December 2019
MiMfg Magazine
Setting Goals That Can Become Reality
By John Keuning • Express Employment Professionals
Depending on your personality type, you might
not categorize setting your business goals as exciting
or adventurous. The ongoing charge of establishing
goals can easily become just another mundane task
to be completed. Or, even worse, it can be a
demoralizing exercise if you seem to fall short each
year. Doing something just for the sake of doing it is a
waste of time — and in today’s business environment,
you can’t afford to waste time. As a leader, you have
to find a way to create goals that blend the visionary
facet with the functional aspect, and there are three
key ways you can accomplish that.
Look Beyond the Goal
A well-crafted, well-thought-out goal is a
wonderful thing, but if you leave it at that, you’re
going to fail. The value of the goal is not the goal
itself, but the determination of the action steps most
likely to lead to achieving the goal. You must
establish an action plan for each of your goals, and
that plan has to incorporate every department and
employee in your business.
This means that you need to go beyond just
posting the company goals in the break room and
announcing them at the end-of-the-year party. You
need to break them down so that each division, each
department within those divisions, and each and every
employee in those departments has a specific and
measurable part to play in achieving the goals. It will
require some additional work, as well as cooperation
and collaboration among management but this is the
only way to convert your dream into reality.
Recognize Your Limitations
In case you haven’t realized it yet, the phrase
“you can achieve anything” isn’t completely true.
Everyone, and every company, has limitations. A
wise leader will recognize this fact, assess both
strengths and weaknesses, and then make educated,
achievable goals. Some goals are not achievable…
And unachieved goals don’t mean a missing
checkmark at the end of the year. When you set
goals that have no possibility of being met, you do
two things. First, you discourage and disengage
everyone in your organization. Second, you put your
business at risk by wasting valuable time and resources.
The combination of those two consequences is
enough to cripple, and even destroy, the best of
companies.
Break It Down
Once each area and individual in the company
has their own unique action plans, you’ll need to
break it down even more. Set your goals incremen-
tally, with short-term plans that take steps toward
the larger things you want to complete. That means
you pinpoint exactly which tasks are essential to
achieving the goals, and then narrow it down to
what needs to be accomplished in the year, each
quarter, each month, each week, and each day. This
is ultimately where the rubber meets the road and
how you make your goals realistic and timely.
Setting goals can result in some amazing
accomplishments, but you have to do more than slap
your top three wishes on some letterhead. Crafting
goals that are specific, motivating, achievable, realistic
and trackable takes effort. The outcome, however, is
well worth it. At the very least, you’ll find yourself
with more motivated and engaged employees, and,
at the very best, you’ll achieve your dreams and enjoy
all the rewards that come with them.
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John Keuning is director of manufacturing excellence
for Express Employment Professionals. He may be
reached at [email protected] or
616-281-0611.
This article originally appeared in the 2019
MFG Operations Conference event program.
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