Goals and Objectives:

• A goal is a broad, over-arching destination. “We want to achieve 50% market share in two years,” or, “I want to compete in and complete a triathlon within 18 months.”  It does not define how you will achieve this market share; it does not describe a strategy to get there or offer the specific tasks necessary to achieve the strategy. It simply is out there as a destination or target.

• An objective is a specific, measurable activity you will take to work towards a broader goal. For example: “As part of our goal to achieve 50% market share in two years, we will introduce a new product in each market segment every six months.” Or, “To achieve my goal of completing a triathlon, I will engage a running coach to help me improve my cardio conditioning, pacing and running technique.” 

In both cases, the objectives are capable of being broken down at a more detailed and measurable level called tactics. However, there’s a missing link between goals and objectives: strategy.

Where Does Strategy Fit with Goals and Objectives:

The strategy connects objectives with goals.

Business leaders and mangers strive to create strategies and supporting actions that help them move towards the an overarching company goal. In our example above, in order to achieve the goal of 50% market share in two years, the firm must adopt a strategy and then define the specific sets of actions necessary to realize the strategy which will propel them to the goal.

To achieve 50% market share in two years, we will adopt a strategy of product and service innovation, offering new products and supporting services while phasing out older products to an expanding set of customers in our core marketplaces. 

As mentioned above, the objectives will focus on particulars, including bringing a new product to market in each market segment every nine months. The objective can further be broken down into a series of tactics, including: researching customer needs; hiring additional engineers and product managers and adding production capacity to support manufacturing of the new offerings. 

Making Goals and Objectives Personal:

In many organizations, the performance appraisal and planning process involves identifying goals and objectives for an upcoming period. Individuals struggle with the differences between the two just as their senior managers often conflate the terms and concepts. A helpful approach is to break down the goals and objectives using the following template:

• Define one to three statements that describe a destination for your professional development in the upcoming year. These are your goals.
• Support each goal statement with a description of the high level approach you will take to get there.

Goal: My goal for this upcoming period is to strengthen my effectiveness as a manager by delivering improved and more frequent feedback. To measure the change in my performance, we will rely on my team’s assessment via a 360-degree survey compared to this year’s results, as well as my group’s measure of engagement and their overall achievement of corporate goals. 

Objective: To achieve my goal of strengthening my effectiveness as a manager during the upcoming period, I will seek and complete training within three months on delivering constructive and positive feedback and maintain and review a daily log of all of my feedback exchanges and the outcomes.

The goal is clear and in this instance the path to improving the goal via the objective is clear. Both the employee and manager understand what the employee is striving for, how progress will be measured and how the goal will be reached.