How to Align Your Efforts with Company Goals

Boost your effectiveness at work by aligning your efforts with company goals. Career coach Sandy Aquino shares her tips on how to do this.

You’re in your boss’s office for your annual review when your stomach sinks. Suddenly, he stops discussing the business goals and project deadlines you’re tasked with each month and starts scoring you on soft skills, technical skills, culture, and turnover.  He is rating your performance against goals you were never given. 

You feel blindsided. You understand why these things are important, you just wish you’d have known to put more focus into those areas. You have worked hard all year, juggling everything that comes with leading a team. You’ve stayed late, come in early and worked on the weekends. Doesn’t he appreciate any of that?  

I hear you, and I see you. And because I want you to move up faster than I did, I’m going to be honest with you.

Being busy does not mean you are being effective. 

The only way to be absolutely sure you’re being effective is to get clear about your goals and expectations and remain focused on them at all times. 

Here’s how to get that clarity:  

1. Obtain a written copy of your goals from your boss, including relevant timelines and deadlines. You can make assumptions all day long, but until these goals are in writing and signed off on, you're working blind and can easily veer off course.
2. Sit down with your boss and ask them exactly what they expect from you on a daily, monthly, quarterly & yearly basis. Ask for clarification on anything that you feel is ambiguous, highly subjective, or difficult to track or measure.
3. Ask your boss for the important KPIs they check each morning so you can be sure to keep those metrics in line daily. This lets you make their job easier.
4. Find out what keeps them up at night and focus on those issues first. Make your boss look good.
5. Once you are clear on what you will be measured on, set clear and concise goals for your staff that are directly aligned with yours. This keeps everyone working towards the same objective. 

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