Improve employee engagement and team performance with shared goals

… there is no getting around the fact that the only measure of a great team – or a great organisation – is whether it accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish.

In his insightful book, The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni focuses specifically on results as a highly influential factor of a successful team. This may sound like common sense, but it’s surprising how many teams don’t have a clearly defined set of goals and objectives to work towards. How do companies like this measure employee performance? Furthermore, how do team members achieve employee satisfaction if there is no measure of achievement?

Time and time again, we see employees making things more complex than they need to be. If a team achieves what it set out to achieve, it’s a good team. If it doesn’t, then even though all employees may have tried hard, it’s not a good team.

So how do you ensure employees are not only working hard but working hard on the right things to have a real impact on business performance and achieve the desired results?

It’s all about communication.

Shared goals lead to better results

… when it comes to how a cohesive team measures performance, one criterion sets it apart from non-cohesive teams: its goals are shared across the entire team. - Patrick Lencioni

Now, this may sound simple enough, but there can be some challenges in achieving this.

Firstly, many leadership and management teams may tend to be slightly more concerned with the results of their own business unit or department rather than looking at the bigger picture.

And secondly, there can be some resistance amongst senior leaders to share organisational goals and objectives amongst the entire business. After all, if we share these aspirational goals and then don’t achieve them, there can be an element of embarrassment or failure.

When an organisation prioritises sharing goals and objectives through effective communication across the entire team (they’ve usually created an open and honest culture in which to do so), the results are fantastic.

Here are four main benefits of sharing organisational goals that I’ve seen in companies I work with:

1. Employees understand their role in helping the company achieve its goals and can visualise how their hard work impacts overall business performance.

2. Employees understand the bigger picture and what is essential for the business, above and beyond their immediate area/department.

3. Employees feel important, included and engaged in the business vision, resulting in high performance.

4. Employee recognition can then become part of the organisational culture as full visibility of performance towards these goals is established.

With these benefits in mind, the question arises around how to effectively communicate your business goals and objectives throughout all teams and employees. And, once these goals are shared, employees then need to plan out the actions they could take to have a positive impact.

Many businesses use shared spreadsheets and word documents to do this and update them as they go. However, there are several systems out there, including our award-winning 1-3-5® OKR software, that will help you automate the process and embed goal-setting and achievement into the culture of your organisation, ultimately driving high performance and groundbreaking results. For more help on this, check out our blog containing 8 steps to cascade your company vision effectively.

In today’s world of remote working, employee engagement can be a more significant challenge than it once was. So, effectively communicating the overall business objectives and goals is more important than ever to get everyone working in sync and on the same page. Check out our blog for 8 tips to align and engage distributed teams to maximise focus on key strategic objectives.

One team, one dream

Whichever method you choose to share business goals and focus your team’s resources on clear outcomes, it’s critical to build one team with one vision that everyone is aligned to. That’s the key to getting things done and being more successful. Check out our blog - Improve employee engagement with 5 everyday leadership practices for more guidance on this topic.

Achieving high performance requires immense drive and determination. Having a clear vision provides direction and focus that will facilitate success. For more help on setting and achieving your goals, check out our blog to learn how Milestones help you stick to your big goals and discover 10 goals setting tips, including Warren Buffet’s key to success.

If you are looking to achieve better or faster results in your business, send us a quick email at hello@reclaro.com, and we will be happy to explore ways we can help you grow.