Every business has goals and objectives it needs to achieve in order to stay profitable. But as most teams know, this is often easier said than done.

Your ability to achieve company objectives and goals can be influenced by a variety factors. While you can’t control them all, you can still increase your chances of success by implementing the correct strategies and processes.

This article navigates through the following topics:

• Goals vs objectives: differences and how to define them
• 10 Best practices to achieve company goals and objectives

Working on choosing firm goals for your business? Try out our free workflow template!

✅ Actionable steps to define company objectives and goals

✅ Examples of organizational goals and objectives

✅ Task management functionality to track & check off every important activity

✅ Collaboration suite to work with team members and share information

Defining your company objectives and goals

Goals and objectives are the most adaptable blocks within your strategy. They act as benchmarks and targets that steer decision-making, performance assessment, and the distribution of resources.

The final stage of your organizational strategy involves writing down your goals and objectives. Once defined, you can effectively pinpoint the short-to-medium term achievements you want to concentrate on.

It’s important to recognize the difference between a goal and an objective, and understand how they work together:

Goals:

• Overarching statements of desired outcomes of a team or an organization.
• Long-term, focusing on the direction of the organization.
• Sense of direction for establishing more detailed, actionable objectives strategies.
  

Objectives:

• Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-specific (SMART) targets.
• Breakdown of main goal that defines what should be achieved and by when.
• Ensure accountability when used to monitor progress and assess performance.

Is this the first time you’re defining goals and objectives of a company? Get started with our dedicated template that walks you through the most important steps.

How to Achieve Business Goals and Objectives: 10 best practices

Now that we know the difference between company objectives and goals, let’s dive into some 'how-tos'. From defining clear goals to fostering a culture of accountability, these strategies will serve as your roadmap to success.

1. Set realistic objectives for your team to complete

Every good objective has two components: a target date and a measurable achievement.

For example, "Increase our sales revenue" and “Boost our profits” are not practical objectives. They don’t indicate when or how much. Instead, "Increase sales revenue by 30% by June 30th." would be a more effective statement.

Another way to make sure a main objective is realistic is to break it down into smaller tasks that team members can complete within a specific time frame. These smaller tasks are typically called milestones.

For example, if your objective is to hire five new employees by the end of the year; what are challenges and timelines for each role? Creating a milestone for each hire might help team members tackle the objective more effectively.

2. Leverage asynchronous communication

Asynchronous work is a collaboration style that does not require the presence of all participants at the same time. Instead, individuals complete their tasks independently of others' schedules. This enablies flexibility and enhances productivity.

Asynchronous work offers several key benefits that support the achievement of company goals and objectives:

• Increased Productivity: Asynchronous work allows team members to focus on tasks without constant interruptions. Teams create an environment focused on deep work and more intentional interactions.
• Flexibility: People in asynchronous teams work when they are most productive. Team members can optimize their work routines around other responsibilities and keep a better work-life balance.
• Global Teams: For teams distributed across time zones, asynchronous work minimizes the need for overlap. This allows organizations to hire talent regardless of their geographic location.
• Reduced Pressure: Without the need for immediate responses, team members can take the time to thoughtfully respond to queries and produce high-quality work.
• Efficient Use of Time: Asynchronous communication tools allow for tracking of tasks and conversations. Documentation can be referred to later, reducing the need for repeating information and saving time in the long run.

Interested in implementing work strategies to promote asynchronous work in your team? Check out our dedicated article!

3. Document relevant information

Documentation refers to the process of providing written evidence or records. Think about work progress, processes, policies, instructions, decisions, or events within an organization.

Prioritizing effective documentation is essential to ensure smooth operations, safeguard knowledge, and continuously improve as a team.

Documentation helps teams with objectives and goal management through the following:

• Knowledge Management: Documentation serves as a repository of information that can be referred to when needed. It prevents loss of knowledge due to staff turnover and helps new employees get up to speed.
• Accountability: When tasks, decisions, and processes are documented, it's clear who is responsible for what. This promotes accountability, which can drive progress towards goals.
• Efficiency: Well-documented processes can lead to increased efficiency by reducing the need for repeated explanations and minimizing the risk of making mistakes.

‍Hiring a virtual assistant can help your business improve its documentation process. A virtual assistant can create and maintain accurate documentation for your business, ensuring that all data is up-to-date and accessible.

4.  Keep information up to date

Tasks should be continuously updated as new relevant work gets completed. This way team members can stay up to date with progress and seamlessly access information.

Provide updates when relevant. Task management systems allow you to update the assignee status, change lists, or leave a comment. This way, everyone else knows that you made changes to the task. Similarly, you can keep your team informed by using the task comments.

You can use comments to note what you did on a task or how it's progressing. For example, you just updated a bug report and want to let someone know.

Then, change the list of the task or update your assignee status. This way, team members know that you finished the task, and they can move on to other tasks. If you want to update the status of an assignee (e.g., change them from "to do" to "In Progress"):

1. Check out "Assignees" at the top of a task. You'll see a list of all people in that project or conversation.
2. After selecting, click on their name and "Change Status."
3. Select "In Progress" or the status that best fits that task.

5.  Assess and prioritize tasks

It’s important to continuously assess the importance of activities to achieve short-term business goals. First, you need to prioritize tasks based on their impact on the company. Next, assess what needs to be done right now and what can wait until later.

Determine the importance of each activity by asking yourself, "What's the impact of this activity on our company's success?" Assign a score from lowest to highest based on how it will affect your company goals (e.g., lowest, low, medium, high, urgent). Then prioritize the tasks accordingly so that the essential activities are always at the top of your list.

Assessing the importance of activities is a continuous process that involves three steps:

1. Identify key performance indicators (KPI’s) for your department or team
2. Measure progress toward these KPI’s every day
3. Use this data to adjust how you spend your time

This will help team members that wonder how to improve work performance. By focusing on what is urgent and has a high impact, they can spend their time effectively.

‍

6. Stay flexible

Staying flexible in the pursuit of company objectives and goals means being open to change and ready to adapt when circumstances shift. Adjust strategies, reallocate resources, or even alter goals as necessary to respond to unpredictable events or new information.

To stay flexible, it's important to regularly review and revise plans as necessary. Open communication and feedback loops can help identify when changes might be needed.

While flexibility is important, it's also crucial to keep a clear vision and strategic direction to prevent becoming unfocused or reactive. A balance between flexibility and stability can help you adapt to change without losing sight of long-term goals.

7. Monitor progress

Monitoring progress is an essential step in achieving company goals and objectives. It involves regularly tracking and evaluating the performance of tasks and projects against established benchmarks or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

Here's how it can contribute to the success of your organization:

1. Identify progress and successes: Monitoring allows you to see what's working well. Identify which strategies are driving success and focus on maximizing impact.
2. Detect problems early: Regular monitoring can help spot issues or bottlenecks early on. Intervene early to prevent small issues from becoming major obstacles.
3. Accountability: Hold each team and individual accountable for their tasks. Monitoring progress ensures everyone is contributing effectively towards achieving the company's goals.

It's important to have clear, measurable objectives and a reliable system for tracking performance. This could be a project management software, a custom dashboard, or regular reports.

Regular check-ins or reviews should be scheduled to discuss progress, address issues, and adjust plans as necessary. Remember, the goal of monitoring isn't to micromanage. Provide support and guidance to ensure the company's objectives are being met.

8. Learn from mistakes

When setbacks occur, use them as learning opportunities instead of focusing on the negatives. Acknowledge when things go wrong, analyze the situation and then implement changes to prevent the mistake from happening again.

Here are some specific examples of how learning from mistakes helps with achieving company goals and objectives:

• Employee Development: When mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, it reduces the fear of failure. Employees become more willing to take on challenges and learn new skills, which increases their contribution to the company's goals.
• Risk Management: Understanding past mistakes can help in predicting and mitigating future risks. Proactively devise strategies or backup plans to handle similar situations, minimizing setbacks.

9. Use the right tools

The right tools can streamline processes, improve communication, enable better decision-making, and generally increase efficiency and productivity.

Here's how:

1. Efficiency: Tools like project management software can automate routine tasks, streamline workflows, and help track progress, significantly increasing efficiency.
2. Collaboration: Collaboration tools allow teams to communicate, share documents, and work together.
3. Task Management: Task management tools can help organize work, set priorities, and ensure that everyone knows what they need to do and when. Keep projects on track and ensure that company objectives are met.
4. Remote Work: For companies with remote teams, tools for video conferencing, instant messaging, file sharing, and more are essential for enabling effective remote work.

Choosing the right tools requires understanding your company's needs and goals. It's also important to provide adequate training to ensure that all team members can use the tools effectively.

Remember, tools are meant to support your work, not make it more complicated. The best tools will fit seamlessly into your workflows and enhance your team's ability to reach the goal.

10.  Celebrate achieving company goals and objectives

Team members who feel valued and appreciated are much more likely to keep hitting their objectives. Celebrating your team's success is an effective way to boost morale and encourage future success while preventing a toxic work culture.

So how can you celebrate employee achievements? Here are some tips for celebrating team victories large and small:

• Virtual events: A virtual cooking course, team-building exercise, board game, escape room, and movie night are all ways to connect remotely. Ensure all team members receive an invitation to the event, even those unable to attend because of conflicts or other commitments.
• Themed celebrations: For example, if you're celebrating a significant contract win with a travel agency, you might host an online event with a tropical theme where guests receive gift boxes or care packages delivered to their homes.
• Bonuses: Celebrate achievements that are measured in dollars or percentages. For example, if your team has increased sales by 20% over the last year, celebrate that achievement with bonuses.
• Awards ceremonies: Create a set of awards based on different values and achievements throughout the year. To keep things light, you can also present awards such as "Best Dressed" or "Best Smile."!

Remember, a celebration can be as simple as having a virtual coffee break. Just make sure to recognize the team's accomplishments and make them feel valued.

Start achieving your company goals and objectives today

Remember, success doesn't happen overnight. But with a clear vision, the right strategies, and a dedicated team, you can start making progress towards your goals and objectives today.

Need a helping hand in achieving company goals and objectives? Try out our free workflow template!

✅ Actionable steps to define company objectives and goals

✅ Examples of organizational goals and objectives

✅ Task management functionality to track & check off every important activity

✅ Collaboration suite to work with team members and share information

‍