The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to set goals and as an employer or manager, you are probably used to setting goals for yourself and your business. But have you ever thought about how you could encourage your employees to set goals?

Helping employees set, and reach their goals is an integral part of every manager’s job. Employees want to be able to see how their work contributes to the big corporate picture, and by guiding and discussing their goal setting with them you will be highlighting this connection, not only for them but for you as their manager.

Showing your employees that you care about their goals and that their success matters to you is a powerful way to increase their motivation, and build rapport and trust, which in turn leads to improved employee engagement and better communication flow. Sounds good right? But how do you have these conversations and how can you help? Continue reading below for some tips to get you started:

• Understand their goal-setting stage: the first step in helping employees achieve their goals is to understand where they are at with their goal setting. For those who have goals, this conversation is an opportunity to revisit and refine, and for those that don’t, this is your chance to encourage them to get started.
• Share your goals and the company’s goals: sharing your goals with your employee is a great way to express your trust in them, encourage them to open up about their goals, and provide inspiration for their goal-setting methods. Reiterating the goals of the company will help them to tie their goals in and find the connection between their contributions and the corporate objectives.
• Mentor them on this journey: your employees who haven’t set themselves goals may know what they want to achieve but don’t know how to get there. This is where mentoring them becomes important. Take the time to understand their individual needs and what they want to achieve, and help them onto the right path by breaking up their ultimate achievements into smaller achievable goals.
• One-on-one meetings: make sure these personal goal discussions happen during one-on-one meetings. This setting will help your employee to open up about their goals, their progress, their concerns, and is a more conducive environment to get them to ask for help with their goals, if needed.
• Check-in regularly: don’t let these conversations be just an annual discussion, or just a box to tick off in an annual review. To avoid your employees losing momentum on their goals, feeling like their company doesn’t care, or not wanting to revisit their goals, it is important to check in with your employee about their goals regularly, even monthly, and celebrate wins along the way.
• Hold them accountable: helping them set their goals is important, but you can also help them on this journey by holding them accountable to these goals. Setting a big goal can be overwhelming sometimes, but reminding them of how far they have come and helping them to keep track of their progress is a great way to keep them motivated to keep working towards their goals.
• Ask how you can help: asking how you can help your employees with their goals inspires confidence within your team. Knowing that you are there to provide some help, as their manager, expresses to your employees that you trust in them, believe in their work, and that their success matters to you. This will give them a boost of motivation to get started or keep working on their goals.

One of the most powerful conversations you can have as a manager with your employees is about their goals. Need some more tips on how you can have this conversation? Get in touch today.