It is unimaginable to run a business without targets. There are targets for every department. We need to set targets for ourselves as well. We generally have a fear of achieving targets and we believe that targets are only for the sales and marketing team. Entrepreneurs maintain lot of pressure on the sales team without understanding the basics of achieving them. The sales team on the other hand avoids target oriented tasks. Even if we have to achieve a target, we wait for the dead lines and at the final stage we eventually fail to reach where we aim at.
Targets are never threatening if planned properly rather it helps us in meeting our final objectives without much botheration. The entrepreneurs must set targets for each department and for every individual task. Psychological impact of setting targets for work on human mind works in two ways. First, we it gives a clear vision of our goals. We know what to do and what is the time limit for each task. Second, it is human nature to be punctual and disciplined when there is some pressure of dead lines and targets. It is always important for every successful organization to give targets to its team performing jobs of different nature.
How to Achieve Targets?
We understand that targets are important for every business process but it becomes difficult to achieve them in reality. Most of the organizations and individuals actually fail to achieve them. There are two major reasons for such failures. One is that we set unachievable targets for ourselves and for our team. The other one is that we keep waiting for the last minute success.
While setting targets in life is not an arduous task but we must understand that targets are always measurable and can not be vague. We must not assume and decide the immeasurable terms like lot of volume or in a very short time. It must be in form of units for volume and time. For example, we can set a fixed volume of units to be sold in fixed span of time. This helps in identifying the exact volume of work to be completed also helps us in realizing the available time, which also develops a habit of time management. Targets must be precise in numbers.
The best way to achieve targets is to split and break them down into smaller targets. Suppose we have decided to generate a certain amount of turnover in one year. We need to now break it into half yearly target then quarterly and then into monthly target. By doing this we can plan our entire month in much easier way than planning the whole year. When we look at the volume of turnover on monthly basis, it appears much lesser than the actual one that is to be achieved in one complete year. This practice also helps them who cannot think so big. Now when we know that the one twelfth of the turnover is to be generated in one month only, we find it achievable and do not wait for the last months of the year. At this stage we need to split this monthly target further into weekly and daily targets. When our daily targets are clear, we know that this is the minimum output that we have to give in just 24 hours. At this very point of time we come into action and start executing without waiting for the last minute success. The splitting technique helps in monitoring our daily performance. It also keeps us occupied and triggers us to perform until we hit our daily figure. By the end of the year, we realize that the task assigned to us has become easier and comfortable.
Another technique to be added with splitting technique is to over achieve the smaller targets. When we split our work on daily basis, there are chances that in few days, due to unavoidable reasons, we are not able to hit the daily figure. This deficiency will naturally add up to the remaining days of our work and will put extra pressure and burden in the coming days. To avoid this heavy amassing of work load in the coming days, we must try to achieve more than what we have decided for one day. That’s how we will be achieving some of our target in advance. This extra output will help us during the time when we will not be able to get desired output due to any reason and we can also spare sufficient time for ourselves even when we are not doing anything to achieve the targets.