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BLUF: I'm in a graduate role, I passed my three-month probation, I now have to set six month performance goals and I'm not sure how to set anything measurable given that I'm at the bottom.

Let me preface this by saying I've listened to the casts on goal setting. My problem is that these seem more focused on managers, working at the macro/meta level, looking at profits, revenues, outputs... it's all about being in a position where you control the bottom line.

But for me, I'm the widget maker. Everything rolls downhill to me. I'm at the bottom rung of my team, and so I don't really set goals for "where we're gonna be". I just... do what I'm told.

That said, of course, I am expected to grow over time. I'm expected to take on more client-facing responsibilites, as well as to take on more responsibilites over time. I work in Digital Marketing (in Pay-Per-Click advertising specifically), and I'm expected to take over accounts more, to see opportunities, to take instruction from and make proposals directly to the client (rather than having my boss as an intermediary).

But none of it feels particularly measurable. It's just taking on more responsibility... and I can hardly set that as a goal because that's going to happen anyway.

I spoke with my dad, and his opinion is that these are usually more wishy-washy at this stage. They don't expect hard, concrete stuff. They just want me to take on board the feedback I received at my end-of-probation review and show I'm working on fixing my weaknesses.

FYI: I'm a high-D/high-C, but for some reason my D-ness has massively overwhelmed my C-ness since leaving University, and now I've become somewhat sloppy and impatient, just wanting to drive towards the finish line and keep grabbing at new goals, without stopping to be precise. So, being more careful and more precise could be a goal, but I'm not sure how to set that as a goal, except for repeating back to them, "I will be more careful and precise in my work".

Other criticisms included that I don't respond quickly (or, from time-to-time, at all) to emails. I see them, get back to work, and respond a couple hours later. I think that's a good thing, but they want me to be more on the pulse for emails. I prefer face-to-face communication, but I guess I gotta do that. But again, I dunno how to put this except for feeding back exactly what they said to me, and that doesn't really feel like a goal.

Other stuff they said were just things like I "need to think more about our KPIs and how we're achieving them, whether they're the right KPIs, etc" and "build a rapport with clients". I can *do* these things, I'm just... not sure how to set them as actual goals, y'know?

donm's picture
Training Badge

You seem to have missed one key point about goals. They must be measurable. To do that, you need numbers.

You mentioned that timely response to emails was a problem. You even mentioned a number - "a couple of hours." There is one goal right there: "I will respond to emails within one hour of receipt." I'm a big fan of emails for communication. It is both a record of what was said as well as a timeline of when things were said. Your face-to-face meetings may be needed from time to time, but unless you follow up the meeting with an email documenting the conversation, there's no record of what was said or even that the matter was discussed.

You have KPI's, but you didn't mention what those are. What are your KPI's? Those are the metrics already done for you. You do need to think more about them, as you seem to dismiss them. What are they trying to achieve? Do these indicators actually measure what they're trying to achieve? If not, what can you measure that will tell you whether or not you're achieving the goals?

I'm not familiar with PPC, so I cannot give more concrete examples. You may "just do as you're told;" however, the way you do it, how quickly you do it, and in what order you do things are all under your control. Ask yourself, "what can I do to improve the final product, shorten the time to produce it, or decrease the cost of doing it?"

What number will prove there is an improvement? What is the time it now takes to produce it? What does it now cost to do it? Answer any of those questions, and you have the metric you need.

RDHodgson's picture

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Rory

"Now bring me DISC profile 6-1-4-7, your time is up and your feedback's begun!"

RDHodgson's picture

Bah, the forum ate my comment. :(

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it!

You're absolutely right about needing metrics. But that's my problem, right there in the BLUF up there: I'm struggling to find anything measurable. It's all very binary. There is stuff to do and either it's done or it isn't done. Either the adverts are live on Facebook or they aren't. The new copies are up on Google or they aren't. 80% of my work, there's no such thing as doing it excellently or poorly. I mean, I *could* do it poorly, but either my manager would see it before I upload it or afterwards, and would tell me to do it again and do it right. Do you think that's something I can set as a goal though? "100% of all uploads will go live with correct tagging, no typos, will include all seed keywords, with the correct bids, etc etc"?

When it comes to the overall success of a campaign, we work as a team, and no one is responsible for any *one* thing. We all dip in and out of everything. If I was team leader, I could say, "Well, we'll deliver a 5.5 ROI every month" or "We'll have an average click-through-rate of 3% on all activity on social media" (those are examples of our KPIs) but I'm just not responsible in that way. That's not something I can say - that's only something a manager can say, hence my problem with the goal setting given in the MT casts. I just... I can't promise that KPIs will be met, unless I'm made responsible for a specific account. Do you think I could ask for that?

I think you're right about email being measurable. That's certainly something I can measure. I still find it a pain, and I disagree about its importance (my bug-bear is people saying "Well I sent you an email about it" after I've been knee deep in some task that required my full attention), but so long as I'm downhill I suppose I've gotta keep up with what my superiors expect of me in terms of email.

 

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Rory

"Now bring me DISC profile 6-1-4-7, your time is up and your feedback's begun!"

donm's picture
Training Badge

Accuracy can be measured. How about "less than 3% of my uploads will need to be corrected due to my errors?" If you know how many uploads you do per month, you can change that to "fewer than # uploads per month will need to be corrected after submission." Keep a log when you are assigned a task, date and time due, and date and time delivered/completed. Every time you do an upload, record the pertinent data in a specific location. Some suggestions that may or may not be pertinent: URL, file name, customer, job number, date & time required, date & time delivered, date & time assigned to you, person making the assignment.

How does your work impact ROI? Figure out a number that applies, and use that.

How does your work impact click-through? Ditto the above.

How do they measure the ROI and click through? Case-by-case or department-wide? Do you get a deliverable date and time for your submissions? If so, record the date and time something is due, and record your delivery date and time, as well. Apply the themes above toward those metrics. "100% of my work will be completed and delivered by the time and date due."

Just keep examining what you do, and how you know if you're doing it correctly. Figure out a number to put on that, and you've got your metric.

PS. As an aside, why is your manager/supervisor not setting your goals?

RDHodgson's picture

Hmmm. I like the idea of tracking my work. I mean, I need to be doing a better job of tracking my career accomplishments anyway, so it's good to get into the habit if nothing else! I'll suggest keeping upload corrections below 3% and see what my manager says.

 

I don't know why my manager isn't setting goals. Do they normally do that?

 

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Rory

"Now bring me DISC profile 6-1-4-7, your time is up and your feedback's begun!"