Management by Objectives part 2

Setting Goals 
Long-range business goals will be the cornerstone of your company's MBO program. To achieve these goals, you must have a method to communicate them to your managers and employees. One way is to bring managers and employees into the process by asking them to help formulate the company's short- and long-range goals. If they have a role in establishing the goals, they will be more committed to achieving them. All goals should relate to and support the long-range objectives for the company. In this way, you can ensure that the goals of all levels of management are consistent. If goals are incompatible, you may find that employees feel like the middle manager of a research and development company who exclaimed in a seminar, How can I set my goals when I don't know where top management wants to go?


Types of Goals
What areas of your managers' work are suitable for goal setting? Ask managers to identify the most important aspects of their work. In each area, they should set both short- and long-term goals. Carefully developed goals, if attained, should give the manager better control of the job. Each manager should define one or two goals in each of the following categories:


Regular work goals, 
Problem-solving goals, 
Innovative goals, 
Development goals.

By asking your managers to set at least one goal in each of these four areas, you may open their eyes to new possibilities they had not seen before. The goal-setting process can be a very useful educational step.