There are two basic ways to assign an objective to an employee. The first way is for the manager to assign the objective with a completion date. With this approach, the objective is a directive from the manager and the employee is expected to comply. This approach has a low success rate. The preferred way is to meet with the employee to review the objective being assigned and then ask the employee to develop their own strategies to complete this objective. In this scenario the employee has personal input, becomes vested in the Objective and therefore the likelihood of success is much higher.

Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives