The Illusion of Success 550.3
Reach for the stars. Pursue goals beyond your grasp. These are good life strategies. We never know how much we can accomplish until we try. But what happens when we’re told we must actually reach the stars or suffer consequences?
A common workplace strategy to spur employee achievement is to set aggressive productivity objectives that, like the mechanical rabbit that goads and paces racing greyhounds, are usually beyond reach. Benignly called “stretch goals” by those who set them, the idea is to generate maximum effort. A salesperson who is told he’s expected to increase sales by 10 percent may only achieve six, but that’s still pretty good.
There’s a downside to this clever management technique. For one thing, it generates unhealthy stress and low morale as employees catch on to the game and resent being manipulated like racing dogs. For another, unrealistic stretch goals overemphasize short-term performance and encourage employees to conceal, ignore, and defer problems. Finally, some employees will simply cheat.
Organizational audits conducted by Josephson Institute reveal that a high percentage of employees who are constantly pressured to achieve ever-escalating numerical goals manipulate numbers and distort reports. A significant number outright lie.
Pressure is no excuse for cheating, but it’s a frequent cause. Those who play the stretch goal game are accountable for the predictable side effects of the relentless pursuit of numbers, especially if they don’t place greater emphasis on honesty and integrity.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
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Comments
Where would we be without the strong influence of Sports? I think it has brought us far. What do you think? Whoever your team is, you are passionate about them.
Thank You To All Professionals Who Have CHARACTER . . .
Posted by: samuel zuniga | January 22, 2008 12:37 PM
You, Michael, are A Role Model, Big Brother, Confidante and My Heroe. I enjoy listening to my daily dose of your reasoning.
Most people that were given Power abuse it, or just don't know what to do with it. This is where CHARACTER comes in. CHARACTER allows you to perform at your best at all times. Not having CHARACTER is looked down upon in society. Who wants that???
Thank You For Building Your Foundation On CHARACTER
Posted by: samuel zuniga | January 22, 2008 1:53 PM
i am a local law enforcement officer and on my way in to work i enjoy your reasoning and ideas. You are my daily fortune cookie. Keep up the great inspiration.
Posted by: Mosley | January 24, 2008 6:18 AM
I have been plagued by these type of goals set by my supervisors and managers all my life (25 years employed). I consider myself very ethical and do not cheat to achieve. I always figure out a way to achieve the goal only to find out that another goal is set for me. The carrot and the stick is old and I find myself wondering if anything is ever "good enough."
Posted by: Allison George | January 24, 2008 4:13 PM
A leader (read supervisor, boss, manager, what you will) is supposed to lead from the front - this means that that which he or she requires of those he leads he must be in a position to do himself'/herself. So, when setting these stretching goals, he/she should ask the question, "if it were me, in his/her position would I be able to realise this goal?" If not, they should modify it until they can answer in the affirmative.
A stretch goal has to be achievable. In a 100 m. race, an athlete trains, placing on himself his own stretch goal to reduce his times. However when that athlete is running at full tilt and achieving very good times, it is unfair for the coach to turn around and say "can you shave off another tenth of a second."
Also you refr to cheating - this does not only amount to dishonesty in terms of reports and or figures, but it is also dishonest, in my opinion, in that a diligent and conscientious worker may sacrifice NEEDED personal and more importantly, family time in order to reach that unrealisable goal.
Just as it is dishonest for an employee to make unreasonable* personal use of a company resource, I believe it is dishonest of the management to make unreasonable* company use of a personal resource.
*What do I mean by unreasonable here? Let me use an example of what I believe is reasonable - if an employee needs to phone home because of a problem in her family, that would be reasonable. If the employee is making international personal calls on the business phone, because she is the receptionist - that is unreasonable.
In terms of unreasonable use of personal time, if there is an emergency at the office - like a theft or a fire, it is not unreasonable for the leader to call up the employee and ask her/him to help attend to that emergency. However unreasonable is when they put such an onerous burden on the employee to perform that he/she spends a lot more than the contractually and legally binding working hours trying to meet these targets.
Posted by: John F. | January 24, 2008 11:30 PM