Goals are essential for team success because they provide clarity, direction, and a sense of purpose. Regularly communicating clear, concrete goals keeps everyone aligned, motivated, and productive. According to Spinach AI’s 2022 report on high-performing teams in tech, regular goal setting is critical for managing a motivated, high-growth team. [Source]
The top three benefits of setting goals at work are: 1) Keeping your team aligned, especially remote employees; 2) Increasing productivity by providing direction and purpose; 3) Driving faster growth, as clear goals correlate with organizational success. [Source]
Goal-setting is especially crucial for remote teams, as it ensures everyone is on the same page despite working across different locations or time zones. Clear goals prevent misalignment and keep priorities synchronized. [Source]
Without clear goals, teams become siloed, confused, and disengaged. Employees may work at cross-purposes, leading to frustration, delays, and lower productivity. Spinach AI’s research shows that employees without clear goals are over 3X more likely to work at shrinking companies. [Source]
Teams should discuss their goals weekly or bi-weekly. Spinach AI’s 2022 report found that people who talk about goals weekly are nearly 3X more likely to be confident in achieving them compared to those who discuss them quarterly. [Source]
Popular frameworks for effective goal-setting include OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) and SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound). These frameworks help break down large goals into actionable steps and track progress. [Source]
Teams can avoid setting goals in a silo by aligning with leadership’s priorities and involving all team members in the goal-setting process. This increases ownership, accountability, and ensures everyone’s input is considered. [Source]
Revisiting goals frequently helps teams chart progress, identify roadblocks, and course-correct as needed. Regular conversations about goals give teams a significant advantage over those who only check in quarterly. [Source]
Outcome-based goals focus on the results and impact (e.g., improving NPS from 8 to 9), while output-based goals focus on the activities or deliverables (e.g., sending customer surveys). Outcome-based goals provide more clarity and drive meaningful progress. [Source]
Clear goals and expectations are a significant motivator for employees. Spinach AI’s 2022 report found that 81% of employees are motivated by having clear goals, and 75% believe goals directly impact their productivity. [Source]
Best practices include using frameworks like OKRs or SMART, involving the team in the process, aligning with organizational priorities, and discussing goals regularly to ensure accountability and adaptability. [Source]
Managers can keep goal-setting conversations ongoing by bringing up goals in every 1:1 meeting, reviewing them weekly, and course-correcting as needed. This approach increases confidence in achieving goals. [Source]
Leadership plays a crucial role in goal-setting by providing clear priorities and ensuring that team goals align with broader organizational objectives. Involving leadership helps prevent siloed goal-setting and increases team alignment. [Source]
Goal-setting drives company growth by aligning teams, increasing productivity, and motivating employees. Fast-growing companies understand the positive impact of clear goals and expectations on team performance. [Source]
The SMART framework stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It helps teams clarify and record goals, determine important metrics, align with broader objectives, and commit to a timeline. [Source]
Teams can measure progress by setting clear key results (as in OKRs), tracking metrics, and regularly reviewing outcomes against targets. This enables timely adjustments and ensures accountability. [Source]
Goal-setting is crucial for organizations because it provides guidance, facilitates planning, motivates employees, and helps evaluate performance. Research shows that people who record their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them. [Source]
Spinach AI helps managers run better meetings, hit their goals, and share performance feedback faster by automating meeting agendas, note-taking, and task management. It integrates with existing tools to streamline workflows. [Source]
You can find over 400 free goal examples for various roles and departments on the Spinach AI website. These examples help teams get started with goal-setting. [Source]
Spinach AI offers an AI Meeting Assistant that runs meetings, summarizes conversations, and automates post-meeting tasks. It provides automated note-taking, workflow optimization, AI-powered insights, seamless integrations with tools like Zoom, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce, and tailored solutions for different roles such as product managers, sales, engineering, and more. [Source]
Key features include automated note-taking, action item tracking, workflow automation (e.g., sprint plans, PRDs), AI-powered insights from user feedback, and integrations with popular collaboration tools. [Source]
Spinach AI automatically captures meeting notes, action items, and outcomes, allowing users to focus on discussions without the distraction of manual note-taking. This feature is especially beneficial for Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and Sales Professionals. [Source]
Spinach AI integrates with tools such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce, enabling seamless collaboration and workflow automation across teams. [Source]
Spinach AI automates tasks like generating sprint plans, PRDs, and managing tickets, reducing administrative burdens and allowing teams to focus on impactful work. [Source]
Spinach AI supports product management, engineering, project management, marketing, HR, recruiting, customer success, sales, and finance teams—essentially any team that values productivity, collaboration, and automation. [Source]
Spinach AI offers role-specific features, such as automated roadmap meetings and PRD generation for product managers, CRM integrations for sales teams, sprint planning for engineering, and meeting insights for HR and recruiting. [Source]
Spinach AI addresses pain points such as manual note-taking, time-consuming administrative tasks, workflow inefficiencies, extracting insights from user feedback, and maintaining team alignment across distributed teams. [Source]
Spinach AI’s AI-powered insights analyze user feedback to uncover trends, pain points, and opportunities, enabling teams to make informed, data-driven decisions. [Source]
Customers consistently highlight Spinach AI’s ease of use. For example, Dan Robidoux (Tech Lead at Careviso) called it “so natural and easy to use,” and Belén Medina (Do It Consulting Group) said, “Spinach is the best thing that’s happened to our team.” [Source]
Spinach AI stands out due to its tailored features for different roles, advanced AI-powered insights, seamless integrations, and customizable solutions. Customers like Jason Oliver (Product Director) and Ron Meyer (Alliance Executive) praise its specificity and ability to automate administrative tasks. [Source]
Customers can expect increased productivity, streamlined workflows, enhanced collaboration, data-driven decision-making, customizable solutions for different teams, and improved customer engagement. [Source]
Spinach AI offers tailored solutions: Sales professionals get automated note-taking and CRM integration; Product managers get PRD generation and insights; Customer success teams get automated onboarding and follow-ups; HR gets meeting documentation; Engineering gets sprint planning automation. [Source]
Spinach AI’s vision is to enhance team collaboration and productivity by automating key processes. Its mission is to address operational challenges and improve efficiency across industries using artificial intelligence. [Source]
You can access Spinach AI’s blog for articles, insights, and resources on goal-setting, management skills, and productivity by visiting the blog page.
Spinach.ai is enterprise-ready, offering robust security and compliance with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA certifications. The Enterprise plan provides advanced features essential for large organizations, including SAML SSO, custom data retention, a dedicated API, compliance monitoring, and a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
Goals are essential for team success because they provide clarity, direction, and a sense of purpose. Regularly communicating clear, concrete goals keeps everyone aligned, motivated, and productive. According to Spinach AI’s 2022 report on high-performing teams in tech, regular goal setting is critical for managing a motivated, high-growth team. [Source]
The top three benefits of setting goals at work are: 1) Keeping your team aligned, especially remote employees; 2) Increasing productivity by providing direction and purpose; 3) Driving faster growth, as clear goals correlate with organizational success. [Source]
Goal-setting is especially crucial for remote teams, as it ensures everyone is on the same page despite working across different locations or time zones. Clear goals prevent misalignment and keep priorities synchronized. [Source]
Without clear goals, teams become siloed, confused, and disengaged. Employees may work at cross-purposes, leading to frustration, delays, and lower productivity. Spinach AI’s research shows that employees without clear goals are over 3X more likely to work at shrinking companies. [Source]
Teams should discuss their goals weekly or bi-weekly. Spinach AI’s 2022 report found that people who talk about goals weekly are nearly 3X more likely to be confident in achieving them compared to those who discuss them quarterly. [Source]
Popular frameworks for effective goal-setting include OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) and SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound). These frameworks help break down large goals into actionable steps and track progress. [Source]
Teams can avoid setting goals in a silo by aligning with leadership’s priorities and involving all team members in the goal-setting process. This increases ownership, accountability, and ensures everyone’s input is considered. [Source]
Revisiting goals frequently helps teams chart progress, identify roadblocks, and course-correct as needed. Regular conversations about goals give teams a significant advantage over those who only check in quarterly. [Source]
Outcome-based goals focus on the results and impact (e.g., improving NPS from 8 to 9), while output-based goals focus on the activities or deliverables (e.g., sending customer surveys). Outcome-based goals provide more clarity and drive meaningful progress. [Source]
Clear goals and expectations are a significant motivator for employees. Spinach AI’s 2022 report found that 81% of employees are motivated by having clear goals, and 75% believe goals directly impact their productivity. [Source]
Best practices include using frameworks like OKRs or SMART, involving the team in the process, aligning with organizational priorities, and discussing goals regularly to ensure accountability and adaptability. [Source]
Managers can keep goal-setting conversations ongoing by bringing up goals in every 1:1 meeting, reviewing them weekly, and course-correcting as needed. This approach increases confidence in achieving goals. [Source]
Leadership plays a crucial role in goal-setting by providing clear priorities and ensuring that team goals align with broader organizational objectives. Involving leadership helps prevent siloed goal-setting and increases team alignment. [Source]
Goal-setting drives company growth by aligning teams, increasing productivity, and motivating employees. Fast-growing companies understand the positive impact of clear goals and expectations on team performance. [Source]
The SMART framework stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It helps teams clarify and record goals, determine important metrics, align with broader objectives, and commit to a timeline. [Source]
Teams can measure progress by setting clear key results (as in OKRs), tracking metrics, and regularly reviewing outcomes against targets. This enables timely adjustments and ensures accountability. [Source]
Goal-setting is crucial for organizations because it provides guidance, facilitates planning, motivates employees, and helps evaluate performance. Research shows that people who record their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them. [Source]
Spinach AI helps managers run better meetings, hit their goals, and share performance feedback faster by automating meeting agendas, note-taking, and task management. It integrates with existing tools to streamline workflows. [Source]
You can find over 400 free goal examples for various roles and departments on the Spinach AI website. These examples help teams get started with goal-setting. [Source]
Spinach AI offers an AI Meeting Assistant that runs meetings, summarizes conversations, and automates post-meeting tasks. It provides automated note-taking, workflow optimization, AI-powered insights, seamless integrations with tools like Zoom, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce, and tailored solutions for different roles such as product managers, sales, engineering, and more. [Source]
Key features include automated note-taking, action item tracking, workflow automation (e.g., sprint plans, PRDs), AI-powered insights from user feedback, and integrations with popular collaboration tools. [Source]
Spinach AI automatically captures meeting notes, action items, and outcomes, allowing users to focus on discussions without the distraction of manual note-taking. This feature is especially beneficial for Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and Sales Professionals. [Source]
Spinach AI integrates with tools such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce, enabling seamless collaboration and workflow automation across teams. [Source]
Spinach AI automates tasks like generating sprint plans, PRDs, and managing tickets, reducing administrative burdens and allowing teams to focus on impactful work. [Source]
Spinach AI supports product management, engineering, project management, marketing, HR, recruiting, customer success, sales, and finance teams—essentially any team that values productivity, collaboration, and automation. [Source]
Spinach AI offers role-specific features, such as automated roadmap meetings and PRD generation for product managers, CRM integrations for sales teams, sprint planning for engineering, and meeting insights for HR and recruiting. [Source]
Spinach AI addresses pain points such as manual note-taking, time-consuming administrative tasks, workflow inefficiencies, extracting insights from user feedback, and maintaining team alignment across distributed teams. [Source]
Spinach AI’s AI-powered insights analyze user feedback to uncover trends, pain points, and opportunities, enabling teams to make informed, data-driven decisions. [Source]
Customers consistently highlight Spinach AI’s ease of use. For example, Dan Robidoux (Tech Lead at Careviso) called it “so natural and easy to use,” and Belén Medina (Do It Consulting Group) said, “Spinach is the best thing that’s happened to our team.” [Source]
Spinach AI stands out due to its tailored features for different roles, advanced AI-powered insights, seamless integrations, and customizable solutions. Customers like Jason Oliver (Product Director) and Ron Meyer (Alliance Executive) praise its specificity and ability to automate administrative tasks. [Source]
Customers can expect increased productivity, streamlined workflows, enhanced collaboration, data-driven decision-making, customizable solutions for different teams, and improved customer engagement. [Source]
Spinach AI offers tailored solutions: Sales professionals get automated note-taking and CRM integration; Product managers get PRD generation and insights; Customer success teams get automated onboarding and follow-ups; HR gets meeting documentation; Engineering gets sprint planning automation. [Source]
Spinach AI’s vision is to enhance team collaboration and productivity by automating key processes. Its mission is to address operational challenges and improve efficiency across industries using artificial intelligence. [Source]
You can access Spinach AI’s blog for articles, insights, and resources on goal-setting, management skills, and productivity by visiting the blog page.
Spinach.ai is enterprise-ready, offering robust security and compliance with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA certifications. The Enterprise plan provides advanced features essential for large organizations, including SAML SSO, custom data retention, a dedicated API, compliance monitoring, and a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
500+ people working in tech told us the impact of clear goals and expectations on their performance. This article explores the importance of goals, the benefits and where to start.
Nicole Kahansky
How often do you talk about goal setting with your team? For too many managers, these conversations are a quarterly box to tick rather than an ongoing discussion.
In a way, it makes sense. You’ve got a lot on your plate, and it’s easy to fall into the habit of focusing more on outputs than the overarching goals behind them. In some cases, goal setting might even seem like an interference to the actual work. I mean, does everyone really need to know your company’s ARR target?
The short answer is: yes.
Spinach AI’s 2022 report on high-performing teams in tech found that regular goal setting is critical to managing a motivated, productive, high-growth team. With the Great Resignation putting more heat on organizations to attract and retain top talent, salary alone isn’t a strong enough draw anymore. Offering a transparent culture, where work is driven by clearly defined goals, is now a competitive advantage.
So what does that mean for you? Here’s what your team stands to gain from goal setting, and how to effectively implement this as a formalized process.
Regularly communicating clear, concrete goals has a massive impact on your team’s productivity, motivation, and— ultimately— growth. This doesn’t just keep everyone on the same page, but also ensures your reports know exactly what they’re working towards, and why.
Similarly, not having a formalized goal-setting process can be detrimental to individuals, teams, and organizations as a whole. Rather than working in tandem to support broader goals, employees wind up siloed, confused, and forced to connect the dots on their own. This will inevitably leave your team feeling unmotivated, unproductive, and disengaged.
When done the right way, goal setting can:
How can your reports be successful if they don’t even know what they’re trying to accomplish? Setting goals not only communicates expectations, but also helps your team understand their impact on the bigger picture. This leads to higher engagement, motivation, and productivity — which in turn helps fuel company growth.
“Keeping high-performing individuals engaged starts with each person understanding how their role contributes to the overall reason why their company exists and then creating a transparent and direct environment where they get continuous feedback and can give continuous feedback.”
Adam Houghton, VP of Customer Success at Klue.
When your reports don’t understand what they’re working towards, their efforts are directed by guesswork. This can lead to misaligned team members inadvertently working against themselves or one another.
For example, what happens if one of your reports is urgently trying to complete a task, but requires input from someone else on the team? If their colleague considers that task a lower priority, this can lead to frustration, confusion, and delays.
Goal setting helps ensure all your reports are equally clear on what to focus on, and that their priorities are in sync with the rest of the team.
Goals are crucial to the overall success of your team and have many benefits.
We narrowed it down to the top 3:
Setting team goals helps keep everyone on the same page. This is especially crucial for remote teams working across multiple locations or time zones.
With only 3% of tech companies planning to return to the office full-time, the ability to tap someone on the shoulder will soon be a distant memory.
To avoid misalignment, goals need to be communicated clearly and consistently to every one of your reports.
“As a product marketer, we work cross-functionally, so we have our own goals and consider the goals of teams that ladder up to achieving key business objectives. By meeting regularly as a team, we can surface what’s on track, at risk, and off-track and discuss what else is happening in the business to decide what needs to be accelerated, paused, or kept.”
Alex Virden, Product Marketing Lead at Metadata
According to The State of High Performing Teams, 59% of tech workers identify clear goals and expectations as the most important factor contributing to productivity.
Why? Setting goals provides your team with a sense of direction and purpose in understanding how their work impacts the business.
“What motivates teams and what they need to perform at their best has changed and companies need to adapt accordingly if they want to create an environment conducive to high performance and company growth.”
Brennan McEachran, CEO and Co-Founder of Spinach AI
On the flip side, unproductive employees are 2.8X more likely to not know their goals. If your reports aren’t clear what to focus on (and why), their productivity and motivation can take a serious hit.
In fact, clear expectations and goals motivates tech workers 2.3X more than being praised. It also enables individuals to spend more time on the work itself, rather than figuring out what to do next.
The 2022 State of High Performing Teams report found a strong correlation between goals and success, not only at the individual and team level, but organizationally as well.
Employees who don’t know their goals are over 3X more likely to work at a company that’s shrinking in revenue than those who do know them. Employees at shrinking companies are also nearly 2X more likely to have unclear expectations at work.
Fast-growing companies, on the other hand, understand how clear goals and expectations positively impact motivation, productivity, and alignment on their teams.
Having a list of goals floating around somewhere on your Google Drive won’t be of much help to anyone.
Instead, start by using these 3 steps to incorporate goal-setting into your daily operations:
Goal-setting frameworks provide specific rules and processes to help you determine realistic goals with your team. While there are virtually dozens to choose from, two of the most popular include:
Goal-setting frameworks are a great way to get the ball rolling, so you’re not just staring at a blank screen. They also help you break down bigger goals into more specific and manageable actions and outcomes — for example, “Improve NPS average from 8 to 9 by the end of the quarter” would give a Product Manager way more clarity than “Keep our customers happy.”
👉 Psst: Try focusing on outcome vs. output based goals.
Before setting any goals with your team or a report, make sure you’re clear on leadership’s priorities. Also involve individuals in the process, so they can provide input and feedback. This is a great way to increase sense of purpose, ownership, and accountability.
Goal setting should be a team effort.
“We really try to align and ensure we maintain constant sync on whether a team member is able to connect specific actions to the outcome they’re meant to have directly as well as together to achieve something specific.”
Alex Panagis, CEO and Founder of Scalemath
Goals aren’t “set it and forget it”. Discussing them weekly with your reports makes it easier to spot roadblocks and shift gears as needed, instead of waiting until the end of the quarter to identify opportunities for improvement.
Plus, it helps your team remember what your goals actually are!
“I encourage my team to bring them up in every 1:1 with me, weekly. Personal, professional, we identify their goals at the top of the quarter and check-in week over a week. At the end of the quarter we review and course-correct as needed.”
Anita Chauhan, Marketing Director at Fraction
Spinach AI’s 2022 report found that when people talk about goals weekly or bi-weekly, they’re nearly 3X more likely to strongly agree they’re confident hitting their goals compared to those who talk about them quarterly. If that’s not enough to convince you, 54% of tech workers who are confident in their company’s ability to hit goals talk about them weekly, instead of monthly or quarterly.
👉 Check out our full 7-step goal-setting process for a deeper dive into how managers can set goals for their teams.
Goals aren’t an administrative nuisance, or something that’d be “nice to have”, if only you could find the time.
They’re critical for your team’s motivation, productivity, and success.
Goals also provide clarity and direction, a sense of purpose, and alignment.
The best way to get started is by identifying your organization’s priorities, determining how your team can best support them, and then using a framework to build out clear, concrete goals. But remember, out of sight is out of mind. It’s not enough to simply set these goals. You need to revisit them frequently, to chart progress and course-correct as needed.
When goals become a regular conversation, rather than quarterly check-in, your team will be at a serious advantage.
You made it to the end of this article! Here are some things you can do now:
helps managers run better
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,
hit their
Goals flag
,
and share better
Performance feedback insights
, faster.