29 Dec Take the Lead: Setting Clear Goals
Seven Ways to Increase Your Team’s Commitment to Company Goals
Team members who show up to work fully engaged are more motivated and productive
By Carolyn M. Brown
Setting clear company goals is crucial for business success. Goals provide direction, focus, and motivation for the entire organization. Goals also help leadership prioritize resources, improve efficiency, and measure progress. Getting teams to commit to company goals requires that leadership clearly communicate the company vision and mission, involve team members in goal setting, ensure goals are aligned with individual roles, provide regular feedback, recognize achievements, and foster a positive culture where team members feel valued and empowered to contribute.
Here are seven ways to help your team fully embrace and commit to company goals.
1. Empower teams through goal setting and collaboration. It is important to involve team members in setting goals to increase buy-in.
At Road, a global retail e-commerce management agency based in Austin, Texas, CEO and founder Bashak Ilhan believes that success is a shared effort. She emphasizes the importance of aligning team goals with company objectives to create a motivated, high-performing workforce.
“For any business, the goal is to drive sales, fuel growth, and create sustainable success,” says Ilhan. “But the real strategy is making sure employees understand why we do what we do and how their role directly contributes to that success.” To foster this buy-in, Ilhan highlights a three-step approach:
Impact The first step is ensuring everyone knows how their daily work affects the company’s big-picture goals.
Shared success The second step is sharing the rewards. Alongside base salaries, Road offers commissions and incentives, so success is collective.
Innovation: The third step is giving employees the space to develop their own areas of expertise and take risks. “When people feel trusted to try new things, they bring fresh ideas that drive the company forward,” Ilhan says.
Netta Jenkins, CEO of New York–based Aerodei, reinforces the significance of clearly explaining to team members how their individual duties contribute to the larger picture. For example, “if a company goal is to increase customer retention, then as a manager you should highlight how support teams’ quick response time and issue resolution lead to higher customer satisfaction and renewals,” says Jenkins. “As a leader, you have to help employees see the big picture by reiterating company goals so that they are always top of mind.”
2. Communicate openly with your team. Encouraging communication and respect among team members is crucial. Keep employees or teams informed of what’s happening at all times, especially if company goals or initiatives change.
“The key is to normalize that communication,” Jenkins says. “There should be company-wide meetings and regular manager meetings with employees or team members.” Don’t wait until performance reviews, she adds. “Every time there is a meeting, whether it be weekly or biweekly, a manager needs to take three to five minutes to reiterate ‘here are the company goals’ and, if need be, ‘here’s what shifted in company goals this week or this month.’ And then ask, ‘how do these goals align with the work that you are doing right now?’ By normalizing communication, it creates open dialogue amongst the team,” explains Jenkins, who is the author of the upcoming book Supercharged Teams: How Every Manager Can Create a Culture of Excellence (Wiley).
Strong communication and transparency are about “accountability and respect,” says Lori Fellmer, vice president of logistics and carrier management at BassTech International, a supplier of specialty chemicals and raw materials based in Fort Lee, New Jersey. As an example, she cites the situation when news broke about President Trump’s tariffs, and her company monitored the impact on transportation and logistics. “We had to communicate with our customers about these changes and the additional cost,” says Fellmer.
Brenda Baugh Lipscomb, senior area business leader at Novartis Oncology in Washington, DC, says that “proactively communicating about what may be happening and the ‘why’ behind it makes people feel comfortable. It’s when you have uncertainty and people are unclear that you have a problem with retention.
“People start to bolt the organization because they lose trust in the organization. You don’t want employees to feel like they were [blindsided] because they are hearing for the first time about changes or anything that might be happening at the company from people outside of the organization.”
3. Build trust with your team. Building trust is a key strategy that promotes a sense of belonging and shared purpose.
Not only “trust in you as a leader, but also trust in the organization,” says Lipscomb. “It takes ongoing effort to keep trust levels high. This is why it is important to have a strong inclusive culture, one where people feel good about being part of the team and coming to work.”
For Netta Jenkins, building trust requires an understanding of what motivates employees or team members. Personal motivations differ. “Take time to find out what is driving them that week or that month, and what support they need to perform at the highest level,” says Jenkins. For example, if someone is motivated by career advancement, offer them opportunities for professional development and leadership growth. “If another person is motivated by life integration, offer flextime—look at what scheduling options are possible,” she says.
4. Build a culture of mentorship and collaboration. “Create an environment where people are more comfortable collaborating versus competing,” says Lipscomb. “It is collaboration when you are partnering and sharing great ideas to execute a goal, and you are holding yourself and others accountable as well. Competing is where you don’t want to share ideas proactively, keeping them to yourself instead. When collaborating, you utilize other people’s strength. You pick their brains to come up with solutions. This may be your peers or superiors or people in supportive roles.”
Ilhan fosters a culture of continuous learning and mentorship. “We believe in the power of both mentoring and reverse mentoring,” she says. “Our younger employees bring new perspectives, especially in the digital space. We make it a point to hold weekly sessions where we exchange insights and learn from one another.” By prioritizing collaboration, trust, and innovation, Ilhan ensures that Road’s team members are not just employees but key contributors to the company’s ongoing growth.
5. Empower your team. A team with a sense of agency is characterized by high levels of motivation, engagement, and innovation. There is a feeling of accountability and responsibility among team members.
“Give them autonomy to problem solve while providing guidance when needed,” says Jenkins. “This will allow them to connect with the company. For example, instead of dictating how your product should be marketed, allow the marketing team to develop their own strategies and present them in meetings.”
Jenkins also suggests removing barriers to execution. “A manager should be comfortable with intervening and advocating for team members, to keep the ball rolling and for there to be seamless collaboration,” she explains. “Let’s say a software engineer is struggling with outdated tools, and it’s creating a barrier to actually execute on the company goals. A manager has to step in and advocate for the investment in better technology.”
6. Celebrate and appreciate your team. Recognize and celebrate team and individual achievements. Purposeful celebration will energize team members. It feels good to be acknowledged.
“You want to celebrate your team, whether by paying for an event or inviting them to your home for a meal,” says Lipscomb. This also ties back to motivation. “How do you gauge what motivates people?” she asks. “It is in every engagement. Every time you talk to someone, you learn more about that person. Take notes. You have to apply things that benefit the whole team and make each individual feel valued.”
Acknowledging employees goes a long way in making them feel valued and that they are an integral part of the organization, notes human resources management professional Tracy Sal-mon, who is based in New Jersey. She also advises celebrating personal milestones, like birthdays and marriages, as well as company milestones, like work anniversaries and promotions.
“Celebrating successes and milestones in the workplace, including individual and team achievements, creates a sense of accomplishment and makes employees feel valued, which leads to increased motivation and engagement,” says Salmon.
7. Recognize the blows but reward the glows. One way to celebrate teams and individuals is to be an approachable leader, providing an open-door policy and safe space.
When assessing a project or process, Salmon looks at the glows (what worked) and the blows (what didn’t work). She describes this as comparable to “spot analysis,” which is used to gather quick insights and to identify potential problems, bottlenecks, or inefficiencies as well as opportunities for growth within an organization.
“If something is outdated and no longer needed—maybe the target population or customer base needs have changed—you need to pivot accordingly. What new ideas can we think of?” asks Salmon. That is recognizing the blows.
“If someone on the team hit or surpassed a benchmark, that’s a glow you want to celebrate, whether it’s giving that person a social media shout-out or a store gift card.”
Setting company goals is not a one-and-done deal. It’s an ongoing process. Markets, technology, and customer preferences are constantly changing, which requires leadership to adapt and refine company goals. These seven tips will fortify the groundwork that leadership has laid for the company to progress and prosper. EW
Carolyn M. Brown is a frequent contributor to Executive Woman.