In the workplace, team and individual goals will vary. Aligning these goals with your organisation’s operational plan with produce a high performing team.
Successfully building and sustaining highly productive retail teams is more a result of your leadership style than the resources that you can draw on. Having the right skills, knowledge and focus as a leader will allow you to develop strong teams with a supportive and productive culture, this in turn delivers your organisational goals being met.
To learn how to steer your success as a team leader, the ARA Retail Institute runs workshops on leadership and team culture.
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Goals need to be developed in line with strategic and operational plans. They should be developed and agreed upon prior to commencing work. Goals will form part of work plans which will outline:
A popular way to create goals is the use of the SMART goal setting method. There are several different adaptations of the SMART acronym consider the following:
It is important that everyone within the team is working towards the same goal. Each individual within a team needs to understand their role in achieving the vision of the organisation.
Consultation in goal setting
Before assigning goals, managers need to consult with several groups and individuals for various reasons including:
Line managers to:
- Verify understanding of organisational plans.
- Negotiate resource allocation.
- Identify work to be carried out.
Human resource department to:
- Discuss recruitment needs.
- Ensure no legislation is breached.
- Review award and agreement constraints.
Team members to:
- Ascertain skills and knowledge.
- Understand factors affecting performance.
- Discuss and agree on performance measures.
The consultation methods adopted will depend on the time frame, the preference of the personnel being consulted and organisational policy. Possible consultation methods include:
- One to one or group meetings – this consultation method is good when dealing with controversial issues as it is the richest form of communication. This consultation method allows for immediate 2 way communication without interruptions.
- Online forums – This consultation method is useful when stakeholders are not geographically accessible. Online forum entries generate a record of consultation.
- Ad hoc discussions – These discussions are useful to clarify understanding and follow up on structured consultation. It is not advisable to use this method in isolation.
- Email – Email is a good way of sending out a consistent message and allows for either group responses or personal responses. Be careful of the written word being misinterpreted and ensure you follow the organisations email policy.
- Telephone – This consultation method is richer than email as it allows for tone of voice to give message context. Once again there is an immediate channel for 2 way communication. This may involve one to one conversations or teleconferences with all stakeholders. It is a good idea to record these conversations as a record of commitments.
- Survey completion – This is a good method when canvassing the opinions of a lot of stakeholders. Surveys generate large amounts of quantitative data that may be compared easily.
ARA Retail Institute is Australia’s leading retail training provider for both accredited and non-accredited learning programs. For more information, please visit: www.retailinstitute.org.au
