Opinion: Target the right targets - how to climb the ladder of success together

The corporate world is lodged with different departments and multiple roles but among all those verticals, salespeople are most often viewed through the lens of cynicism; and recently, the viral video from a prominent bank ended up testifying to the fact. The video revealed a senior manager setting unrealistic targets while increasing pressure and using offensive language with his juniors.

 

This highlighted how deeply the word ‘target’ often gets misconstrued and the workplace environment gets affected. 

 

It's true that targets play an important role in both the organisation's growth and individual professional development as it encourages and pushes people to realise their potential. And, in my opinion, goals and targets should be on a real-time basis that can enhance accountability and create a sense of urgency to an extent. Such as expecting to increase sales by 10% in the next quarter rather than imagining it to happen in a day. 

 

Though, it’s true that surviving in the corporate world demands some time-bounds KRAs and tasks but it should be realistic enough in a way that it can empower not only the employee's productivity but their morale and ‘can do’ attitudes as well. This is because this spirit would help develop a trust factor and affinity between employer and employee. Well, it’s just the viral video that revealed the unethical environment and I feel that the perception towards the salespeople should be transformed. Since they are also one of the pillars that strive to bring business opportunities while making a brand presence in the industry; hence, it becomes essential to establish targets that align with overall sales and business objectives. This will help in driving togetherness in achieving corporate goals by maximising excellence and deliverable outstanding results. 

 

Let's explore why setting a realistic ‘target’ is vital for success: 

 

Work accreditation: Every employee strives to achieve more and feel optimistic about it and I feel that alongside hard work, efforts equally play a crucial role in defining individual growth and success. It is well said that 'an appreciated employee will always do more than what is expected'; and this makes a true sense of achievement. This is because when a person gets appreciated for his ideas, efforts and achievements, he strives to pull his limit more than his potential. This also encourages him to deliver the best for his own growth and development wherein, bonuses and rewards edge more of his performance and confidence too. 

 

Motivation and success: Having a realistic goal doesn't mean underperforming, it highlights how to plan and succeed because sometimes, a person can achieve more than what’s defined and sometimes lesser or up to the mark. There are some days when a person feels ups and downs and that is where we should hold one’s hand and make them realise that we have got you covered! This is what actually teamwork, motivation and success should be like wherein, an empathy-filled work culture and environment let people freely express themselves and talk to their respective concerned people.

 

Resource optimisation: Targets are essential but this must be edged with wiser allocation of resources as it enables organisations to be aligned with the right domain, market trend and economy size. Any entity couldn’t have a bull run in a bear market with limited or ample resources because, in both scenarios, productivity would be hampered; this is why, the term 'having a lot of work or no work' is concerning. Therefore, balanced resource optimisation is a must for organizations to cope with the tasks and their time sensitivity. 

 

Acknowledge shortcomings: Every employee comes with his own strengths and weaknesses where strength somewhere becomes a forte but shortcomings prohibit learning and growth. As a manager, while appreciating strengths, we should acknowledge the shortcomings as well to show a person the right direction and reshape his career towards better and futuristic goals. We should always lead from the front to encourage and motivate our fellow teammates. Such as, if any task or goal seems tough for the team to achieve, we as a manager should perform and achieve it to make our teammates believe in their potential and capabilities. This will help employees efficiently attain their targets with measurable objectives as they feel positive about getting support from respective managers for growing together as one team and thus, would help employers to determine success.

 

Interactive sessions: Another factor that makes a work culture healthy is both formal and informal interactive sessions just to bond better together. A manager should act like a leader and not a boss wherein, having timely team meetings regarding upcoming goals, KRA, setting objectives, ongoing performances and achievements can help employees to be on the same page and also enable them to take charge or lead the projects. When a manager promotes timely knowledge-sharing interactions and makes leaders within the team, the teams can surely shape up better towards both personal and professional growth.

 

Workplaces need to promote an empathy-filled culture as it can really do wonders for an organisation. This is because when employees would feel happy, secure, protected and safe, the better they would perform and achieve. This can be done by communicating with teammates on a timely basis and understanding them in person to be equally aligned with each other. 

 

The author is VP - sales and marketing, Xapads India.