Are you stressed or overwhelmed because unrealistic goals have been set for you and you have no say? When you review your goals do you feel a deep sense of dread because it feels like it is impossible to meet them? Are you anxious about going to work because your coworkers are willing to undermine you to achieve their goals? Do you feel pressured to seek unethical methods to achieve your targets?
When decision-makers set goals that seem impossible to achieve, it is important to take a step back and recalibrate. They may be doing this because they want to stretch you beyond your previous best performance, especially when you are expected to do more with the same or fewer resources. Sometimes this happens because you and your team have been able to achieve the more difficult goals at great sacrifice, and because you have proven that it can be done, the goals for the next few years are even more difficult. The more you achieve, the more is expected of you. As a result, you may sacrifice your personal life and sometimes your health to meet your goals.
Stretch vs. Unrealistic Goals
Unrealistic goals are usually linked to profitability and they can be misrepresented as stretch goals. According to Sunder Nookala, stretch goals are ambitious, they help you maximize available resources, help employees to grow, and they produce results. Unrealistic goals are extremely ambitious, are overly demanding and they may not consistently produce the desired results. Unrealistic goals can be demoralizing when stretch goals can motivate.
Stretch goals can be used to develop employees, but often they are used to maximize profitability. When profit is the primary driver and not enough thought is given to the individual and cultural impact of extreme goals, organizations can set the foundation for a competitive culture where employees act ruthlessly or dishonestly because they are locked in an intense scarcity mode.
In demanding organizations, unrealistic goals are accompanied by low or zero tolerance for underperformance. Although falling short can be a phenomenal teaching tool, in organizations where not meeting expectations leads to blame and excuses, learning is not a priority because avoiding blame is important for survival. The trouble is that blaming a scapegoat is about cover-up and while under these conditions, performance can improve through intense effort, blaming opens the door to corrupt activities.
Setting Realistic Goals
Realistic goal setting is essential because when team members are consistently overwhelmed by goals that they perceive as impossible, here is an example of what can occur: Engagement can be negatively affected, causing a sense of hopelessness or anxiety among members of the team. Once engagement is affected, the quality of interaction of employees with each other and customers can decline. Unhappy employees tend to provide demoralized, even apathetic customer service.
So here are six tips you can use to ensure the goals you set for yourself and your team are both challenging and realistic:
Establish timelines that will not overwhelm you or your team. Unrealistic deadlines are sometimes established because of external pressures, or when there are too many unknowns during the planning process. As a result, the deadlines create pressure due to conflicting or unrealistic expectations. On behalf of the team, leaders should take advantage of opportunities to negotiate competing priorities and unrealistic goals with the purpose of reducing stress related to over commitment.
As a leader, it is important to be approachable and non-judgmental so employees will be authentic with you about their goals and how they are progressing.
Sometimes team members feel overwhelmed when they are not trained to perform certain duties. As a leader, it is important for you to be familiar with the knowledge and skill levels of your team members and take action to close the gaps.
It is important to ensure the available data is reliable so the goals you set are credible.
Oftentimes employers will establish goals for change initiatives, but additional resources are needed in order to meet or exceed those goals without burning out the team. As a leader, you know if your organization is open to providing additional resources. However, whether there is perceived openness to investing in these resources or not, leaders should develop solutions that consider the impact of the goal on staff.
The people doing the work can provide you with a good understanding of whether goals are unrealistic or not. Listening to them without bias is essential because it can help you determine if members of your team need support.
When Realistic Goals Are Not An Option
Sometimes you have no input in the goal setting process because of the power structure. When no one is listening, people will find a way to achieve the goals because their jobs depend on it. Some routes are ethical, others are not. It depends on what the organization will tolerate. The problem that occurs when no-one is listening people can burn themselves out because of the demands, stress themselves out because they can’t live with the unrelenting pressure, or they numb themselves out for the same reasons.
Finding Balance
The aim of this article is not to suggest that goals should be easier. The objective here is to set goals that are challenging enough to help employees step outside their comfort zones and grow their capacities. The stretch can be difficult to achieve but it should be perceived as doable. When stretch goals are assigned to high performers who are eager to grow, they tend to accept the challenge graciously. Finding balance is really about setting realistic goals with just the right amount of stretch. The incredible thing about stretch goals is that if they are actually unrealistic, you can learn from it and change them.
With knowledge gained from almost 40 years of Fortune 500 and international consulting experience, Yvette shares her rich experience and proprietary model for changing businesses from the inside out. She is a thought leader in the areas of trust, leadership and organizational ecosystems, a multiple award-winning author and cultural consultant.
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