Management Focus: Goal Setting and Coaching
This month in the Esteemed MBA School of Leadership and Management, our classes are focused on goal setting. Goal setting is one of the most important tools great managers use to challenge their people and ask for more.
For the purpose of this article, there are four key takeaways I want to emphasize.
First, most people misunderstand the purpose of goal setting.
Many assume goals are primarily about learning something entirely new or taking on a large developmental project tied to long term career growth. While that can be true in some cases, I encourage managers to use goal setting far more often as a lever for simple productivity gains.
Here is the reality I stress with my students. If you plotted productivity and the cost of doing business on an X Y axis, the cost of doing business historically increased three to five percent year over year prior to 2019. That meant companies needed to be at least five percent more productive each year just to stay even. Flat productivity is not neutral. It is decline.
Since 2019, that cost increase has accelerated dramatically. The last time I ran the numbers, from 2022 to 2024, the cost of doing business increased by roughly thirteen percent. The implication is simple. To stay competitive, most organizations need to be approximately fifteen percent more productive next year than they are this year.
That level of improvement must show up in individual tasks as well as departmental and operational efficiency. As a practical example, a task that took one hour to complete in 2025 should take roughly forty four minutes in 2026, thirty nine minutes in 2027, and thirty four minutes in 2028 just to keep pace.
This is where goal setting matters. It is the manager’s responsibility to work with their direct reports to establish productivity goals and then collaborate on how to achieve them. Productivity goals are not optional. They are foundational.
Second, what gets measured gets done.
The SMART goal framework is familiar, but it bears repeating. Specific and measurable goals drive results. A goal such as “I will lose weight” produces little change. A goal that states “I will lose twenty pounds by the end of April 2026” creates clarity, urgency, and action. Deadlines matter. Deadlines drive behavior.
Third, follow up drives accountability.
What leaders consistently ask about becomes what the organization cares about. When a manager sets a goal with a direct report or a team, leadership must follow up regularly and intentionally. That visible interest signals importance.
This is why milestones are critical. Instead of setting a goal to read a twelve chapter book over a quarter, break it into one chapter per week. An effective manager will then ask about takeaways from each chapter during weekly one on ones. That cadence of follow up dramatically increases the likelihood the goal will be completed on time.
Finally, goals are about progress, not perfection.
In organizations with low trust, teams often avoid setting ambitious goals out of fear. They worry that missing a goal will cost them a bonus, a promotion, or even their job. This mindset undermines growth.
Progress matters. If I set a goal to lose twenty five pounds in three months and lose fifteen, that is progress worth celebrating. I am better than I was at the start of the quarter. The next goal becomes losing the remaining ten pounds.
The same applies in business. If a sales team sets a goal to grow new revenue by fifty percent and delivers forty percent, that is meaningful progress. Forty percent growth is not failure. It is forward motion.
As you set goals for 2026, keep these four principles in mind. Use goals to drive productivity. Measure what matters. Follow up relentlessly. And celebrate progress.
Give it a try and Be Esteemed.
