Goal Setting Activities** are activities that engage and motivate employees to set goals. In addition, they can help employees assess whether they're setting the right goals and also assist them in prioritizing goals effectively.
Benefits of Goal Setting Activities
Boost Morale and Motivation
Goals give work meaning and drive employees to excel, making the process exciting and creative.
Focus on Specific Priorities
Help employees focus on specific priorities and accomplish bigger, more meaningful things, improving discipline.
Promote Job Satisfaction and Loyalty
Employees feel nurtured by the support provided through goal activities, promoting job satisfaction and loyalty.
How to Get Started with Goal Setting Activities
Tools Used Setting Goals
Use goal-setting worksheets to help set realistic targets and begin creating a plan. Quality goal tracking software lets employees input their own goals and objectives and monitor progress.
Engaging Goal Setting Activities for Teams
Create Common Ground
Let employees write down personal goals on sticky notes and organize them into clusters of similar goals on a wall or whiteboard.
Brainstorm on Opportunities and Threats
Prompt team members to brainstorm on potential opportunities and threats the company is facing, jotting down ideas on a whiteboard.
Set Team Stretch Goals
Review what the team has accomplished over the previous year or quarter, write specific metrics to discuss as a group, and create visuals like charts to show changes over time.
Five-Minute Freewrite
Have employees spend five minutes freewriting independently about great team goals, giving them a prompt to start with.
Generate KPIs
Goals should be accompanied by key performance indicators (KPIs) by which to evaluate success, and employees can jot down ideas for metrics to use for particular goals.
Engaging Goal Setting Activities for Individuals
Evaluate Yesterday
Ask employees to make two columns on a sheet of paper, writing down 10 things they did at work on the previous day and professional goals they want to achieve within a year.
Goal-Setting Questionnaire
A goal-setting questionnaire can facilitate personal reflection, and employees can discuss their answers with managers to foster good goal-setting.
Discuss Goals with a Partner
Have employees pair up with a coworker to discuss potential goals for their personal work, asking them to try to set goals that are mutually supportive.
Design Your Ideal Day
In this exercise, employees map out their ideal workday, listing tasks and priorities they'll handle during blocks of time throughout the day.
Additional Resources
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Big Life Journal for Teens & Tweens – A science-based journal for tweens and teens to develop a resilient, growth mindset.
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[Goal Setting Questionnaire](https://www.sproutsocial.com/goal Setting-q-a/) – A goal setting questionnaire designed to help define and tailor goals within a group setting.
