Clarifying Goals

All too often, bosses feel like they know what the goals are and so do the employees.

Bosses live with the impression that their goals have been clearly communicated. Yet, this is rarely true.

FranklinCovey has researched more than 500,000 individuals and more than 5,000 teams on the topic of goal clarity. This research has included organizations across a wide spectrum of industries, including for-profit, nonprofit, government and military organizations, and educational institutions around the world. On average, only 19 percent of individuals in any organization or team can tell you the organization’s top priorities.

Gaining clarity on top goals is a core component of a high-performance organization.

Your goals are not your job description; everything you do in your job is not a wildly important goal (WIG). You will know when you have effectively provided goal clarity when.

• You’ve identified a few critical WIGs—goals that if not achieved, will make the rest of your efforts irrelevant.
• These WIGs are specific and measurable.
• You are confident that the individual’s WIGs are in line with the goals and purposes of the organization.
• The leader and individual performer both agree on the WIGs and are willing to evaluate performance based on specific targets, milestones, and benchmarks along the way.
• The individual performer feels totally supported, with all the resources needed to achieve his or her WIGs.

You might think these steps are obvious and not worth mentioning, but experience has taught us otherwise. Goal clarity is vital. We must never assume everybody knows and understands the goal. In our new book, Talent Unleashed, we provide readers with the framework to have conversations to effectively establish clear goals.