KPIs. Revenues. Sales targets.
These words are the common language of organisations. They are what you hear in year-end reviews, quarterly team meetings, sometimes even in water cooler chats.
Organizations set up these targets to drive their employees to work harder, to achieve even greater results than before.
It makes perfect sense for organizations to do so.
I mean after all, if every employee hits their targets, the organization ultimately benefits with a much higher performing team, right?
This method is used in almost every organization, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t work for yours, right?
Wrong.
“I’m so good at hitting targets, I should be an archer instead.” – Your team, after attending our workshop
These targets might work well for many organisations. For others, it may prove difficult and at times, even detrimental.
Even with these targets in place, some organisations STILL fail to hit their goals at the end of the year.
There will come a time when KPIs or sales targets eventually stop motivating your employees altogether.
You’ll start to see the fire in your employees eyes slowly stop burning.
Your employees start coming to work just for that paycheck.
And nobody is enjoying their jobs anymore.
So then, what is that one sure way to constantly motivate your employees?
What is that one sure way for you to hit your targets Every. Single. Year?
Quite simply, by
Changing Your Targets.
Focusing on the end goals (KPIs, sales targets, etc) is definitely one way to motivate your employees to achieve even greater results.
However, we believe that focusing on employees’ ENGAGEMENT at work will prove to be even more beneficial for organisations in the long run.
This means that a change in your targets is needed.
Your targets should, instead, be about creating engaged employees.
Creating Engaged Employees
Think about it.
Engaged employees are happy and satisfied in the work that they do. They enjoy the work environment they are in. And they come to work every day loving what they do.
Creating happy and engaged employees will bring about a bigger impact to the workplace as they are able to perform to their strengths instead of dwell on their weaknesses.
Eventually, the results will reflect so as you see the returns coming in naturally, and you start seeing all your targets effortlessly met.
All your KPIs and sales targets will start to look more achievable and less impossible.
Moreover, they’ll start to feel like the byproduct of having employees who are so much more engaged in what they do, that they do it to the best of their abilities every day.
You’ll have employees who are committed to the organization, and will work hard to achieve or even surpass the targets to ensure the success of the organization.
Focusing On The Right Targets
So by now, you should understand that your targets should be about helping your employees be at their very best in the work that they do.
One of the first steps for you to start engaging your employees is by focusing on their Strengths.
According to Gallup’s research, when teams focus on their strengths, they are 6x more engaged in their jobs, and have 12.5% greater productivity levels. Teams with high employee engagement levels also experience 22% higher profitability and 21% higher productivity.
The results speak for itself.
It’s about time to stop putting a band-aid on the problems your organization faces.
Instead, focus on the right things and fix the root cause of the problems.
Get ready to have your mind blown at the results you get when you create your own team of greatest archers who can hit any target you give them.
StrengthsAsia has helped many individual and corporate clients all throughout the region in identifying and maximizing their talents, in driving engagement and increasing motivation in their work and life.
If you want to learn more about the 34 talent themes or discover how you can apply your talent themes in your team or in the areas of your work and your life, feel free to reach out to us here.
If you find this article to be helpful, you might also like our FREE Engaging Teams guide down below.
Aly is StrengthsAsia’s marketing and communications guru and lead editor. She's over the top inquisitive and everyone in the company knows her as “The Googler” as she practically googles everything. Honestly, we all worry for her… She is also the Principal Trainer for our one of a kind ice cream team building workshops in Asia.