Goals, Expectations, and Standards connection to the concept of Encourage the Heart

Most of the people think that goals, expectations, and standards are interchangeable. But they’re all different with a small thread separating each one of them. Goals are related to the result. It consists of finite time set as a deadline until which a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieving certain targets set (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). An example of a goal can be an organization providing its sales staff to meet the sales target of hundred thousand per month. With regard to the employee, the following target is considered as a goal. The employee can also have his/her personal goals. Expectations are related to a case of uncertainty. It is something that is most likely to happen among several different outcomes possible (Fisher, 1976). An example of this can be an organization expecting the organizational website getting 20% more visitors every single year. Standards, on the other hand, is related to established norms. An example of this can be in an organization to recruit an individual, the organization has a certain standard to follow. It includes of publication of the vacancy, panel formulation, initial HR screening, panel meeting to shortlist candidate, skype interview, writing test, face-to-face interview, reference check, recommendation of the top candidate, final approval of the top candidate and reimmunitation by teh director, informing the top candidate and sending out regret letters to unsuccessful candaidates. The process flow is set as a standard and need to be followed by all concern.

Goals, expectations, and standards are all connected to the outcome and are always future oriented. They reflect what you as an organization want from certain actions made from your immediate performance. They reflect what you want to accomplish and what makes you feel that you’re a successful business. Having a goal, expectations and standards are critical for any business to be successful as they serve as a target to aim for. It gives all the work a meaning and a clear direction. Without well-defined goals, the performance of the organization might be misdirected and disorganized. It’ll also mean that the effort put in by the employees will be inconsistent. With an organization sets goals, expectations, and standards for oneself and the employees, it’s setting a higher standard of performance while demanding more and challenging itself. Such high standards help push the organization to next level. Thus, all three together in goals, expectations, and standards serve as a source of motivation to keep the organization going on, especially during difficult times and are connected as well.

Encourage the heart is one of the important component of leadership and deals with soft-corner of human nature - care. A leader can encourage the heart by recognizing contributions, linking performance with rewards, celebrating small wins and with personal recognition (Kouzes & Posner, 2011). As mentioned earlier, goals, expectations, and standards are connected and they’re so with the concept of encouraging the heart as well (Ferguson, 2006). Justifying this with an example: In an organization, I worked with, we were undergoing a change in leadership. Me being directly under him had certain goals to accomplish but with more added responsibilities and change in leadership, they did as well. I had a higher expectation with regard to work that I’m doing and a standard I had to follow. With the transformation in leadership, he was able to convey the message, thank me for the good I did in person and followed up to provide increased incentives and other benefits for the good I’m doing. All this added a sense of being an integral part of the organization and provided motivation to give the best on every occasion. The clear goals that the leader set with the change in leadership and increased role provided me a clear direction that I must take to achieve those set targets and meet the expectations in doing so while following the set standards. With the proper leadership and encouraging the heart, it pushes the subordinates to deliver at their best and it is closely interlinked with goals, expectations, and standards.

References

Ferguson, B. (2006). Encouraging the Heart. Psyccritiques , 51 (18).

Fisher, R. (1976). Goals and Magical Expectations. Transactional Analysis Bulletin , 6 (2), 184-186.

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2011). Encouraging the heart workbook . San Francisco, CA.: Pfeiffer.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The Leadership Challenge : How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goals, expectations, and standards are interrelated to each other. They are related to the outcome and future of the organization. A goal is the desired result that an individual or group of individual plans, envisions and commits to achieve. It reflects the expectations that the employer has in the future. To achieve any goal, an organization must set a predetermined standard and works as accordingly with the standards. Standards are nothing but the pre-determined goals. Your goals/expectations serve as a target to aim for (Cohn, 2011). They will provide the energy and courage to consistently move forward towards success.

For example, I as an employee have the expectation of getting the best facilities whereas the employer expects me to work towards the attainment of the company’s goals by setting certain standards. Here, both the parties’ expectations are different. Standards help to take up challenges, which are necessary to achieve the dream. One of the biggest challenges for managers who are learning to lead is developing the ability to set expectations and standards and then hold the people accountable to these expectations (CoachStation, 2016). Goals, expectations and standards give clear directions to the organization. The lack of these three will misguide and misdirect the organization.

Encouraging the heart is one of the factors that connect people together in the organization. A leader can encourage the heart by creating clear goals and allowing employees to provide input with their respect to their goals, and by giving consistent feedback that allows employees to know if they are meeting their goals and that guides them to correct their course (al-Baradie, 2014). The set standards motivate employee and employer to do better in future than what they are doing now. This can only happen when the leaders address their values and goals. High expectations lead to high performance. It is observed that when employee behaves according to the expectation of the employer. They succeed when the leaders expect them to and vice versa. Hence, leaders must model their expectations by communicating and sending the message that they expect best from their constituents as well. Encourage the heart to develop a self- confidence to live up to those expectations (James M.Kouzes).

Leaders can encourage the employees by showing the care, paying attention to what they are doing, how they are doing, and how they are feeling. For this, they must communicate with their constituents on a regular basis. This encourages the morale and creates an atmosphere in which people can open up to each other which develops a trusting and honest working relationship. After setting goals/ standards and expecting the best, leaders must give recognition to the efforts contributed by the employees. Recognition does not need to be big. For example, a simple gesture like thanking them for their contributions, pat on the back, appraising their work in front of the office staff, encouraging them to initiate ideas, showing their mistakes and suggesting ways to improve it are enough to build up confidence in them…

Cultivating a culture of celebrating victories and values also helps to encourage the heart inside the organization. Celebrating victories together promotes team building and social support network. For example, a mini get together of office staffs after work or during the break at the office to celebrate the accomplishments of the company or its employees. This activity will lead to higher performance, improved teamwork and release of stress.

References
al-Baradie, R. S. (2014). Encouraging the heart. International Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Volume 1, Issue 1, 11-16.

CoachStation. (2016, April 14). Leadership and Management Development. Retrieved from Leadership: Setting Standards and Expectations: coachstation.com.au/leadership-sta...

Cohn, D. P. (2011, May 21). CoachDeck. Retrieved from Goals and Expectations: blog.coachdeck.com/2011/05/21/goal...

Goals are the results that an organization or a leader wants to reach or achieve in a project. It is based on the vision of the leader and is time bound. To reach the goal, a leader expects his followers to work in synergy to contribute to the achievement of the goal. In a way, the leader’s expectation determines whom to work with. This expectation also influences followers behavior and vice versa. “First, people moving into leadership roles need to understand the performance expectations for their positions. These expectations not only include the results to be achieved; they also include the behaviors that need to be exhibited. (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012) ” Structure is the working design in an organization or a project. A democratic leader has a more open structure. For example an advertisement firm or an innovation project tends to have a more open and flexible structure where the leadership is shared rather than being in a hierarchy. As explained by Kouzes and Posner, “Projects are how we tend to organize work these days. Projects create the context for our goals, determine with whom we work, and set our schedules. (Kouzes & Posner, 2003)”

All three aspects are interrelated. Higher goal setting creates higher expectation of the leader from the followers. These goal and expectation can only function and be nurtured in a well performing structure inside a project.

Goal are based on vision of the leader. To make the vision a reality the leader must choose team members accordingly. The successful transition of the vision to reality, depends on the contribution of the members. Thus the structure of the project for allocating job responsibility of every employee must be catered to bring about a team environment where everyone can build up on the others work. Each member is important to achieve this vision. Each member have their own expectation of the leader. Thus the leader has an important task not only to inspire a shared vision among his followers but cater structures that promotes and motivates the strengths of his employees. In doing so the leader sets his employees on a path of success at work. Every small success must be appreciated.

Appreciation is important because being a leader is not an easy job. People’s expectation change and with so many opportunity in the market they may leave if they feel their expectations are not being met or the organization structure is not friendly. Appreciation for the success must be shown by the leader making the employee feel special. This genuine encouragement of the heart psychologically enforces other to strive for recognitions as well. This encourages people to continue working towards the common goal. “To Encourage the Heart, you recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence, and you celebrate the values and the victories by creating a spirit of community. (Kouzes & Posner, 2003, p. 93)”

To perform all of these the leader must first know his employees. The employee’s future plan, their motivating factor, their dislikes and principles. A leader must be patient and listen to his employees to understand these aspects. Doing so a leader can understand if the project goal is shared by the employee, whether the expectation of the employees align with the leader and whether structure of organization is counterproductive.

References

Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2012). In R. L. Hughes, R. C. Ginnett, & G. J. Curphy, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (7 ed., pp. 268-269). United States: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2003). THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE Workbook. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goals, expectations and standards are of high importance in any organization. If an organization doesn’t have goals then, employees would not be result orientated. The outcomes will not be seen. They are often the elementary unit of success. As we saw in Pygmalion Effect, having expectations from others, believing in them and making it clear what is expected of them would indeed have a positive effect in them resulting in positive outcomes. And, standards are things used as a measure, norm or models in comparative evaluations. Setting goals for one’s performance and coming up with ways to achieve these goals is generally an adaptive strategy and can help goal fulfilment (Gollwitzer, 1999). After the goals has been set, it should be clearly communicated with the employees along with what is expected of them and how they can work in order to achieve the goals that has been set.

In the organization that I am currently associated with, the goal is to be one stop solution for management services. Thus, all of the employees are expected to work in accordance with the goals that has been set. The goals should be continuously communicated to the employees. This can be done through different medium such as reinforcing it regularly in meetings, through print medium and regular monitoring if the standards to achieve the goal has been met or not. These could be establishing individual milestones for the employees. Having a clear goal, effectively communicating the expectations gives a meaning to the employees work and guides them towards a clear direction. However, with the setting of goals and standards, we are committed to achieve certain targets for the year or even over achieve it. And when these targets are achieved, there is a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment among us.

It is essential for leaders to have the quality to influence others. Leaders have tremendous opportunity to expand dignity, respect, value, and legitimately induce positive change in the organization. Encouraging the heart challenges leaders to pay attention, recognize individuals in a personal level, provide stories of success and values, be a role model for the employees and celebrate small victories (al-Baradie, 2014). The goals’ reflect one’s purpose in the organization and refers to quantity, quality or rate of performance. While inspiring people to exert efforts necessary to meet the demands and persist over time, goals can also direct the individuals’ attention to relevant task features, appropriate behaviors to be performed and affect how people process information (Cho & Salmon, 2007). The leaders should celebrate victories when the employees achieve the milestones that lead to achievement of the larger organizational goal. This could be as simple as a pat on the back or a thank you card.

References

al-Baradie, R. S. (2014). Encouraging the heart. International Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 1 (1), 11-16.

Cho, H., & Salmon, C. T. (2007). Unintended effects of health communication campaigns. Journal of communication, 57 (2), 293-317.

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: strong effects of simple plans. American psychologist, 54 (7), 493.

Goal is the idea of the future or desired result that an individual or group of individuals envisions, plans and commits to achieve. Goals refer to the observable and measurable end results having one or more objectives to be achieved within more or less fixed time. Expectation is a belief that something will happen or is likely to happen. It is the act or state of looking forward or anticipating. Expectation can also be defined as the degree of probability that something will happen. Standard is an agreed way of doing something. It is established by authority, custom or general consent as a model or example. Generally the authority sets up and established standard as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value or quality.

Goals, expectations and standards are interrelated with one another. Standards are set to publicly and internally hold the company’s work to be the best in its domain. Goals must connect with the standards. If the goals of an organization are set with a direct connection to the company standards, the goals will be challenging but realistic and set up to reach levels that are progressive upward. It is equally important to communicate the employees about the standards of the company and goals the company is striving to achieve. It will provide them with the idea about how they are expected to perform so that the standards are met and goals are achieved (Universal Class, Inc. [US], n.d.).

The goal of the organization I am currently working in is to help people recover and heal better at the comfort of their homes. The goal is associated with the standard it has set regarding the personal and medical care to be provided to the clients we serve. The goal and standard are communicated to the employees before placing them in any case to provide them with the idea about the organization’s expectations from them.

Encouraging the heart is one of the five exemplary practices of leadership given by Kouzes and Posner that deals with the soft side of leadership. Good leaders encourage the heart by recognizing contributions and celebrating values and victories. In order to be a good leader, the contribution should recognized by showing appreciation for individual excellance and values and victoriess need to be celebrated by creating a spirit of community (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). The practices of encouraging the heart includes setting clear standards, expecting the best, paying attention, personalizing recognition, telling stories, celebrating together and setting the examples. It helps in sustaining the team spirit (Kouzes & Posner, 1999). When the employees are clear about the goals of the organization and they find some degree of alignment with their personal goals, they will be encouraged to perform their best. Setting clear standards helps in reducing confusion that will enhance the performance of the employees. Similarly expecting the best out of the employees will make them perform better as explained in the pygmalion effect. So setting clear goals and standards provide employees with the idea of their expected performance that will motivate them to give their cent percent for the attainent of the goals.

For example: A company has the goal to increase the production by 25%. For this, it needs to set certain standard that will help to make the process more efficient and meet desired level of producion. But setting goals and standards alone is not sufficient as the employees are the ones who are responsible for making the desired outcome possible. So the company should clearly communicate the standards and goals to the employees along with the organization’s expectation from them in order to inspire them to work more effectively and efficiently.

References

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (1999). Encouraging the Heart. San Francisco: A Wiley Imprint.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2003). The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. San Francisco: A Wiley Imprint.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: A Wiley Brand.

Universal Class, Inc. [US]. (n.d.). Delegation Process . Retrieved from How to set Standards and Expectations for Excellent Performance: universalclass.com/article/busines...

Goals, expectations and standards are of high importance in any organization. If an organization doesn’t have goals then, employees would not be result orientated. The outcomes will not be seen. They are often the elementary unit of success. As we saw in Pygmalion Effect, having expectations from others, believing in them and making it clear what is expected of them would indeed have a positive effect in them resulting in positive outcomes.

Standards are things used as a measure, norm or models in comparative evaluations.

Setting goals for one’s performance and coming up with ways to achieve these goals is generally an adaptive strategy and can help goal fulfilment (Gollwitzer, 1993). After the goals have been set, it should be clearly communicated with the employees along with what is expected of them and how they can work in order to achieve the goals that has been set.

In the organization that I am currently associated with, the goal is to create hundred problem solvers by the year 2025. Thus, all of the employees are expected to work in accordance with the goals that has been set. The goals should be continuously communicated to the employees. This can be done through different medium such as reinforcing it regularly in meetings, through print medium and regular monitoring if the standards to achieve the goal has been met or not. These could be establishing individual milestones for the employees.

Having a clear goal, effectively communicating the expectations gives a meaning to the employees work and guides them towards a clearer direction. If in my organization, we didn’t have a goal to invest in a 100 entrepreneurs within a definitive time limit, our actions would not be energetic. It would make no sense if we perform the activities or not. This would lead to lack of inspiration, and our performance would not be effective. However, with the setting of goals and standards, we are committed to achieve certain targets for the year or even over achieve it. And when these targets are achieved, there is a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment amongst us.

It is essential for leaders to have the quality to influence others. Leaders have tremendous opportunity to expand dignity, respect, value, and legitimately induce positive change in the organization (S.al-Baradie, 2014). Encouraging the heart challenges leaders to pay attention, recognize individuals in a personal level, provide stories of success and values, be a role model for the employees and celebrate small victories (S.al-Baradie, 2014).

The goals’ reflect one’s purpose in the organization and refers to quantity, quality or rate of performance. While inspiring people to exert efforts necessary to meet the demands and persist over time, goals can also direct the individuals’ attention to relevant task features, appropriate behaviors to be performed and affect how people process information (Cho, 2007). The leaders should celebrate victories when the employees achieve the milestones that lead to achievement of the larger organizational goal. This could be as simple as a pat on the back or a thank you card.

In my organization, we sit for multiple but small meetings regularly and discuss our performance and how we can achieve that. The CEO appreciates us for our works regardless of how small they seem. He also invests his time in knowing about the employees and their interests and strengths so that we all work in the area we are comfortable with.

References
Cho, C. K. (2007). Motivation Goal setting and affects: Expectation and reality. 1-15.

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1993). Implementation Intensions: Strong Effect of Simple Plans. 493-503.

S.al-Baradie, R. (2014). International Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Encouraging the heart , 11-16.