Less than half of the working population knows their company goals, and even fewer can connect their daily work to the strategies their company uses to meet them — which is exactly why misaligned teams consistently hurt project outcomes. McKinsey & Company found that motivation and engagement rise sharply when employees have a hand in the goal-setting process, and success follows when your direct reports feel a real sense of ownership over the goals they’re working toward. Use these five steps to set (and surpass) goals as a team:

TLDR:

• Less than half of employees know their company goals, which tanks alignment and project outcomes.
• Break annual goals into 90-day targets using the GOST model: goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.
• Run every goal through the SMART check, then assign daily KPIs so your team tracks progress in real time.
• Only 21% of employees say they control their own performance metrics. Fix that by building OKRs together in 1:1s.
• Tie hitting quarterly targets to each person’s career growth, or your top performers won’t stay motivated past Q1.

Step 1: Set 90-day goals with your team 

Trying to reach lofty, annual goals all at once is overwhelming and ineffective. When too many items pile onto your employees’ plates, they struggle to focus on what matters most. As decision fatigue sets in, it becomes the norm to accomplish very little while you pinball from project to project.

Instead of laying out year-long goals for your team to meet, work collaboratively to break bigger goals down into smaller pieces. As a team, decide what’s manageable to accomplish in the next 90 days. 

Creating bite-sized initiatives that your team can tackle quarter by quarter makes reaching each company or team goal more palatable. And, it improves your chances of actually achieving what you map out.

Be strategic with what goals you choose to put first, and the objectives and action items that follow. Use the GOST model to identify your goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.

Here’s an example of how to set goals using the GOST model

Let’s say I own a small tech startup in Chicago, and I’m planning my goals and strategies for Q1 of 2027.

Goal: 

Get recognized on the list of fastest-growing startups in Chicago, set to publish in April. 

Let me explain: This goal is my high-level outcome. It lays out what I want to achieve, but it doesn’t get into the details or how I’m going to achieve it.

Objective: 

Grow Q1 year-over-year revenue by 200%.

Let me explain: This is a specific and measurable outcome related to my goal. 

Strategy:

• Build a new website to improve inbound leads and coach and train my sales team daily to move prospects to close. 
• As new clients pour in, hire top-notch customer success managers to keep service levels high, so churn doesn’t tank revenue. 

Let me explain: With the strategy, I get into the how. It’s the plan I put in motion to get recognized on the list of Chicago’s fastest-growing startups. 

Tactics:

• Run bi-monthly ad campaigns to get in front of the right audience members, bringing them back to our shiny new website. 
• Use customer testimonials to promote proven results and superior service, since social proof goes far. 
• Train all new employees to uphold our high standard of service from prospecting to post-sale.

Let me explain: These are a few of the specific actions I will take to reach my objectives and achieve my goals. 

Step 2: Connect your 90-day goals to your company goals

Once you’ve IDed goals and waterfall objectives for your first 90-day stint, tie each collective team goal back to a corporate goal. 

And, work with your team members to set individual goals that align with your team and corporate goals, too.

How did you and your team decide what goals matter most in the next 90-days? Which corporate goal can you and your team members impact the most this quarter? Think through what you’ve mapped out in the GOST model, and how it all works to progress your company’s mission. 

Don’t set team goals in a vacuum. Instead, look at what you and your team outlined for the quarter, and choose a corporate goal to feed into. Of your four or five corporate goals for the year, which ones are directly actionable to your team? And which one can your strategies and tactics help leaders advance the most?

When leadership comes to you and asks what your plan is, be sure your GOST model helps your team execute on at least one overarching organizational goal. Company goals serve as your North Star, so you set targets that contribute to the big picture. 

Staying aligned with the larger business strategy that your execs create helps you deliver better ROI on your business unit.

Step 3: Keep each goal measurable and attainable

A study from Strategic Journal of Business linked clear KPIs to improved performance at work.

Without metrics in place to measure your progress, your team won’t get a clear picture of how their hard work translates to better results and outcomes. 

Use the SMART check

Once team goals are solidified and link back up to your corporate goals, put them to the test. Run your high-level 90-day goals through the SMART goals framework. Be sure they’re: 

• Specific
• Measurable 
• Attainable 
• Relevant
• Time-based

With SMART goals in hand, assign KPIs that your team can track and monitor daily. Performance spikes when employees clearly see the impact of their daily work. Giving each of your team members access to performance metrics empowers them with the knowledge they need to succeed. 

When employees can leave work each day knowing what metrics they’ve hit and which ones they’ve missed, they know how they need to improve tomorrow. And, they know when their actions led to stellar metrics, fueling confidence, and furthering capability.

Make metrics clear for your team. Clue every employee in on how they’re being measured, and on how their daily work and the metrics you choose create better business outcomes.

Step 4: Put your team members in charge of each goal

A slim 21% of employees say they have performance metrics in their control. When your employees don’t feel like performance is measured fairly, they don’t feel ownership over their goals. 

To fuel ownership and empowerment over each of your team goals, work with each of your employees in one-on-ones to create OKRs. 

OKRs help your team focus on and track their personal progress toward larger, outcome-based goals.

When you clarify objectives, metrics, and key results, you optimize and engage your workforce. Each of your team members understands how their work fuels progress toward your collective team goals. 

Use the objectives you already framed out using the GOST model and work with your team to create the follow-up metrics and key results you’re targeting. Then, each of your employees feels ownership over how they’re being measured and why it matters. 

Learn more about how to write OKRs

Step 5: Incentivize performance with career progress

If your team dedicates their heart and soul to team goals for the next 90 days, how do they personally benefit? As you set goals with your team, it’s important to talk with each team member about their personal goals, too. 

If you hire an all-star team of CSMs to help you reduce churn (and grow revenue) in Q1 of 2027, what’s in it for them? When you hit your targets as a team, how will you celebrate your successes? And, how will you acknowledge the accomplishments of your team members?

Meeting team goals is a marker for success. Reward your team by helping them work toward their personal goals and advance their own careers. As you set team goals and settle on OKRs with each of your team members, ask how they want to progress professionally in the next 90-days. 

Maybe you have some newcomers who want to build their experience and expertise, so they’re just happy to contribute to your quarterly targets. Or, perhaps you have some seasoned employees who are looking for the next success that can catapult them into a new position, or to (finally) score that bonus. 

Stay in tune with your team to see how your quarterly goals align with their personal and professional goals. Then, be the standout leader that helps progress your team as they progress your company. 

What to do next

Now that you've read this article, here are some things you should do:

1. Check out the largest library of Goal & OKR examples on the internet (free).
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