Setting Accurate Goals and Forecasts

[tconnor]

Business Management Tips #263
Setting Accurate Goals and Forecasts

Top-down goal setting and forecasting is a sure-fire way to ensure that there is a lack of ownership, commitment and reliable participation in any corporate goals, projects, initiatives and decisions.

There are three ways to establish priorities , objectives and forecasts.- bottom-up, top-down or a combination of top-down and bottom-up.

When goals or objectives are established bottom-up there is no guarantee that the goals or objectives that are set will meet the needs, criteria or expectations of senior management. When goals or objectives are set top-down, there is no guarantee that they will be met due to the fact that many employees will not feel as they were able to contribute to the goals or objectives that they will be responsible for achieving or supporting.

The only way to ensure that management’s expectations and objectives are met and that employees take ownership of them is a combination of both top-down and bottom-up.

There are many reasons why managers feel that top-down forecasting and goal setting is the best way to achieve corporate success. It is unfortunate however that many managers who approach this process only top-down usually end up frustrated with results that are less than expected, disappointed with the outcomes and often apologizing for or defending the lack of success to their superiors.

When you include people who must support, influence or carry out objectives or programs it tends to motivate them, improve employee performance and contributes to their sense of value to the organization. When your philosophy is purely top-down you can be assured that employees will feel invalidated, irrelevant and unimportant. When employees feel less than worthwhile they will tend to perform their roles, and tasks in less than a worthwhile or acceptable manner.

This approach can be the cause of any number of employee problems including:

• Poor morale
• Poor communication
• Poor performance
• Employee turnover
• A high stress environment
• Lip service to your objectives
• Slow corporate growth
• Poor profits
• Lagging sales
• Customer dissatisfaction

If your approach to forecasting and goal setting is purely a top-down I recommend that you seriously consider that some of your management frustrations, on-going challenges and your stress level could be caused by this philosophy. I have seen miraculous results when top-down managers change their philosophy to a combination (top-down and bottom-up) process.