Why hitting goals may be a myth

Setting goals is a vital aspect of any organisational structure and is the anchor upon which companies or individuals thrive.
However, career experts believe a good percentage of workers (about 70 per cent), especially those that are not directly involved in the company’s affairs, never set personal goals because they are either disinterested, demotivated or just care little about the company’s agenda.
But what causes the disinterest, lack of motivation and negligence.

Unrealistic goals
According to Paul Wayero, setting unrealistic goals is the greatest mistake businesses make.
In most cases business managers lock themselves in rooms and set goals but exclude the key component of employees whom they expect to implement set targets.
This, according to Wayero, a monitoring and evaluation officer at Finchurch, is the larger problem because the managers, unlike staff, care less about what is achievable and what is not.
“Companies fail to achieve targets because managers set goals that are plainly unachievable or beyond one’s power,” he says.
Therefore, he advises companies must see to it that they set goals that are within achievable means.
Additionally, according to Nuh Mukiibi, an internal business partner and recruitment consultant at NFT Consults, limited timelines for goals impact achievement.
“Some companies expect employees to achieve so much over a short period of time yet sometimes there are no clearly defined Key Performance Indicators,” he says.
But beyond this, according to Emmanuel Muhereza, a researcher at Centre for Basic Research, the tendency of failing to properly set targets, affects the end result.
“Before companies set goals haphazardly, they need to set Key Performance Indicators and explain what they intend to achieve,” he says.
Setting goals must be a realistic venture for any employee and circumstances where they might only remain imaginations must be avoided.

Poor planning
According to Mukiibi, lack of proper planning immensely contributes to failure to achieve set goals.
Achieving goals, Mukiibi says, needs proper planning and a process through which set targets are evaluated and accorded proper facilities among them resources and emotional motivation.
“Lack of motivation may hinder organisational targets which ultimately affects personal targets,” he says.
Therefore, he says, staff motivation must be looked at as a factor that will assist to realise set goals.
Wrong career path
This will mostly affect individual goals but will trickle down to company set targets because employees might not be interested in what they are doing.
Such employees are in the company not necessarily to advance set targets, but for the pay cheque.
In this case, having arranged talks with employees, especially about what they would like to do helps to fit them in the right positions which makes them look forward to contributing towards set goals.
However, as Pheona Namuyaba, the programmes manager at Restless Development says, a number of employees will just have no interest to help to achieve set targets if there are no stringent measures to force them to contribute.
“These are a difficult lot to handle because they are probably unhappy or the assignments allocated to them are just above what they can do,” she says.
However, in such circumstances, Namuyaba says, honest feedback about their performance and proper explanation for the failures is the only way to bring them on board.

Failure to monitor progress
In most cases when company management fails to monitor employee progress, they become demotivated and abandon the company’s wholesome target.
“Companies where employers are directly involved in workers’ progress through mentorships and one-on-one talk, register growth,” Julianna Kayaga, the head of human resource at Entrepreneurs Financial Centre, says.
This, she advises, must be adapted as the winning way through which the company must strive to bring every employee on board.
“Every employee must have the company’s mission at heart in order to foster attainment of goals,” she says. [email protected]