high performing teams

SMART Objective Setting for Managers by Irial O'Farrell

September 19, 2021 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

SMART Objective Setting for Managers by Irial O'Farrell

Are you ready for goal-setting season?

We’re hurtling towards the end of the year, which means it’s planning for 2022. As part of that planning you, as a manager, need to start thinking about how your team members have been doing in 2021 and what they need to experience and develop in 2022. Looking forward to it?

If you answered a resounding “No”, then SMART Objective Setting for Managers is the book for you. Starting with contextualising objective setting within performance management, you’ll come away with a clear understanding of the different drivers and objective types, why the usual SMART theory isn’t fit for using with another person, and how to design behavioral objectives that really enhance performance.

Want to feel comfortable and confident in objective setting this year? Then pick up a copy of SMART Objective Setting for Managers today.

SMART Objective Setting for Managers: A Roadmap by Irial O’Farrell

April 15, 2021 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

SMART Objective Setting for Managers: A Roadmap by Irial O'Farrell

Objective-Setting season is fast approaching. There’s a knot in the pit of your stomach. As time ticks closer to having to set objectives with your team, you can feel the knot pulsing, getting bigger. It has to be done but what’s the point?

Unfortunately, this is how many managers feel about objective-setting. Often due to lack of training or through their negative experiences with their own manager. It often feels like a box-ticking exercise. It doesn’t have to be this way. Actively developing each team member has huge benefits, of the individual, the team, their manager, the company and clients.

SMART Objective Setting for Managers has been written specifically for managers. It sets out the relationship between job description and objectives. It deconstructs the SMART framework. It then works through practical examples of how to design objectives that will really deliver the desired outcomes. It focuses on both target-driven “what” objectives alongside behavioural “how” objectives. It also takes some time to explore both the employee’s perspective and the manager’s mindset, in relation to performance and their role.

Summaries and prompts, at the end of each chapter, recap on each chapter’s main points and allow you, the reader, to think about the points in relation to your own team. Free template downloads are also available, to help you apply the learning.

SMART Objective Setting for Managers by Irial O'Farrell

December 14, 2020 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

SMART Objective Setting for Managers by Irial O'Farrell

Every year, millions of managers sit down with their staff, to set objectives for the coming year. Every year, the vast majority of those millions of managers dread the prospective of having to sit down with their staff, to set objectives. If this sounds like you, then meet your new best friend – SMART Objective Setting for Managers.

This book unpacks the 4 main challenges that most managers grapple with, when setting objectives:
– Defining the desired outcomes of performance
– Diagnosing team members’ individual starting points
– Defining tangible objectives for “soft” behavioural performance issues (e.g., poor communication or influencing others)
– Understanding what goes wrong during the communication of agreeing objectives

As you read through the book, your understanding of SMART, developing performance and communication builds up, culminating in Chapter 8. This chapter explores how to identify soft performance issues and how to diagnose what the real underlying issue is and provides a framework to design an objective that will deliver real performance improvement.

Reviews on Amazon rave about how easy-to-read and concise the book is while providing a whole new way to look at objective setting.

SMART Objective Setting for Managers by Irial O'Farrell

October 10, 2020 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

SMART Objective Setting for Managers by Irial O'Farrell

If you manage teams, what frustrates you the most? If you’re like most managers I’ve met, chances are it’s the way “Johnny communicates his ideas” or the way “Chrissy keeps asking you to talk to the other team, rather than just doing it herself” or how “Jamie keeps asking the same questions over and over!”. Developing these “soft” performance issues are very challenging. It can feel uncomfortable to raise the topic and many managers fear the conversation will go wrong. The 4 main struggles managers have with objective setting are:

1. Defining the desired outcomes of performance
2. Diagnosing team members’ individual starting points
3. Defining tangible objectives for “soft” behavioural performance issues
4. Understanding what can go wrong in the communication process, when agreeing objectives

SMART Objective Setting for Managers unpacks each of these challenges, culminating in a chapter dedicated to understanding how to diagnose and design objectives that address the “softer” performance issues. Being endlessly practical when it comes to the “how”, the book also provides a roadmap for preparing for and conducting objective setting meetings.

Told through stories and examples, feedback from readers include “I thought I already knew how to do this but I’ve learnt so much from this book”, “very easy to read and understand the learning points”, and “managers and employees should read this book”.

So if reducing your frustration while increasing your team’s motivation and engagement sounds like a good outcome for you, buy this book today and start finding out how to design and agree SMART objectives that will make a difference.