9 Steps to Create Team-Focused Goals

Have you ever worked on a team where everyone had goals and ambition, but not in the same direction? Everyone put in 200% effort, but you might have felt like the team was going nowhere because people were pulling away to their own vision, like a tug-of-war.

Have you ever worked on a team where no one had goals? The team maybe seemed to drift purposelessly. Maybe the team would engage and go all-in on emergencies. But aside from those, you weren’t really sure why you were on a team in the first place.

On fun-filled, high-performing teams, every member has clear, team-focused goals. When this happens, siloed teams and scattered efforts turn into a unified purpose so that results are gained. Buy-in and motivation are built. Team members are inspired to collaborate and join in sacrificial, uplifting, empowering teamwork. Team-focused goals set clarity, so everyone knows what is the most essential part of their role.

How are your goals looking? If you quizzed a random team member, would that team member know their individual goals off the top of his or her head? Would they be able to say how their individual goals support the team’s goals? Do you have great team-focused goals, but want to make them even stronger still?

Here are 9 steps to creating team-focused goals:

1. First things first.  You need to know what your organization’s goals are.

Companies often have revenue-based organizational goals: “$500M by 20XX” or “expanding to 30 stores nationwide”. Knowing the whole organization’s vision will ensure you’re in step with other departments, leaders, and the organization’s structure as a whole. You won’t be growing out of step with the rest of the organization.

2. Then you need to know your team’s role in achieving those goals.

How is your team designed to assist the organizational goal? Do you play support for the main revenue generators? Or are you on the frontlines, making the sales yourself? Do you manage and coordinate those who do? Do you set vision for the whole organization?

This may seem basic, but if you don’t nail these first two steps, you can easily get off course.

3. Next, you need to make sure you have the right players on the team

As much as we might want everyone to stay on our team, if we don’t have the right mix of expertise and personality types to achieve our team and organizational goals, the team won’t move to high performing levels.

We often see companies move slow on those who perform well but bring in extremely negative levels of health and teamwork. They may score points now, but can you keep growing with that person on board? If you know at your heart that the answer is no, don’t wait until it’s too late. The longer you wait, the more influence and control that misfitted team member gains. We hate seeing clients who have to haggle with powerful team members to avoid losing sales, other team members, or both.

In some cases, you might not have the authority to choose who is on your team. In that case, step 4 is even more essential. You need to be responsible for exemplifying health and being the right player yourself.

4. Once we’ve got a full roster of strong players, we need to make sure that every team member is working from a place of high Emotional Intelligence.

This means knowing your own emotions, managing your emotions, picking up on others’ emotions on the fly, and influencing others’ emotions for win-wins.  Even if our team members are still working to lift their overall EQ scores, they can adopt high EQ behaviors that lead to the good of the team. For more on how to do this, you can read Emotional Intelligence 2.0.

5. Now team members need role clarity.

Each individual should be able to name what role they play in achieving their team’s and organization’s goals.  This helps everyone get on the same page.  If possible, it’s also extremely helpful for the team to develop a single-statement unified purpose that helps them achieve both goals.

6. With an understanding of their specific roles, the team can look at performance goals.

What numbers does your team need to hit in order for the organization to achieve its targets? Also, what developmental goals does the team need to hit in order for the organization to achieve its targets?

7. Now look at the team’s personality type map.

Whether the team has a strong diversity of personalities or not, you want to look at the strengths of the overall team.  What does each person do that is better than average?  Add in those pieces.  Ask yourselves how this specific team will accomplish its team and organizational goals.  Then map out a plan of action for each person.

8. Each team member needs to be focused on systems, not on goals from here on out.

In other words, what incremental, long-lasting changes can they make to work towards their goal?  Even if it’s just a 1% improvement, if everyone is making improvements, things really add up fast!  For more on this, read Atomic Habits.

9. Part of the process will be the need to review and refine.

Scheduling time to check in according to what each team member needs and/or wants will help the overall team to far exceed expectations.

Chew On This:

  • Are your goals currently team-focused? If not, which of the 9 steps above can you use to update them?

Ryan C. Bailey & Associates is an organizational effectiveness firm focused on equipping leaders to develop in-demand high-performing teams to increase the health and effectiveness of the greater organization.

*This blog is an amalgamation of a few different clients.  No client is being singled out.