How To Align Your Company Goals To Breed Success It is an employer's responsibility, and in this case the secret to delivering success in the workplace, to listen to their employees.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
What employers typically get wrong is that they don't align their own goals with those of their employees. It is an employer's responsibility, and in this case the secret to delivering success in the workplace, to listen to their employees.
Irrespective of the field the employer is in, a business owner or leader will typically have their goals aligned with the success of the business. The goals of employees, however, are more likely to be set to something more personal. This could be anything from sending their child to a better school, buying a new car, building an early retirement fund or even to stop working at 50 rather than 65. Whatever the goals of the employee, the employer must be aware of them in order to run a highly successful business.
Let's use a real-life example: say you, as an employer, have done your due diligence and sat down with your employee to ask what their goal for the year is. Your employee has set themselves the goal of earning a certain amount of money, in order to buy a house. Firstly, the goal is the house, not the amount of commission needed to purchase the property. What you as the employer need to keep in mind is that your employee is motivated by the idea of purchasing a new home. Clearly, as the employer, your own goals are not going to be the same. So, when dealing with an employee you need to look at goals and targets from their perspective. The issue here is: why would anyone be enthusiastic about achieving someone else's goal? Answer: They wouldn't. So, keep your own goals in mind, but achieve them by aligning these with those of your employees and keep them motivated to achieve their own goals. By supporting theirs, they will reach yours.
What you don't want to do is stand there and hand out targets. Ask your staff what they want to achieve as their own goals? How high do they want to reach? What is the reason behind their personal target? This is a fantastic way to set personal goal-based targets, which overall will feed into your own business goals.
So, to summarise, as an employer, you need to understand what your employees' goals are, align yourself with the same and keep them focussed on that goal. Your employees will then be motivated, enthusiastic and committed to achieving a common purpose.
Related: How to Smash Your Targets in 2017
