals, so make sure your team members are aware of this.

6. Set and Stick to Deadlines

Your team will be held accountable for their actions if they are given a deadline. Setting a deadline and sticking to it is the best way to ensure that your team does not wander off and lose focus on the goal.

Don’t be scared of missing deadlines. Your team may fall short of the metrics by the project’s end date, but this is just a sign that they need to work harder to meet the goals. Or perhaps more time is needed to achieve the goal.

When deadlines are met or missed, you get a clear picture of where and how to improve your goal to achieve greater success.

7. Track Progress

Track the progress of each task to ensure that your team remains focused on the result once you’ve set team goals, individual goals, and deadlines for everything.

Once a week is a good rule of thumb for checking in on your progress, as it helps you see where you may need to make adjustments and how you can better allocate your resources to increase your chances of success.

To keep team members motivated, it is important to keep an eye on their progress toward the goals. In the light of their progress, they can think of new ways to improve.

8. Assist your people in achieving their goals

For the team leader, it is essential to help their employees achieve their goals, as well as to provide the team with a clear vision. It is possible to do this in a variety of ways.

• Assist your subordinates in learning how to set achievable goals.
• Check-in with each other frequently to see how things are progressing.
• You should be willing to answer questions or provide guidance for your team.
• Assist them in achieving their goals by providing them with advice.
• Assist your team in defining milestones as they work toward team or individual goals.
• Make sure your team knows what’s going well and what needs to be improved by providing them with regular feedback.

9. Learn from your mistakes

Not all of your goals may be achieved. In hindsight, some may have been set higher on purpose, some may not be realistic, or may have suffered from unpredictable changes during this quarter. That’s just the nature of the job and the unpredictability you face.

The goal should not be the be-all and end-all of the team’s work, but rather a way to guide their efforts. That doesn’t mean you’re going to accept mediocrity or that goals don’t matter when you’re open to failure. 

It means that no one can guarantee that anything will work out in the long run. Rather than dwelling on your blunders, you should try to figure out what you can do better next time. Move on to more rewarding endeavors.

10. Celebrate success 

Recognition for a job well done is often the best reward. Each team member who accomplishes their goal should be commended. In a group, this can be done more effectively. If everyone on the team hears your praise, it has a much greater impact.

Every month, have a quick team meeting to go over the month’s accomplishments and recognize the individuals who took the initiative to make them a reality. Inquire with them about the lessons they’ve taken away that they can share with the rest of the team.

Conclusion

Always keep in mind the purpose of goal-setting and how it can be put to good use. To find a goal-setting format that works for your team, try a few different approaches. You should keep going even after you’ve achieved your first goal.

Achieving one goal will help you get closer to your ultimate goal. Setting goals is the only way to keep moving forward toward your ultimate goal.

Communication is essential at every stage of the process to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands why the objectives have been set. Don’t forget about the personal development of your team members in addition to your project goals.