Objectives should never be changed during the year unless something has caused the business model or department goals to change. Consistency is key to maximizing results.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
Objectives should never be changed during the year unless something has caused the business model or department goals to change. Consistency is key to maximizing results.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
Yes, everyone in the company should have objectives. Consider how inefficient a rowing team would be if one of the oarsman was not rowing in the same rhythm with his teammates. The same analogy holds true with employees in a company.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
Every employee should have assigned objectives and strategies. A new or less experienced employee may have fewer and less complex objectives and strategies. Having agreed upon objectives and strategies helps on-board new and less experienced employees much more quickly and efficiently.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
I normally use what I call the “Rule of Three” when determining when to get HR involved with an employee. The first missed deadline results in an e-mail or phone call reminder. If a second deadline is missed, I then schedule a face-to-face meeting with the employee. In this meeting we agree upon an action plan to resolve any issues and this action plan is signed and then placed in the employee’s personnel file. If a third missed deadline occurs, I would then set a face-to-face meeting with the employee, the HR department and myself. Failure to meet agreed upon deadlines after this 3rd meeting usually ends in termination of employment.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
If an employee is falling behind on a milestone, strategy or objective for the first time, an e-mail or phone call reminder may be all that is needed to get the employee back on track. If this does not correct the problem or more dates are missed, a face-to-face meeting should be scheduled. During this meeting the manager will ask the employee why the dates are being missed and then together they should develop an action plan to help the employee get back on track. The agreed upon action plan should be documented and signed by both the manager and employee and then placed in the employees personnel file. This process reinforces to the employee how important it is to meet the dates associated with each objective and also demonstrates how important these dates are to the manager as well as the entire organization.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
I think every manager should do a quick, once a week review of the “Objectives Overview Page”. This will insure all objectives are on track and if not, corrective action can be implemented early versus when it may be too late to meet required milestones.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
The beauty of this management tool is that setting up objectives and strategies is very easy to do. The manager’s set the objectives and then the employees set up their strategies to be reviewed and agreed upon by the management team. Once the vision or goals of he organization have been set, the MBO process can be accomplished in just several working days.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
To be effective, Management By Objectives should be initiated at the very top of the organization and then driven down to every manager and every employee. When you think about it, everyone in the organization should be working toward an agreed upon set of objectives and the real power of this management tool is recognized when each employee develops their own individual strategies to redeem their individual objectives. There is no better management tool available to insure every employee understands the vision of the organization and dedicates their efforts to redeem this vision.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
Yes, there may be circumstances when you have a team of people working on the same objective. In this situation each team member would have unique strategies to work on in order to redeem the common objective. The team members would meet at regularly scheduled times to review their progress with the other team members.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives
Normally objectives are set at the beginning of the fiscal year but the completion dates for objectives can be at any time during the fiscal year. There may be some circumstances when the business requires changing objectives after they have been set but this is the exception and not the rule.
Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives