Every year, millions make New Year's resolutions with great optimism, but by February, over 90% have already abandoned them. The same principles that fail individuals in achieving their annual resolutions can cause businesses to fail to achieve the things that matter most if they pursue business goals the same way people make New Year’s resolutions.
Staying on track is the responsibility of organizational leaders. The key to achieving business success in a 21st-century workforce is to adopt a goal-setting methodology that is effective and supported by advanced work tech solutions that help the people doing the work for your organization. By mastering the art of goal setting and implementing it throughout the organization, companies can increase people’s performance success by 22%.
How to Close the Gap Between Strategy and Execution through Effective Goals
A pioneer in modern management, Peter Drucker, said, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” The gap between formulating and executing a strategy is where many organizations need help to achieve their goals. To succeed in today’s chaotic business environment, it is essential to “degenerate” strategy into action through an effective goal-setting methodology.
Many of the world’s leading companies turn to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a solution for turning strategy into action. The OKR framework is a practical 21st-century goal-setting methodology that helps businesses achieve their goals by converting their strategies into measurable actions. This makes it possible to track and monitor goals transparently throughout the organization, bringing meaning to the organization and the people striving to achieve the critical business goals.
Here are five practical ways OKRs can help your organization bridge the gap between strategy and the execution of that strategy through the people in your organization:
Many people fail to achieve their New Year's resolutions or business goals because they need a process that helps them pursue their desired outcomes. They also do not break the goals into daily or weekly priorities. The same is true in business. If employees do not regularly check-in on goals and have regular coaching conversations that build new skills and engage their psychological needs, they often get burnt out, confused, and disengaged from their work goals. That is why it is essential to integrate goals with an organization's performance management system. Without this integration, goals tend to remain in silos and lack the constructive collaboration necessary for collective achievement.
Josh Bersin, an HR thought leader, has emphasized the importance of aligning individual goals with a company's mission and strategic objectives. Engagement and productivity skyrocket when employees understand how their work contributes to the larger picture.
Successful organizations understand the importance of investing in technology to track progress, adjust strategies, create transparency, and ensure that all departments work towards common goals. A digital platform linking strategic objectives to people’s performance across the organization enables every employee to understand how their efforts fit into the company's broader vision. Performance goals foster shared purpose and accountability, vital for organizational success.
Once goals are linked to performance, regular coaching sessions (including 1:1s) aligned with an organization's strategic goals are essential for individual and team success. These sessions help individuals align their personal and professional growth with the company's strategic needs, ensuring that development efforts contribute directly to the business's objectives.
In an article written for Harvard Business Review, author Ibarra Scoular noted that leaders who collaborate with their people as coaches in the business environment found that it can improve job performance and employee retention and increase engagement. When leaders coach their people toward better performance, they understand and are invested in the company's strategic direction and are more likely to achieve the goals they are pursuing through regular collaboration.
Today’s successful organizations create an ecosystem of strategy execution by facilitating continuous coaching and alignment toward critical business objectives and key results. Modern organizations rely on performance software that aligns goals with tools that enable quality conversations, regular feedback, and timely performance recognition aligned with strategic objectives. Organizations can effectively practice One-to-One Coaching and Continuous Performance Management by leveraging holistic software solutions, thus facilitating Business Strategy achievement.
This approach to performance management is vital in today’s fast-paced business world, where agile and continuous development is necessary to keep up with changing market dynamics throughout the year. When individual goals align with business strategy, it ensures that every effort and achievement of an employee feeds into the larger narrative of the company's journey toward its vision. This creates a unified workforce moving in harmony towards a common objective.
Inspire Software is your expert guide to peak performance through its sophisticated AI technology and foundations in leadership and performance theory. We are passionate about helping organizations harness their people's power and redefine success in a modern workforce. We extend an invitation to experience firsthand how Inspire is transforming the landscape of workforce performance. Request a demo today and join the revolution of those leading the charge toward a more inspired, engaged, and thriving future.
Learn more about the Inspire approach at inspiresoftware.com.