Future version features

Review the organization’s mission, or purpose. A mission is a broad statement of an organization’s purpose that provides an overall guide to what organizational members think is important. Managers should review the mission before writing goals because goals should reflect that mission.

Evaluate available resources. You don’t want to set goals that are impossible to achieve given your available resources. Even though goals should be challenging, they should be realistic. After all, if the resources you have to work with won’t allow you to achieve a goal no matter how hard you try or how much effort is exerted, you shouldn’t set that goal. That would be like the person with a $50,000 annual income and no other financial resources setting a goal of building an investment portfolio worth $1 million in three years. No matter how hard he or she works at it, it’s not going to happen.

Determine the goals individually or with input from others. The goals reflect desired outcomes and should be congruent with the organizational mission and goals in other organizational areas. These goals should be measurable, specific, and include a time frame for accomplishment.

Write down the goals and communicate them to all who need to know. Writing down and communicating goals forces people to think them through. The written goals also become visible evidence of the importance of working toward something.

Review results and whether goals are being met. If goals aren’t being met, change them as needed.

Questions

1. Are stretch goals appropriate? Explain your response.

2. Take one of the 5 challenges listed, and discuss how managers can address it.