Annual objectives: how do you stop them from becoming empty resolutions?

New year, new challenges, new objectives!

The start of a new calendar year is often synonymous with new objectives in a professional setting. These objectives are sometimes discussed during the annual appraisal or in a separate meeting between the manager and their employee. Motivating, stimulating, negotiated and realistic, these objectives must be "SMART". Of course, that matters. However, today we are not going to dwell on defining objectives as such, but rather on how to achieve them.

New year, new challenges, new objectives… new disappointments?

To fuel performance and motivation at work, objectives are key factors. Failing to achieve them can prove counterproductive. As a manager, what can you do to prevent your objectives, or those of your team, from ending in disappointment?

The number one danger with objectives is quite simply forgetting about them. Come on… let us picture ourselves in November 2023! We schedule our annual appraisals, dig out the appraisal forms, and realise that several of the objectives set a few months earlier have not yet been achieved or have quite simply slipped under the radar. When we are constantly caught up in the day-to-day, this can clearly happen to any of us.

Here are three pieces of advice to ensure your annual objectives are effective and achieved:

Tip #1: follow-up

As simple as it may seem, follow-up is a very good remedy for achieving your objectives and those of your teams. The trick is still to have the right tools to ensure that follow-up.

What is the point of setting objectives if no one is going to talk about them again for the next 12 months? An objective evolves, stalls and progresses. It is alive, so it is essential to discuss it at regular intervals. With the members of your team, effective follow-up of objectives can take place during the one-to-one meetings you hold with them individually. The benefit will be twofold: first, it will help to move the objective forward. And above all, it will show your employee that you care about their objectives, and therefore about their work and their own development. There is no need to follow up every two weeks; perhaps every three months is enough. Depending on the nature of the objective, you will be best placed to decide.

Tip #2: questioning

An objective is sometimes linked to a project. You have all faced this at least once in your professional life: a project does not always progress as initially planned, or it may simply be postponed or cancelled. An objective can also be subject to the ups and downs of external circumstances and be slowed down. You and your employees do not control all the ins and outs. In such cases, it is good to challenge the original objective during the year: is it still relevant, does it deserve adjustments, should it be changed? So do not hesitate to reconsider the relevance of your employees' objectives, and of your own too!

Tip #3: coaching

As a manager, your own objectives can prove to be bold and particularly challenging. While your schedule is tight, your working environment is in flux and you may have doubts about your skills, coaching can provide pragmatic support in achieving your objectives.

What if we stepped back a little in order to move forward more effectively? A beneficial pause, a chance to take stock, time to reflect, a list of options, a realistic and achievable action plan; several coaching sessions will provide you with all these elements and will serve your own objectives. A coaching process can strengthen your skills.

Reinforcement coaching to serve your objectives

It is for this reason that, at Valeur Plus, we offer reinforcement coaching. In a format of three sessions (plus one kick-off session to set the framework of the coaching and one closing session), this coaching process can be offered to a manager or an employee, with the aim of:

• Taking stock of their objectives, their role or their stance

• Identifying their resources and the points to watch

• Determining their areas for development

• Setting an action plan

The primary aim of this type of coaching is to strengthen a person's skills. We are convinced that coaching is a valuable tool for driving the success of a manager or an employee, and for giving them the means to develop their potential to the full extent of their abilities.

Different coaching solutions

Valeur Plus also offers three other types of coaching:

• Development coaching; to help a manager or an employee to develop, to respond to a particular, sometimes complex situation, in order to resolve an issue.

• Onboarding coaching ; this is a specific form of coaching to support a manager taking on new responsibilities and to provide them with support as they take up their role. It can be put in place both for someone taking on a management position for the first time and for an experienced manager moving to a new role.

• À la carte coaching; available as packages for companies, à la carte coaching sessions offer managers or employees the ad hoc support they need, with complete flexibility.

Several members of the Valeur Plus team are trained and certified in professional coaching in order to support you as effectively as possible in achieving your objectives.

If you are interested, we would be delighted to tell you about the possibilities offered by corporate coaching.

​Written by Christophe Guy, trainer and coach