How to Create Goals for a Performance Review - The Muse

How to Create Goals for a Performance Review - The MuseHow to Create Goals for a Performance Review Hi Kyle,Im an executive assistant. Most would say this position doesnt have any goals, but ur performance review system requires me to set goals. How do I go about this?Signed,Goal-SeekerHi Goal-Seeker,Goals are in distributions-mix to help us take care of business as usual, sure, but theyre also intended to challenge us to grow as professionals and advance in our careers. Everyone has them, no matter the position. I get that working in an open-ended role such as yours that maybe doesnt provide you with clear measures of success in the way that grow sales quota by 11% does may make it difficult to come up with an obvious answer. Theres no doubt that demonstrating your value at work is daunting when your role feels very day-to-day. But, since all roles can be performed with an intent to succeed, theres a straightforward way to go about creating goals thatll both please your manager and get you ahead. Find Things That Can Be ImprovedFinding areas of improvement in your current role is a great way to get started. You may find there are issues in the form of scalability, communication, or the number of steps it takes to complete a daily task. For example, as an EA, lets say you assist three executives with their scheduling, and youre not thrilled with how their calendars are organized. Is there a system you could implement to streamline things and make the schedules more digestible? If so, this is how the goals might look on paper Re-organize internal meetings to occur on the saatkorn day each week Utilize a calendar application, like Calendly, to streamline one-off meeting requests Establish flexible blocks of time to be updated with minimal notice, reducing conflictsConsider the Long GameThink about what you want out of your career. Even if youre not a five-year plan person, look ahead to your future, and ask yourself what you see yourself doing. Whats your title? Your salary range? Do you have another degree? Are you managing others? Now, what will it take you to ultimately get there? These larger career goals arent meant to be accomplished overnight (or lead to conversations with your manager in which he or she thinks youre trying to steal their role) rather, they exist to help you figure out what you can be doing today thatll get you where you want to be in a year or two. Basically, once you know the long-term plan, you can break it into baby steps. The long-term plan stays in your head, the baby steps turn into the goals you share with your manager. It could look as simple as thisPresent plan to eliminate bottleneck systems for overall efficiencyConnect with every department to assess needs for new tools and systemsCreate email templates for various scenarios for faster response timesTake on New ResponsibilitiesIf youve noticed a particular person or team struggling with their workload, there may be an opportunity to absorb new responsibi lities and increase your workplace value. If youre already handling travel for executives, could you handle it for another team as well? If you like this idea, but youre having trouble finding new responsibilities, talk to your manager. Work with him to find out what pain points you can relieve by taking them off of his plate- and make that a goal in and of itself. It might look like thisOwn post-meeting communication Build out consistent onboarding process across departmentsFind ways to improve my boss day-to-day (you can elaborate on this as you figure out what will help)When it comes to setting goals, we often start out ambitious and then lose steam as time goes on, which is why its important to think of truly actionable tasks. The items shouldnt be things you can just check a box on, but its OK if they seem sort of simple. After all, if you overshoot, youre more likely to give up. But really, no matter what kind of position you have, theres a way to define and refine your perfor mance in a way that allows you to further the companys mission and your own career growth. This article is part of our Ask an Expert series- a column dedicated to helping you tackle your biggest career concerns. Our experts are excited to answer all of your burning questions, and you can submit one by emailing us at editor(at)themuse(dot)com and using Ask a Credible Career Coach in the subject line.Your letter may be published in an article on The Muse. All letters to Ask an Expert become the property of Daily Muse, Inc and will be edited for length, clarity, and grammatical correctness.