Extol the Goal! How Employee Goals (and Goal-Setting) Need to Change During a Pandemic.

For as long as I've been in the business world—including my years working for various organizations as a manager, my years managing within my own companies, and now, as a consultant to organizations desirous of performance and sustainable growth—this is the time of year when we normally set our sights on the year to come. This has always included establishing goals designed to stimulate the employee and/or team strategies, tactics, and activities necessary to accomplish the aforementioned goals. I refer to this as the Goal Drill-Down model.

When I reflect back on all of the goal-setting techniques I've used in previous years and then introduce the—almost surreal—changes/modifications that have been forced upon us due to COVID, I'm painfully aware that how we approach goal-setting this year will need to be vastly different.

The paradox for me is that in the past there was always uncertainty. Some of these uncertainties included economic uncertainty, political/legal/regulatory uncertainty, sociocultural uncertainty, consumer and technology uncertainties, workforce availability uncertainties, and a myriad of others. But—and here's the paradox—even within these uncertainties there was a certain predictability that, with appropriate modeling and experience, would still allow goal-setting to be done with reasonable accuracy (and attainability).

But, how can we set goals when the future is changing day-by-day—even minute-by-minute?

The answer is Goal Agility. In essence, your organization has probably already reacted to COVID by adjusting individual employee and organizational goals. But continual change—as is happening now—highlights the importance of being agile. This pandemic is forcing us to navigate within an ever-changing landscape so it's paramount, as managers of people, that we ensure all paths forward are agile enough to respond to further uncertainty.

We need to instill the belief in our people that whatever core mission you and your organization are pursuing is both possible and valuable. The questions you need to ask yourself should be: "Can my employees see a logical and attainable path to success? Can they envision the steps to get there?"

High Value Activity (HVA) Action Steps

Your goal (there's that word again!) this week is to review how you go about setting goals and—if appropriate—modify your technique to include the HVAs listed below:

• Adopt (and Embrace) Check-ins: Goal-setting should be an ongoing and flexible process. Check-ins are simply goal-setting/goal-modification conversations between managers and their team members. By design, the frequency of Check-ins should be fluid and dynamic and based on both the amount of change occurring as well as the amount of progress being made on the goal(s). I look at Check-ins as the 'pit-stops' needed during a competitive car race that allow for refueling (reinforcement) and necessary mechanical adjustments (course-corrections). Check-in conversations provide employees time to consider—and talk about—current situations impacting their ability to attain results.
• Achieve Big R's with Little G's: The best way to achieve significant results (Big R's) when our futures are changing day-by-day is to separate all goals into bite-sized goals (Little G's) to allow your employees to experience a sense of accomplishment and achievement. Try picking activities that have a tangible outcome that you can measure and define as success. Ensure that each milestone established (Little G) is defined in such a way that is easily reinforceable once accomplished.
• Use Pre-Mortems: Pre-mortems are very similar to post-mortems in that they both involve careful analysis. But, unlike a post-mortem, which is the review of something AFTER it has occurred, a pre-mortem is used BEFORE an employee acts or any change is implemented. This process identifies predictable problems, challenges, and all barriers to success, and, from there, pre-solves them ahead of time. It's important that you don't let the fear of failure or what could go wrong paralyze your employees and force them to stay in analysis mode. This is where a pre-mortem can be very valuable. Have your employees extrapolate directly into their concerns and fears and consider the elements that potentially 'cause' a worst-case scenario. Use situational and/or scenario planning to think through a multiplicity of options available to you and your employees.