How to Create Goal Alignment with a Top-Down Approach

We are nearing the end of the year and most of us in management positions are being asked to provide our plans for next year including budgets, staffing plan, high level project identification, and numerous plans.

Thought the year I try to take stock of my position consistently but we all get wrapped up in the daily routine and sometimes loose the big picture—we can’t see the forest thought the trees. I take a fairly methodical three step approach to establishing direction:

• Review high-level objectives or guiding principles
  
• Identify areas that I can impact
  
• Establish SMART goals that are aligned to the objectives or principles
  
• Define action plans associated with the SMART goals
  

Review high-level objectives or guiding principles

Every person or organization ought to define their purpose and relevant priorities. For many companies this is likely aligned with creating stakeholder value while personal objectives may be more nebulous.

The objectives become driving factors for future action and provide the opportunity to define individual goals more precisely.

For example a company may establish a high level objective to, “Obtain 80% profitable growth in the next 3 years in core markets” or “Reduce order turn-around time after receipt of order.”

Identify areas that I can impact

Not every objective is something that I can directly impact or my opportunity to impact the objective may be limited. Since I cannot have a meaningful impact on all objectives I prioritize those I can influence.

If I am responsible for sales in the organization in the previous example I have the direct ability to influence growth and an indirect ability to influence the production process so my first priority would be to establish goals associated with that “profitable growth “objective.

Establish SMART goals that are aligned to the objective and principles

Once I identify areas I can influence I establish goals associated with each of the objectives but to ensure that are actionable I make sure that they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. This approach ensures that there is enough information associated with the goal to keep the responsible parties accountable for the actions.

For a company seeking 80% growth in three years a SMART goal me be to, “Identify and contact thirty new sales prospects per month” or “Win the line review with Big Box Retailer W by April”. Each of these provides specific outcomes that can be measured within a given time period so the responsible parties can be held accountable for the results.

Define action plans associated with the SMART goals

Once the goals are established actions plans are used to ensure that we know the next defined action for each goal and to measure progress. Without a plan of action goals tend to languish under the daily tasks and loose priority.

For a sales organization seeking thirty new sales prospects per month some of the defined actions may be actions like:

• “Complete online marketing campaign targeting bloggers for product reviews”
• “Attend trade show in August”
• “Establish a referral program”

Ideally each of the actions will also be time-bound and measurable to ensure deadlines to the action and definition of success.

I have found that using this method I can easily establish goal alignment that results in measurable actions.

Technorati Tags: Getting Things Done, goals, GTD, life hacks, Lifehack, Managment, objectives, planning, self-help, startegy

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