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