ABSTRACT
Setting clear and effective objectives is one of the best means of driving high performance. Goal setting can be particularly powerful. Goals work by providing direction and increasing motivation, and decades of research demonstrate that well-defined performance goals can improve performance. However, many organizations implement performance goals in a way that undermines their effectiveness. SMART goals are set once a year and are too rigid and infrequent to impact performance in today’s dynamic work environment. This chapter provides a deeper understanding of how goals work and the characteristics of effective performance goals: importance, challenge, control, and specificity. It provides practical advice on how to create an approach to setting effective goals and expectations that includes increasing flexibility of goal-setting processes, choosing the right type of expectation for the work, focusing on goal accomplishment, and providing guidance and tools to managers to set goals effectively.
