A great manager knows how to set a two-factor north star her team can believe in.
Then she set a target, or a specific number to shoot for this year, or this quarter, or this month.
An average manager would stop at that: set a target and hope the team meets the goal. When things don’t go as planned, she dresses the team down over the fact that they didn’t meet the goal.
But a great manager knows better. She understand the importance of rate-based goals. A rate-based goal breaks a longer term target down into faster cycles.
An annual goal gets broken down into weekly targets. A monthly goal gets broken down into daily targets.
Rate-based goals give you a magical power: the ability to know whether you will meet the goal by the deadline. If your goal is 104 widget sales this year, then your team should be selling 2 widgets per week. If you’ve reached week 5 and you haven’t sold 10 widgets, it’s time to course correct.
Yes, set stretch goals for your team. But break them down so you can course correct before you miss the mark.
