My team and I just wrapped up our year-end report in June and are launching ahead to FY17 with a new annual work plan. In my talent management team, we work on goals that support “attracting, retaining, and developing a workforce that is diverse and able to meet current and educational needs.” That may sound like an ambiguous and somewhat lofty sound mission, yet our team work plan contains many concrete action strategies that support this mission. It contains clear timelines and quantifiable measures to ensure that we are making progress.
As the leader of this team, part of my work is to have good conversations with each of my team members to ensure that their individual development goals and the performance expectations we agree upon align with our work plan. Those conversations are critical to accomplishing our goals and building organizational talent. It helps each team member clearly understand how they are part of accomplishing our team goals and it helps us refine strategies as we review them.
While it can be time consuming having those individual 1:1 meetings with each staff member, skipping those individual conversations can prove costly. It would invite too many opportunities for disconnects and misalignment, like the picture above of the train tracks that don’t quite meet.
Here are some of the things I discuss with my team members to make sure expectations are aligned:
- What are your 1-3 big goals for the year?
- How do your goals support our mission?
- What is the timeline for that action strategy/effort/project?
- What will you need to learn in order to accomplish this goal?
- What additional resources or support will be needed?
- How are you measuring progress?
- What obstacles or barriers do you face?
- What milestones are you setting?
- What will constitute success?
Of course, through the year, some unexpected things may pop up that displace one or two action strategies for one of my team members. But through good conversations and check-ins, we can re-align to make sure we are working together well and building organizational talent while accomplishing our goals.
How do you make sure that expectations are well aligned within your unit?
Anita Rios
Higher EDge 