Key Points

Goals support enhanced performance in various ways, from focusing attention to encouraging greater effort.
Goals can be motivating or demotivating. To get benefits from goals, you need to match the right type of goal to your situation.
Goals alone won’t win the day — leaders must also explain why the goals matter and follow up to monitor and celebrate progress towards them.

The research is clear. Goals can be a valuable tool to drive performance — if used correctly. I’ve summarized below what every leader should know about using goals to increase results from organizational change initiatives.

Goals serve important functions.

Goals impact performance because they are:

DIRECTIVE - Help focus attention
ENERGIZING - Encourage greater effort
CLARIFYING - Make accountability explicit
ACTIONABLE - Encourage skill use/development

All goals are not created equal.

Goals have a greater impact on performance when they are:

SPECIFIC - Rather than general, "do your best" guidance
DIFFICULT - People work harder when challenged

Goals have about equal impact on performance when they are set by managers as when they are developed with employee participation — if the rationale for the goal is explained.

Goals can decrease performance if their complexity is too high or beyond the ability of staff. Learning goals, (focused on using a new skill), can help to support the knowledge-building that leads to sustained behavior change. Performance goals, focused on the proficient use of the skill or result produced, can come later.

Goals alone are not sufficient.

Beyond setting goals, additional mechanisms are necessary to improve performance:

COMMITMENT - Goal achievement must be important to staff and managers.
ALIGNMENT - Personal and group goals must align to avoid tension and to maximize impact.
FEEDBACK - People must understand how they are doing relative to the goal. You should monitor progress against goals to achieve the greatest effect.

Leadership matters.

Leaders positively affect performance related to goals when they:

EXPLAIN & INSPIRE - Share the rationale for the goal and the related vision.
ARE ACCOUNTABLE - Publicly commit to the goal(s) and emphasize their importance.
BELIEVE - Express confidence in staff members' ability to achieve the goal.
SUPPORT - Ensure opportunities for staff to develop new strategies to achieve goals.

Finally, a word of caution for leaders and managers — don't overdo it. Some research indicates that when managers themselves have exceedingly difficult goals, the resulting stress can lead to abusive managerial behavior. Learn more about how to effectively use different types of goals, including stretch goals, check out my article on types of goals here.

References

Locke, Edwin A., and Gary P. Latham. "Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey." American Psychologist 57.9 (2002): 705.

Mawritz, M. B., Folger, R., & Latham, G. P. (2014). Supervisors' exceedingly difficult goals and abusive supervision: The mediating effects of hindrance stress, anger, and anxiety. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(3), 358-372.

Photo credit: Cover photo by Engin Akyurt from Pexels. Graphics by Wendy Hirsch

This article was originally published on January 14, 2016. It was updated July 14, 2020.