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Sharpen your Focus with Goals There is no question that effective goal setting can improve the performance of your department. Top performing leaders in all fields use goals to increase confidence, extend vision, and stay motivated. Use Demand Metric's downloadable Department Goals & Individual Goalstemplates to break your high-level strategic plan into smaller, manageable chunks.

Benefits of Goal Setting:

• Better Time-management- operating with defined goals maximizes productivity because team members focus their effort on set deliverables.
• Increased Confidence & Moral- teams that are consistently achieving goals feel productive, and more self-confident than teams who simply react.
• Stronger Collaboration- when peers are involved in a common goal, they support each other and keep the juices flowing. Imagine the atmosphere when a Friday afternoon 'leave early' sales goal is about to be reached.

Goal Setting Best Practices:

• S- Specific: ensure your goals are very specific.
• M- Measurable: always ask 'how will this be measured?'
• A- Actionable: goals must be active in their nature to be effective.
• R- Realistic: unrealistic goals will kill team motivation.
• T- Time-Sensitive: good goals have set deadlines.

Action Plan:

1. Review the Business Plan- if you don't already have a strategic marketing plan developed; consult your organizational business plan to get a clear understanding of how your department can support corporate goals.
2. Develop Department Goals- use Demand Metric's Department Goals Template to outline the key goals, deliverables, deadlines, and measures, that your team will ultimately be responsible for achieving this year.
3. Discuss Goals with Team- have a meeting with your team to discuss each goal and get their feedback. There may be a few other goals you would like to add to your list. Additionally, use this meeting to develop a department mission or vision statement that the rest of the business can perceive you as.
4. Set Individual Goals- use Demand Metric's Individual Goals Template to work with your team to establish annual, quarterly, and even monthly goals. Encourage your staff to create their own personal goals at a more granular level. Don't get bogged down with micro-deliverables; instead manage exceptions from a high-level.
5. Integrate with Performance Reviews- leverage your goal setting process when it comes time to review your staff. Additionally, keep track of your department goals & achievements for your own performance review.
6. Celebrate Goal Achievement- don't forget to celebrate the achievement of goals. This is a simple way to keep morale high, that doesn't have to cost anything. Remember Dale Carnegie's principle that people like to feel important and appreciated; applaud your staff's professional development.

Bottom-line:

Organizations that don't set goals are not serious about becoming market leaders. Take a few minutes to document what needs to be done, and manage the results.

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