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

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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.