Goal Setting - Does Stakeholder Participation make sense?

Like most people in my job description, things begin to really hot up as the year end approaches … the feeling of accomplishment in the past year, the excitement of the coming year, the rum laden fruit cakes and the wine and chocolate hampers that do the circuit to be shared with friends and family .. the year end is a simply wonderful time for all!

. Closing the year with all business revenue, margin, share, productivity and utilization goals accomplished is always a must do. However the intellect focused on closing the quarter and the year is constantly bombarded by the incessant flow of data requests for setting the goal for the next year

. In my early days as a people manager, I would be grossly offended by this ‘distraction’ related to next year planning when closing the financial year seemed like the most important thing on the planet to me. Over the years I admittedly wizened up as I began to appreciate the ‘other’ activity

. As we approach the year end we are typically in quarter four – i.e. three quarters have come and gone by and unfortunately the results will not change. Even the fourth quarter is mostly done and depending the nature of your position and your business you might have minor to meager influence on the final results at that point

. The following year on the other hand lies ahead like the proverbial ‘fresh sheet of snow’. You can (based on your position) at least partly determine what your individual, team or organization’s footprint will look like on that brand new surface. Does that not warrant some time, reflection and attention… easy choice, right?

. The Planning exercise for the following year usually has a Quantitative (revenue, margin, share, opex etc.) and a Qualitative (initiatives, go to market, coverage gaps, partnerships, resources, skills and infrastructure) component – make no mistake, both are equally crucial! Most organizations focus unduly on the Quantitative element while the smart outfits get the operating teams to focus on the Quantitative planning and goals to determine the ‘What’ while the Qualitative planning provides the ‘How’.

. It is unfortunate and alarming that most organizations spend very little time planning and more specifically socializing the next year goals with the broader set of people who are expected to deliver those goals

. That said, it is within every leader’s prerogative to socialize Quantitative and Qualitative objectives for the following year with some relevant people within her team after familiarizing them thoroughly with the overall organizational strategy framework.

. Socializing goals bottom-up leads to three specific values – firstly, it creates a sense of belonging, individual value and pride within the team, a feeling that their judgment and opinion matters in the organizational context; second, it brings up feedback and outlook from the trenches which lead to creation of potentially new initiatives, strategies and mindset to tackle the upcoming annual objectives; thirdly, planning Quantitative goals provides an avenue to do the necessary check and balance to determine whether the Quantitative goal is within the practical ‘zone’ and can be attained with a stretch

. In setting Quantitative goals, I have always preached a bottom-up and a top-down approach. A bottom up approach is fair because it provides the downstream participation and perspective based on several influencing factors. Both are welcome in considering and determining what goals need to be set, which needless to say needs to be top-down

. While seeking bottom-up feedback, it is crucial that the right set of expectations are set with the contributors – think like a shareholder of the company, size the opportunity correctly – if the final results differ significantly from your outlook you obviously will not look good, be aware that the Quantitative goals that you will be ultimately expected to work on will be determined with the consideration of many data-points including the ones you provide. The goals therefore might differ significantly from your recommendation. The right expectations upfront allow people to go through the exercise with the right mindset and prevent any potential heart burn downstream

. Try these out and see how you go. All I am preaching is commitment for ‘involvement with reason’ in lieu of ‘coercion’, ‘collaboration’ in lieu of ‘conflict’ and ‘participation’ in lieu of ‘alienation‘ in every stage of the next year Planning process ….. whatever the state of quarter four may be!!!!!