Setting targets for and with staff can be inspiring, engaging and motivating. However to be so they need to be co-owned, they need to connect with what people really care about by way of their values and beliefs, and to connect to the future that they are leading for

People need to feel that they are ‘up to something together’ and that they are making a positive difference through delivering on targets to patients and customers.

1. Setting inspiring targets

Find out what really matters to people, what they care about by way of their values so that together you can link what they care about to the targets.

Share with them what you really care about and crucially why you care about these values, and these how – whatever the target – connects with the bigger purpose of the wider business.

Paint a picture of the future, of where the business is heading and how achieving these targets is part of moving towards that future.

Tell a story. People are inspired by the stories we tell each other let them know why the target matters to you, the difference it will make to people and customers and how you and they are part of delivering that difference.

Believe in people even when they are not sure they can reach a target. When people are not sure they can reach a target, your belief that they can will inspire them, and give them confidence that it can be done.

2. Making targets engaging

Encourage people who have different targets to share what they are with each other in the team, with their colleagues, so that they can support and help each other to achieve them.

Remind people that even with achieving individual targets, a commitment to each other’s success is essential, and that we can only commit to each other’s success if we know what we are working on and towards.

Foster an environment in which ‘we are up to something together’, that we are working towards a shared target even if within that there are individual targets.

Create some team targets that are more to do with how we work together than what we are doing.

Focus on specific behaviours that connect with people’s values that will help us deliver our targets for customer care.

Make sure that people care for and look out for each other, offering help and asking for help in achieving targets.

Encourage people especially to ask for help when they are struggling in achieving a target and to get help from each other in the team and/or other colleagues.

Involve and include people, especially if they have had a break through sickness or a holiday, bring them up to speed and help them get back on track.

Acknowledge and appreciate people for their achievements along the way to reaching a target but also their accomplishments in overcoming obstacles and difficulties along the way.

3. Ensuring that targets are motivating

Give people responsibility and accountability for delivering their targets by checking in with them on progress but not micromanaging them.

Give people space to come to you when they are struggling to ask for help.

Help people to learn from mistakes and failure through first asking yourself what you could have done differently in support of them, and secondly asking them what they could have done differently – and crucially what they will do in a similar situation next time.

Make sure that you acknowledge their contribution, especially when a target changes or when they have got new, different targets or even extra targets.

Celebrate success! Small successes and big ones!

Having targets gives us a great opportunity to celebrate when we have achieved them, and when we have gone beyond them. It is a great opportunity to build confidence and capability for next time – all the time building a high performance, high confidence individual, team and business that takes pride in the difference it is making.