Setting objectives with your manager can be an easy process if you have prepared well or it can be a real challenge if you have not. 

Learning how to prepare and propose objectives to my manager helped me get better, easier and more useful objectives for me and my career development. 

 It should be no surprise that setting goals with your manager is a lot easier when you are supporting reaching the managers goals or objectives. This, or the company or department strategy was always the first place I started when setting objectives with my manager. This approach also makes a lot of business sense.

 Put yourself in the driving seat by preparing objectives and goals that align with your manager goals and objectives rather than wait for your boss to give you a set of goals. Taking this step means you set expectations and the starting point with your manager first. 

 Having more realistic objectives and ones that will help your career development helps when you come to have your appraisal meeting with manager. You are more likely to have achieved your goals, which makes this meeting a lot easier. 

 Having goals is useful but having a rough or detailed plan of how to achieve those goals is a lot better. Before you think about objective setting for appraisals, go through how you might achieve the objectives. How long will it take? What resources will you need? Can you achieve the objective by yourself, or do you need your team to deliver it?

 Think about all the assumptions you are making when planning how you are going to achieve your goal. I always found using assumptions is a great way to manage my manager’s expectations of what could be achieved. 

 Setting objectives with your manager gives you a process to follow that creates the foundations for how to set goals and achieve them and is a useful approach for objective setting for managers.

 Towards the end of “Setting Objectives With Your Manager” I share 5 tips to help you manage the meeting to your advantage. 

 Good luck with your objective setting meetings.