Mid-year goal reset: a checklist for team leaders

Mid-year goal reset is a short, planned review that tells you which goals still matter, which ones to drop and what your team will do in the second half. Set aside two hours. Use the checklist below. You will leave with fewer goals and a clearer plan.

Why July is a good time to reset

Half the year is gone. The plan you wrote in January was a guess about a future that has now partly arrived. Some goals are on track. Some are off. Some no longer fit the business.

Research on goal setting gives a simple reason to act now. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, who studied goals for about 35 years, describe a clear pattern. Specific, difficult goals lead to better performance than easy goals or vague ones such as "do your best". A reset is your chance to make each goal specific again.

Sources: Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (2002), "Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey", American Psychologist 57(9), 705-717, DOI 10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705 (record at api.crossref.org/works/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705); summary of goal-setting theory at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal-setting_theory.

Step 1: List every goal and score it

Write down each goal your team set for the year. Next to each one, record where it stands today. Use plain numbers when you can: 40 of 100 new accounts, 3 of 5 hires made.

Then give each goal a simple grade. Many teams that use objectives and key results use one of three methods. The first is yes or no. The second is red, yellow or green. The third is a score from 0.0 to 1.0, averaged across the key results. Pick one method and use it for every goal, so the grades can be compared.

Source: WhatMatters.com, "What are OKRs", whatmatters.com/faqs/okr-meaning-definition-example.

Step 2: Sort goals into keep, change and drop

Go through the list and place each goal in one of three groups.

• Keep: the goal still matters and the target is still fair.
• Change: the goal matters, but the target, the date or the owner needs to move.
• Drop: the market, the budget or the strategy has changed, and the goal no longer earns its time.

Dropping a goal is not failure. A stale goal still takes meetings, reports and attention. Removing it frees the team to finish what counts. Say the reason for each drop out loud, so people do not think the work was wasted.

Step 3: Make each goal specific and hard enough

Check every goal you keep or change against two questions. Can anyone tell, by a set date, whether it was met? Is it a real stretch without being out of reach?

Goal-setting research finds that commitment matters most when goals are hard. People commit more when they see why the result matters, when they believe they can do it, and when they have made the promise to others. Ask each owner to state the goal in their own words and say what could stop them.

One caution applies. On a new and complex task, where people are still learning the skills, a firm performance target can backfire. For that kind of work, set a learning goal instead, such as "test three methods and report what worked by September".

Sources: Locke and Latham (2002), as cited above; summary of goal-setting theory at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal-setting_theory.

Step 4: Trim to a few goals

Teams rarely fail from too few goals. They fail from too many. John Doerr, in his book Measure What Matters, argues that leaders should pick a small set of objectives, each with a handful of measurable key results. The OKR method he teaches usually uses three to five key results per objective.

Use that as a guide. For the second half, aim for three to five goals for the whole team. If a goal does not make the cut, it goes on a "later" list with a date to look at it again.

Source: WhatMatters.com, "What are OKRs", whatmatters.com/faqs/okr-meaning-definition-example.

Step 5: Set up feedback you can use

Goals work best when people also get feedback on how they are doing. Good feedback covers both the result and the way the work is done, so people can change their approach.

Put a check-in on the calendar for each remaining month. Keep it short. Ask three questions: What moved? What is stuck? What do you need from me? Write the answers in one shared place.

Source: summary of goal-setting theory at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal-setting_theory.

Step 6: Tell the team what changed

Send one page to everyone. It should show the goals you kept, the goals you changed, the goals you dropped and why. Name an owner and a date for every goal that remains.

Then hold a 30 minute talk where people can push back. A team that helped shape the plan will own it. A team that only received it will wait to be told what to do.

The checklist on one page

• List every goal and its current number.
• Grade each goal with one method.
• Sort goals into keep, change and drop.
• Make each remaining goal specific, dated and a fair stretch.
• Cut the team list to three to five goals.
• Schedule a monthly check-in with three questions.
• Share the new plan and hear the team out.

Sources: Locke and Latham (2002), American Psychologist 57(9), 705-717; WhatMatters.com, "What are OKRs"; Doerr, J., Measure What Matters (2018).