How to get objectives achieved

People often ask me how you go about getting the objectives achieved, once you have agreed them. It’s all very well spending all that time writing SMART objectives and goals, but there’s no point if you don’t follow through.

One very simple way is to have regular review meetings. They don’t have to be onerous. In fact, it’s much better if they are not.

All you need to do is get together, with either your whole team or just an individual. Then you check the progress against each objective.

You simply ask:

• What has happened so far
• Where you are against the plan
• What help is required to make sure you meet the deadline.

Now, if you have never done this before, the first few meetings will take quite a while. However, as you gain experience, the meetings will become shorter and shorter.

How often should you have the meetings?

The answer is always “more often than you think”.
Once or twice a week is usually a good starting point. The key is to ensure success, rather than catch problems and then have to deal with them.


Steve Jobs did this at Apple twice a week. It didn’t do Apple any harm.

Dos and Don’ts for meetings

• Do fix a regular time every day/week
• Don’t cancel the meeting if someone is off
• Do stick to the point
• Don’t get dragged into the detail and start working on the issues in the meeting
• Do arrange a separate time to work on problems that are identified
• Don’t blame people
• Do reward people for bringing up issues and talking about them openly

Should unemployed people take boring jobs?

Today I heard people on the radio commenting about young unemployed people and whether they should take ‘boring jobs in factories’, especially if they are well educated. Some thought they should not have to take these jobs.

There are two problems with the view that you should not have to do this as a well-educated person:

The assumption that everyone should have great jobs that they like
The assumption that jobs in factories are boring and bad

On the first point, I think we need to admit that there are times when we all need to do jobs we don’t particularly like. If you are like me you will have done plenty of these.

I have cleaned, been a barmaid, a waitress, an usherette (which is why I have seen Bambi 16 times) and worked in a factory amongst other things.
I soon learned that the people where you work and your attitude both make a big difference to how much you like your job.

These jobs were OK

When I was cleaning I quite enjoyed it. If I had a job like that now I know I would love doing it whilst listening to my ipod (there weren’t such things in those days).

When I worked in factories I met plenty of people who enjoyed their jobs. This does not mean they were bad, stupid or boring people. They were great people. At least one was a member of MENSA.

Camaraderie

In most of the factories where I worked the camaraderie was fantastic and many of those people were extremely skilled.

It’s always easy to look down on a job you don’t know much about.

There are always going to be things you have to do that you don’t like. I hate filling in my tax return and doing my expenses, but I know it has to be done. So I do it.

I don’t really like doing the washing up either, but I do it.

Too much TV

I wonder sometimes if people watch too many TV series where the characters have fantastic jobs or become instant successes and millionaires. So they forget that most successful people have had to start off doing jobs they didn’t particularly want or like. For many people, that’s how life is. So you have to make the best of it.

If you are a manager, you should be doing your best to ensure that people enjoy their time at work. It is possible to arrange this, even for people in jobs that don’t seem to be much fun.

Instant success

This is very rare. JK Rowling worked for years before she was a successful author and was rejected many times. Steve Jobs was not an instant success. They had to work hard.

The wrong priorities and objectives

At the weekend I met up with a friend who is a completely dedicated doctor. She told me what had happened recently at her hospital. She looked at the new rotas and pointed out to the managers that they might be better for staff in some way, they would result in worse patient care.

“You sound as though you think we should put patient care first.” Responded the manager in tones that indicated that this was not his goal.

My friend was horrified.

Patient care is the priority

If any manager in the NHS is not intent on putting patient care first, I think we really need to ask what he or she is doing in that job. We need to know why they were recruited and who was responsible for such an error.

I would find it hard to justify their continuing employment.

Good patient care does not cost more

As we talked I was glad to see we were in complete agreement. Good patient care does not cost more. Often it costs less.

A young friend who is currently working as a healthcare assistant told us that part of her job is to move food from where one person has put it - just a few inches out of reach of the patient - to where the patient can reach it. She does the same for their drinks.

This is completely wasted effort and it is inexcusable that people are so badly managed that they are apparently completely unaware of the priorities in their work.

The objectives are wrong

In a case like this it is clear that the objectives at the top are wrong as are the priorities. These things need to be got right by those in charge. Otherwise no one stands a chance, patient or employee.

Bad Management

Spot checks at geriatric wards in 100 hospitals have revealed that 35 needed to make improvements and 18 did not meet legal standards. At two of the trusts there were major concerns. So the Care Quality Commission tells us today.

How is it that people end up behaving like this? It is bad management.

It starts at the top

It always starts from the top. It is the responsibility of the people at the top to set the standards and make it clear what they mean.
I have seen relatives in hospital extremely well cared-for and looked after. I also remember, when my grandmother was in hospital before she died, witnessing exactly the problems described in this report. And that was over 30 years ago. The simple act of putting her cup out of her reach caused her great problems.

This was not a case of ‘understaffing’ or ‘lack of resources’. It was someone who was not clear what she was supposed to be doing and why.

The new recruit

Many years ago I took over a production department in a factory. Jane, a new recruit, joined one morning.
At coffee break she was the only person sat at the table in the corner while the supervisors and team members sat at different tables laughing and joking, clearly enjoying themselves.

I was horrified.

I called the supervisors to a meeting. I asked them what they thought they were doing during their break. I was greeted with blank looks of complete mystification. I asked them who was responsible for the new recruit, Jane. Alison said Jane was in her team.

So I asked her how she thought Jane would be feeling sat on her own at a table, ignored by everyone else while they all sat around laughing a joking.

Red faces and a prickling embarrassed silence followed. Things were rather different at lunchtime and we never had the problem again.

They were good people

These supervisors were not monsters; they were good, kind and friendly people. They were just not thinking. They were completely focused on their own needs and had forgotten their responsibilities.

My responsibility as their manager
But also, it was my responsibility to set the standards and make them abundantly clear. I needed to make sure that they knew that, as supervisors, they were not only responsible for the quality of the products, the scheduling of the work and training. They were also responsible for ensuring the people in their teams were happy at work.

Some hospitals

Messages like this seem not to have got through to some (but not all) hospital departments. It’s very easy for this to happen when the focus from the top is on admin and cost saving.

Priorities

When times are tough, people get stressed and it’s much harder to prioritise effectively. You tend to react instead of plan and you also tend to focus on yourself rather than those in your care. And this happens right at the top, where it has the biggest impact.

For more on this see this article on how to avoid mistakes when implementing change which goes through how these situations arise and what to do about them.

The leaders need the right skills

It’s very easy to blame the individual nurses, but this is a leadership and management issue. If these problems are occurring it means the systems are wrong, the priorities are wrong and the objectives are wrong, or have not been cascaded properly. 

Toot your flute

Apparently Tuesday this week was ‘toot your flute’ day. The day when you are supposed to blow your own trumpet.

If this is something you find hard to do, it might be time to put some effort in.

Unless you are able to let others know how skilled you are you run the risk of, at the very least, not being recognised for you achievements (not getting the promotion you deserve). At worst you could lose your job or not get the job you really should get and be passed over by others who are less skilled than you are.

So how do you ‘toot your flute’?

There is no need to boast

Many people are concerned that what they say might sound like boasting. There is no need to worry about that. You don’t have to say “I’m wonderful.” or “I’m great.” Mohamed Ali could get away with it, but the rest of us might feel a bit uncomfortable trumpeting our achievements in that way.

Stick to the facts

All you need to do is be factual. An easy way to have little ‘aside’ type comments to make at the right moment.

Practice these and be ready with them. For example:

• Yes, that was when I had just finished the project on XYZ.
• I remember that because it was very similar to what I did in sales last year.

Ask questions

The other way to do it is by asking questions. 

This is particularly useful when people make negative assumptions about your achievements or just don’t realise what your role was or what you achieved.

All you do here is ask questions like:

• What do you know about how this project was run?
• What is your understanding of the results that were achieved in this project?
• What makes you think it was John that was responsible for this?
• How do you know that Jane won that order?

And then follow it up with something like:
I think there may have been a misunderstanding here. I’m sure it was completely unintentional. I was the person who got the lead from XXX and got the agreement to double the order.

Be reasonable and forgiving. It always comes across much better than getting cross about the situation. And makes you look good, without making the other person feel defensive.

For more useful questions to help you in check out my booklet: “Questions Made Easy”.

Stressed out? 4 things to do

Stress is now the biggest cause of absence from work, according to a report by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and Simplyhealth.

But what can you do about it?
Three of the biggest problems when you are stressed are:

1. You lose your ability to prioritise
2. You lose your ability to set goals
3. Your memory starts to fail

These combine to make you inefficient. This increases your workload and adds to your stress, so you end up in a downward spiral.

Get help here

Your responsibilities as a manager

As a manager this means you need to be even clearer about objectives and priorities than usual.

Priorities

Setting priorities depends on being able to see the big picture, an ability that diminishes when you are stressed. (You will have noticed the very short-term knee-jerk reactions of people who are stressed.)

Have your long-term priorities worked out, written down and in clear view all the time. Refer to them every day and make sure you check your day-to-day tasks against them - ask yourself “How does this task fit in with my priorities?”

Check your objectives against the priorities to make sure you are focusing on the right things. (Focusing on the wrong things is a typical reaction of people who are stressed.)

Plans

Take a mental step back and review and update your plans every day. Doing this will help to prevent the panicking that can often set in when you are stressed and can even stop you from getting stressed in the first place.

Memory

Memory is about having systems to make remembering easier. So make sure you have systems and write things down rather than trying to remember everything.

For more techniques get the recording of my teleseminar on memory.

Exercise

The feeling of being stressed is caused by a chemical that your own body produces: cortisol. It accumulates in your body and makes you feel more and more stressed, damaging your brain into the bargain (which causes the memory problems amongst other things).

Flush out the cortisol by taking aerobic exercise. 15 - 20 minutes will really help. If possible exercise at the end of a stressful day so you don’t have the cortisol in your system over night. Regular exercise will reduce the chances of you getting stressed in the first place.

Get help

For more help, tools and techniques get you can get any of the product in our stress range at a discount of 25% by using this code:

Stressed out