To grow your business to new heights, you may need a team. If you already have a team, you may need to elevate what that team can do. When you have a team of people that work together towards a common goal it makes life much easier for leaders. To get to that point, you may want to set some collective goals for your team.
Let’s look at 10 goals you can set for your team that will get you closer to having a cohesive team unit. In this particular article, we will focus more on effectiveness goals. However, we do have another article specifically on company culture goals that I recommend you read after this one.
Improve Collaborations
One of the first goals to set for your team is improved collaboration and teamwork. This is both one of the most important and one of the most difficult things to do. A business with a team where members are acting as individuals is most likely wasting time, human energy, and money. According to a study by Stanford University, teams that collaborate and work well together are 50% more productive. Clearly, if leaders can improve collaborations, they can dramatically improve their business.
This can involve regular team meetings. However, meetings are not always the best way to collaborate. According to a study by Salary.com 47% of employees consider meetings to be the biggest waste of time at work. If you intend to use meetings to improve collaboration, it is best to keep them short so employees can stay engaged.
Improving collaboration also involved the use of collaborative tools and platforms. On top of that, you may want to implement feedback loops that allow for continuous improvement in processes. By prioritizing collaboration, teams can unlock the potential of everyone on their team.
Increase Productivity by “X” Percentage
Setting a goal to increase productivity by a specific percentage is a tangible and measurable objective that teams can rally around. Asking your team to be more productive is fine. However, setting a specific productivity goal is much more helpful and makes that goal more likely to be accomplished.
One common way to measure productivity is to assess the output over a given period, which can be quantified in terms of completed tasks, sales figures, or units produced, depending on the job role. For example, you can use output-per-hour to understand how well your employee is accomplishing their tasks. This approach allows for the direct measurement of contributions to the company’s goals.
Another method involves the use of technology. Project management tools and time-tracking software can offer detailed data on how employees allocate their time across various tasks and projects. This can highlight areas of high productivity and identify where inefficiencies or bottlenecks may exist.
Also, qualitative assessments, like peer reviews and self-assessments, can offer valuable context to the numerical data. This can shed light on factors like teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving abilities that significantly impact productivity but are harder to quantify.
Resolve Conflicts Quickly
Conflict in the workplace is inevitable. And, knowing how to resolve that conflict is an important skill. The issue is that many leaders don’t know how to handle conflicts when they arrive. Some avoid the conflict hoping it will go away. Others attempt to handle the conflicts but somehow make things worse.
This happens when you approach the conflict without understanding the situation or the method that will help the situation. For leaders, resolving conflicts is difficult because there are many different ways of doing it. On top of that, employees also prefer to handle issues in a way that matches their own personalities.
Here are some common ways conflicts are handled in the workplace:
- Competing-Individuals who use this way of handling conflict are dominant personality types. They see everything as an “I win, you lose” scenario. Usually, they become hostile towards others when they feel challenged.
- Avoiding-These employees avoid conflict and tend to go along with what everyone else says. However, in the long-term, their unobtrusive nature leads to bitterness towards much more forceful personality types. A positive attribute of this style is that individuals don’t waste time trying to resolve issues of little consequence; it can also help to calm an atmosphere filled with tension.
- Accommodating-Individuals who fall into this category are eager to help other people even if they have to change their plans. By constantly agreeing to the requests of others, they neglect their own needs creating the chance for opportunists to take advantage of their eagerness to please nature. This personality characteristic helps resolve trivial issues quickly, allowing for more essential issues to be dealt with.
- Compromising-This style of handling conflict is where the individual looks for a win-win scenario where both parties get parts of what they want by giving up other things. This style works best at resolving complex issues where there is no clear solution.
- Collaborating-An individual with this personality type values everyone’s contribution, including their own. For them, achieving harmony in the workplace is what matters. They achieve their goals assertively but not aggressively and encourage open dialogue when problem-solving.
As you can see, there are different ways individuals want to handle conflict. As a leader, you should understand how others would like to handle conflicts and then work within the preferences to find the right solution for everyone. The key is to create the expectation that conflicts will be handled quickly to move past them.
Image by peoplecreations on Freepik
Meet Project Deadlines
Consistently meeting project deadlines is fundamental for any team, underscoring the importance of time management, planning, and execution. This objective requires setting realistic timelines, allocating resources appropriately, and monitoring progress regularly to ensure that the project remains on track.
Teams might implement milestone checkpoints to assess progress and identify potential delays early on.
Effective communication plays a crucial role in meeting deadlines, as it ensures that all team members are aware of their responsibilities and the timeline for completion. By prioritizing this goal, teams can enhance their reputation for reliability and efficiency, fostering trust with clients and stakeholders.
Have a Monthly or Quarterly Team Building Event
Organizing regular team-building events is an excellent goal for enhancing team cohesion, morale, and engagement. Whether monthly or quarterly, these events offer team members the opportunity to interact in a non-work-related setting.
An activity can be something as simple as a team lunch. However, you can also do something more elaborate such as structured team-building exercises designed to develop professional skills. There are also activities you can do for employees who do not get along.
By committing to regular team-building events, teams can break down professional barriers. These events will also improve interpersonal relations and create a more supportive and positive work environment. This, in turn, contributes to better team performance and productivity, as team members feel more connected and committed to their collective goals.
Also read: 10 Goals for Office Managers to Set for Themselves and Their Team
Minimize Team Project Errors
We all know that it is ok for yourself and your team to make mistakes. Making mistakes is a part of the process of learning and growing. However, when a team consistently makes errors it can be damaging to the company and its employees. These mistakes can be even more damaging if they are critical. A study of 2,000 workers found that one in five have made what they consider to be a critical mistake at work, and 12 percent have taken a risk that cost their company money.
To minimize team mistakes you must understand why those mistakes are happening. Is it an issue with the way employees were trained? Perhaps there are too many distractions at work. It can also be the workload the employees are expected to do. According to a new workplace survey commissioned by Red Bull and Glassdoor, nearly two in three of their respondents (66%) admit they’ve made mistakes at work because they were tired.
You should work to find the issues that lead to frequent errors and address them immediately. Training sessions focused on common pitfalls and the adoption of best practices can further reduce errors. Advanced tools and technologies also play a crucial role in offering automated checks and balances.
This can help ensure accuracy and consistency in the team’s work. Over time, the lowering of mistakes will benefit you, your customers, and even your team.
Make New Team Members Feel Welcomed
Being a new team member is often difficult. Not only are they required to learn a new job, but they have to make new friends and get used to a new work dynamic. Because of this, a goal for the team is to make that new member feel welcome.
Strategies to achieve this include organizing formal introductions, where new members can learn about the team’s roles, projects, and culture. Assigning a mentor or buddy to the new team member. This way they can get personalized support early on.
The mentor can help the new member navigate through their initial period at the company. Encouraging open communication and providing platforms for new members to express their ideas and questions can also make them feel valued and part of the team.
Regular check-ins to gauge their comfort level and progress can help identify any issues early on, ensuring a smooth transition. Celebrating milestones and contributions from the start can reinforce their sense of belonging and motivation.
From there, you can begin to set goals for new employees with the confidence that they will be able to achieve them.
Bring Down Response Times
One of the best ways to improve how your customers view you is to improve customer service. Keeping customers waiting for responses is one of the best ways to ensure your customer service scores will plummet. According to one survey, 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as essential or very important when they have a customer service question.
If you want your team to achieve this, teams can adopt lean methodologies to eliminate unnecessary steps in their workflows and employ automation tools that expedite routine tasks. Leaders need to prioritize their customers and their inquiries.
Leaders should also use automation to respond to customers quickly even just to let them know that you will be responding to their inquiry shortly. Train your team to work together to respond to a customer if their contact is unavailable. This way, the team works together and contributes to the accomplishment of this goal.
Improve Customer Satisfaction Scores
When you reach your response time goal, you should also see an improvement in customer satisfaction scores. However, you shouldn’t stop there. The team should strive to improve other areas of customer satisfaction.
This goal underscores the importance of understanding and meeting customer needs, expectations, and preferences. Strategies to achieve higher customer satisfaction include collecting and analyzing feedback to identify areas for improvement.
Training team members on empathy is a great place to start. When workers are more empathetic, customers will notice. You can also coach employees on effective communication skills. Implementing customer-centric policies and procedures that prioritize the customer’s experience can also lead to higher satisfaction levels.
Regularly review customer satisfaction scores. Then, share those insights with the team. This can motivate members to maintain a high standard of service.
Reducing Project Turnaround
Reducing project turnaround time is key to increasing competitiveness and delivering value more efficiently. This goal involves shortening the duration from project initiation to completion without compromising quality.
Effective project planning and management are critical. You’ll need to introduce agile methodologies, which can enhance flexibility and speed. This will allow teams to adapt and make quick decisions.
Streamlining communication and collaboration within the team and with stakeholders ensures that information flows smoothly and decisions are made promptly. Leveraging technology and automation for repetitive tasks and processes can save significant time.
Also read:
10 Customer Service Goals Businesses Should Set
5 Key Goals for Operations Managers
Aligning Employee Goals with Company Goals
