It occurred to me that the phrase working together might seem cavalier—it’s not always easy to get employees to sit down with you to set objectives. If it You might also consider having you and your employees set objectives independently, then meeting to compare and agree upon the final list. If an employee is way off base in what she thinks is important, you can discuss the misconceptions and clarify your expectations.
Take a look at the standards or objectives you have currently for your employees. How do they compare to those from the previous year? Have the demands on your employees increased? A mistake that many new managers make is to use the job description as the basis for the standards, literally reproducing the job requirements as standards year after year and never stretching their employees.
What do I mean by stretching? Every year, there should be an increase in the expected performance or results. You don’t want to set standards that reflect the same level of performance over the last few years or that demand minimal performance. Of course, the more stretch you put into an objective, the more resistance you may encounter from an employee. Don’t let this discourage you. Just be sure that the stretch is realistic. Too much stretch means that objectives won’t be feasible, and employees won’t even try to achieve them.
Once you have set the standards, your responsibility is to monitor the employee’s progress toward the goals.