Are you a finisher? Do you love the feel of completing a task and checking it off your list? Goal completion is a strong human motivator. Yet, writing significant goals that have a positive impact on the work environment can be tough. Here’s a framework to consider the next time you begin to draft performance goals for yourself or an employee.
Goals fall into two categories: “be” goals and “do” goals.
Be goals are goals that define an expectation for how the employee is to act. Goals that describe how we want the employee to “be” are behavioral. Examples of “be” goals include:
- Provide helpful customer service to each citizen who comes to the counter.
- Arrive to work by 8:00 a.m. each morning.
- Wear your personal protective equipment at all times on the jobsite.
Because “be” goals describe how you want the person to behave, they are on-going and often very difficult to measure. When you describe how you expect an employee to perform the work the outcome is often a general description of your expectations. Be goals usually are also expressed in your policies, procedures, and other documentation. Generally “be” goals apply to anyone in the job, rather than to a specific individual. As a result, they are usually not very exciting.
Instead of developing “be” goals, focus on writing “do” goals. Do goals define specific outcomes and are easily measured. Do goals can be observed and establish a clear path for the employee to follow. Examples of “do” goals are:
- Conduct all required preventive maintenance activities on the ABC pump each month and document the completion of the work in the monthly log.
- Research available electronic payment systems and write a report on your findings, including recommendations for moving forward by April 30.
- Write a procedure manual for the establishment of new clients and present it to the team for approval by August 15.
While “be” goals can be developed as specific, measurable, and time-focused, they are often so general that they do not challenge the employee to complete something tangible. To more fully motivate employees with your goal-setting process, focus on drafting “do” goals that challenge them to produce a concrete result.
You can find a complete discussion of goal setting as part of the performance evaluation process in my book, Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day-to-Day Employee Performance.
