3 Reasons Why Setting BIG Goals for Employees Increases Productivity

Low productivity hurts a company. If your workforce is not as productive as it should be, something needs to change. As a manager, you must find a solution that will get employees on the ball in the productivity department. The solution is simple: set big goals for your employees.

Are You Setting Big Enough Goals for Your Workforce?

Are you, a manager, setting big enough goals for your workforce? If not, your team will lag in productivity. You know what this means – lower revenue, a higher rate of turnover, and depressed company growth. These are all symptoms of a productivity problem. Many times, company leaders try to fix these symptoms without ever addressing the root issue, which is low productivity. Once the primary problem is resolved, issues like these get ironed out.

3 Reasons Why Setting BIG Goals for Employees Increases Productivity

Setting big goals for employees increases team productivity. Here’s how:

1) It increases their self-confidence – One of the best ways to increase someone’s self-confidence is to communicate that you believe he or she is capable of greatness. When you set a lofty goal for your employees, you send them the message that you are certain they have what it takes to complete the task. This may cause their self-confidence to skyrocket. And, when employees believe they can take on the world, they get more done.

2) It teaches them the habits of highly productive people – People who are highly productive have certain habits. Aside from reading about these habits, the only way employees can become aware of them is to get into a situation that instills them. For example, let’s say you set a hefty sales goal for your team. In order to reach the goal, workers must spend less time on social media and more time actively pursuing the goal. Over time, this will help employees experientially learn to avoid distractions at work. Workers who don’t give in to distractions are unarguably more productive.

3) It forces them to rise to the occasion – The process of trying to meet a challenging goal will reveal an employee’s deficiencies. This will help you see exactly where and how they need to improve. Also, it’s good for employees to become aware of their weaknesses. Why? Because this prompts them to get serious about attaining the hard and soft skills needed to truly be a team player. Since skilled workers are productive workers, managers should strive to set goals big enough to make employees’ weaknesses obvious.

If your team is not as productive as you’d like, then it’s time to start setting scary goals. Remember, if your employees fall short of a big goal, they and your company will still gain so much. In his article 5 Reasons You Should Set Big Goals, Ryan Clements wrote, “…it doesn’t even matter whether we achieve the big goal or not. We have achieved arguably a greater victory of having significantly improved ourselves. This is the ultimate ancillary benefit of setting big goals. They help us to build, and improve ourselves, dramatically, and it is done through a sustainable change.”