Question

1. Three(3) SMART goals for the employee and discuss how you will incorporate Autonomy, Purpose, Mastery into your motivational schemes, or performance management.

Answer 1

SMART goals are nothing but goals that are achievable and are not overestimated, to begin with. As a manager or when creating goals for yourself, you have to make sure that you use the SMART process so that goals are Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Relevant, and Timely. Creating goals which is vague or cannot be quantified is not productive. It does not help the organization or the person in any way. I have provided a few examples of SMART goals below:

As a manager:

S. Create growth and learning opportunities for each member of my team
M. Give feedback to each member at least once per month
A. Feedback should be one to one and not general
R. Improve team communication and feedback culture
T. Provided before the end of the next quarter

For a client-facing role (Customer success manager or implementation consultant):

S. Have customers complete satisfaction rating surveys at the beginning of their contract and quarterly thereafter
M. Increase customer satisfaction by 25% over the next two quarters
A. Customer success team to analyze and report improvements every month
R. Become industry leader and be known for our focus on customer satisfaction
T. Renewal of contracts to be completed for revenue generation by end of quarter two

For a software developer:

S. Add a new feature to the product which is part of RFE by the end of next quarter
M. Have it ready to be deployed in the live environment by the end of next quarter
A. Have development team responsibilities assigned
R. Improve current product features and improve candidate experience
T. Achieve the goals by the end quarter

Q. Discuss how you will incorporate Autonomy, Purpose, Mastery into your motivational schemes, or performance management.

For an organization to achieve higher performance, only compensation is not enough, you need to have 3 key attributes autonomy, mastery, and purpose incorporated into performance management. Let's discuss how you do that below:

Purpose: Question to be asked is how do we maximize the sense of purpose in individuals for higher performance. We should know the "Why" to answer the "what". If the "why" is not clear the actions you take do not contribute towards the goal that has been set. We have to make sure that the individual goals are aligned to the organization's goals so that they contribute towards achieving them. We have to communicate the "why" in a way that can be understood and relayed to every person in the organization.

Mastery: For a professional to be at their best, they have to be a master at what they do. How can we help people pursue and achieve mastery? As an organization, we have to understand that every team member has a profession (what they do) and an industry they perform it in (where they do it.) From a performance management point of view, it helps team members to develop a strong understanding of both the skills and context for their role and their industry at large. We can have a roadmap in place for each role within your team to achieve in a stipulated tie frame. By doing this you improve skills and increase chances of being successful.

Autonomy: Having autonomy is another aspect that can help individuals be creative and bring in innovative ideas on the table. It is nothing but the need to direct your own life and work. We’re all built with an inner drive and the drivers are what we need to identify. Each individual has different drivers that motivate them. By letting employees decide what to work on or when to do it organization can support autonomy.