Written by Charlotte Duckworth

How to set impactful objectives with your team

9th April, 2025 •

You know that feeling when you’re working towards something that feels important? Or impactful? Maybe even meaningful?

As managers, we want to ensure every team member is contributing to both the team and the wider business. At the same time, we’re thinking about what makes each individual ‘tick’, and how we can keep them motivated in their role.

Setting performance objectives is one of the most powerful ways to ensure success in the workplace, fuelling both individual growth and organisational results.

However, if poorly run, these objective-setting conversations can become a check-box exercise – an unstructured conversation to complete a form that’s put away in a drawer never to be seen again.

In this blog, we’ll explore how you can connect your team members to the bigger picture, uncover what motivates them and have a valuable conversation setting objectives that inspire and drive success for both the individual and the business.

Why bother setting objectives?

We could fill a small shed with the amount of research that underscores the value of setting objectives. This research highlights the benefits for both the individual and the organisation they work for, with recurring themes such as:

Purpose. Objectives provide a sense of purpose and this proves to be a game-changer for employee engagement. McKinsey finds that ‘employees who are connected to their organisation’s purpose are 4.3x more likely to be engaged at work and feel more fulfilled in their roles’. When we know why we’re doing what we’re doing, it’s easier to see how our work fits into the bigger picture. We feel more connected, motivated and have a sense of purpose.

Focus. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day hustle and lose sight of what really matters. Objectives provide guidance on where we should put our energy, focus and attention. This makes it easier to prioritise and cuts through any uncertainty about what’s expected of us in our role.

Accountability. With specific, actionable objectives in place, it’s much easier to track our progress and assess our performance. We can see where we’re succeeding and where we might need to adjust our approach.

Objectives are so much more than just a way to measure success; they are the driving force that helps shape our direction and are key to fostering productive, motivated and high-performing team members.

The objective-setting conversation

Part 1: A coaching approach

While some people thrive in an environment with direction and instructions, being micromanaged without any freedom to explore or contribute ideas can be demotivating. When setting objectives, the goal isn’t just to assign tasks but to create ownership, encouraging individuals to shape their own path within a clear framework. The objective-setting conversation should be driven by the individual (rather than you as their manager) and focus on them.

This is often described as taking an ‘ask approach’:

For example, if your manager told you, “Your goal is to improve client retention by 10%, and here’s how you need to do this”, how would you feel?

How about if instead your manager asked: “What strategies do you think would help us retain more clients this quarter? What support do you need to make that happen?”

Rather than telling a member of our team what needs to happen, we can guide them by asking questions and coaching them through the conversation.

Part 2: The two lenses

When it comes to setting objectives, there’s a powerful concept to keep in mind: a golden thread.

Ideally, every goal we set should be connected across a spectrum, with this golden thread linking both ends. At one end, we have the overarching business objectives, linking to the bigger picture so that we are moving the needle towards organisational success. At the opposite end, we have our personal growth goals, focused on developing new skills, building confidence and achieving individual aspirations.

When an objective connects the overarching business objectives with personal development aspirations, we create this golden thread, ensuring alignment from top to bottom.

In reality, this beautiful link isn’t always possible, but it’s important to try and create a balance and stay in tune with both ends of the spectrum. Having more than one goal, to span different areas is a useful compromise and creates a more well-rounded and fulfilling work experience.

As a result, there are three key areas to consider when setting objectives:

How to connect to the bigger picture
How to connect to personal motivations
How to define and set valuable objectives

Let’s take a closer look at each one and how you can put them into action.

Connect objectives to the bigger picture

Picture two individuals sitting in the same rowing boat.

They are both rowing with all their might, putting in lots of effort…

But they are rowing in opposite directions.

The boat goes nowhere!

This scenario mirrors what happens when individuals aren’t aligned with the rest of the team. When we row in the same direction, we move forward much more effectively — we’re aligned and working together toward a common goal.

This is where the organisational strategy becomes essential. It outlines the key organisational objectives and defines the key priorities that act as a compass for everyone in the business. When we understand the business strategy, we can consider how our team feeds into this strategy, and what this means for each individual within our team and their role.

To help team members see this connection, we can take a coaching approach, encouraging thoughtful questions that link their work to the bigger picture.

Core questions

How does your role align with the business priorities?
What are the key priorities for you in your role, in relation to the business strategy?

Additional questions

What do you see as the top priorities for the business in the next 1-3 years, and what does this mean for priorities in your role?
What external and internal factors (eg. market conditions) are critical for you to navigate in your role?
What do your key stakeholders (eg. team members, or clients) value most in you and your role?

By having these conversations, we gain insight into the different perspectives within our team, and every team member gains clarity on how their contributions align with the wider vision and can support the organisation’s success. This ensures that everyone is rowing in the same direction, creating a unified and powerful force toward achieving the objectives of our team.

Connect to personal motivations

To inspire members of our team, we need to know more about their personal and professional growth goals, and beyond this, what really motivates them on a foundational level. We can open the door for meaningful conversations and a great way to do this is by exploring their career drivers.

Career drivers are the unique values that shape our actions and decisions at work. As managers, understanding what drives each team member helps us support and motivate them more effectively.

Perhaps they are motivated to develop their expertise?

Are they motivated by their connection to others in the team?

Maybe they are motivated by having influence over something they really care about, such as the sustainability commitments of the business?

To learn more about the different career drivers and how they can help you better motivate individuals in your team, read this blog. As you read, consider which of these drivers resonate with you too! Can you pull out two or three that you feel are most important to you?

Beyond the career drivers, to uncover what really motivates individuals in our team, we can take a coaching approach by asking thoughtful questions that help them identify their personal drivers and growth areas:

Core questions

What do you value most in your role? What experiences/interactions energise and motivate you?
What development opportunities would motivate you?
What skills or experience do you want to gain?
What strengths would you like to develop looking forwards?

Additional questions

What would help you to feel successful in your role?
How can I help you? What support do you need to achieve your objectives?

Taking the time to understand and care about the personal aspirations of each individual shows that you value their growth. It also allows you to provide opportunities for them to work on tasks that truly fulfil them.

As a manager, bringing career drivers into your objective-setting conversations can help you align goals with what motivates each team member, ultimately creating a more engaged and satisfied team.

Set SMART goals

In objective-setting conversations, we want to make sure we are setting good objectives, but what does ‘good’ look like?

Too often, individuals submit objectives like ‘Achieve our ambitions for growth and impact’.

While this sounds positive, it is not a good objective! It’s vague, overly broad and there is no clear to know when this has been met and achieved.

To create high-quality objectives, it’s useful to break them down into two parts:

An overarching statement of what we are trying to achieve.
Clear deliverables outlining the specifics actions or milestones that will lead to success.

By detailing these deliverables under the overarching goal, you make the objective more tangible and provide a clear roadmap for how to reach it.

To ensure we hit all the key factors of a high-quality objective, think SMART. This acronym stands for:

Specific – Is this objective tangible? What are the exact deliverables?
Measurable – What does success look like? What metrics will you use to measure progress over time?
Achievable – Is the goal challenging yet attainable? How will this objective help you to achieve your personal growth aspirations?
Relevant – How does this goal align with the broader business priorities of your team?
Time-bound – What is a realistic and motivating deadline for this objective?

Tip! We can ask AI to review our objective against the SMART framework. It’s a useful tool to save time, boost clarity and refine.

Example goal:

Overarching statement: ‘Increase revenue by 10% over the next six months by expanding our client base through three new strategic partnerships’.

Key deliverables:

Identify potential partners: market research, evaluate potentially viable profiles including target markets and industries, and create a list of 10 priority companies to approach in first month
Collaborate on marketing and lead generation: coordinate marketing campaign in first month, plan lead generation and track approach, including conversion rates and client satisfaction
Develop partnership proposals: create, present and follow up on each partnership proposal
Negotiate partnership agreements: identify upsell opportunities, finalise agreement, define deliverables, timelines and streamline onboarding process
Monitor partnership performance: identify issues, improvements and opportunities, define metrics of successful partnerships, and develop a reporting system to track revenue and results with monthly performance reviews

Finally, and possibly most importantly, as a manager we need to come back to the objectives of each team member regularly. Commit to reviewing objectives monthly to ensure they stay dynamic, adaptable, and relevant, allowing them to evolve as circumstances change and remain motivating over time.

In summary

To set impactful objectives with our teams, we want to focus on:

Connecting objectives to the bigger picture, creating a sense of purpose and helping individuals to recognise the value of their role in driving business success
Linking objectives to personal motivators, showing genuine interest in each team member’s career aspirations, and finding ways to align their objectives to these drivers
Setting SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound- and adjusting them as necessary to ensure continuous progress

If you would like to learn more about how to set motivating objectives that inspire, engage and drive real results, then please get in touch. We would love to hear from you.