Goals, what are they?

In this article you will learn:

• What is a goal
• Who owns a goal
• Responsibility vs Accountability

So, what's a goal?

A goal is the ‘what’ you need to achieve. It is a specific achievement that is inspirational, concrete, and substantial.

Goals will come from all areas of the organisation.

As a base starting point the organisation should set a single- minded goal in the future that it is moving towards to achieve.

As a start-up, that might be only 12 weeks.

For emerging organisations that is most likely to be annual. For more mature organisations you’ll likely have clarity of the 3-year goal and the supporting 2- and 1-year goals.

The first finish line is the organisations first milestone goal with accountable outcomes.

The most important thing is that there is one clear goal that defines success.

Make sure everyone knows that this is the finish line.

Goal ownership, who owns what?

A goal is owned by an individual.

There is no such thing as a team goal, only a team who achieves their goals.

Why? Because every individual is responsible for owning their own goals and accountable to their leaders and team for the delivery of their goals.

There is no confusion.

Every team has a leader, and that leader is to lead their people to success. Every person on that team has a role to play and goal of their own.

Goal responsibility vs goal accountability

There is a difference between goal responsibility and goal accountability.

An individual is responsible for something or someone and accountable to someone.

“I am responsible for people and things and I am accountable to my leaders for their performance delivery.”

“Responsible for.... Accountable to....”

A CEO is accountable to the board for the organisation achieving specific sales outcomes. However, the Sales Leader might be responsible for delivery of the sales outcome on the CEOs goal.

That’s aligned leadership.

The CEO is responsible for ensuring the sales leader hits the target and is accountable to the board and shareholders for the delivery of the outcome.

The Sales Leader is responsible for their team hitting their sales goals and is accountable to the CEO for the sales outcome.

Clear lines of ‘responsibility for’ and ‘accountability to’ create aligned teams who can play to win.

Teams can only win when individuals achieve their aligned goals.