It's evaluation time and I've only been in the position for 4 months. How do you go about constructing SMART Objectives and goals for positions you really don't have a clear understanding? Has anyone experienced this and how did they handle the situation?
Thanks.
First of all, your
First of all, your objectives should be given to you by your boss, not invented by you for your team. Then you take your objectives to your directs and go through a process of developing their objectives such that yours will be achieved.
Have you asked your boss what his objectives are? If you have his objectives, and he hasn't given you your objectives, maybe you can work with him to develop yours. Then you can again tumble these down into your directs. Their performance should total up to fulfill your objectives.
If your boss has no objectives and doesn't know what objectives are, then I recommend you gather your directs and pick some things to achieve this year. Use brainstorming, decision making, and then planning and executing to get the job done. Then show your goals to your boss and see what he says.
-Rob Redmond
http://www.strugglingmanager.com
Rob nailed it
Rob's advice is spot on.
If you have to develop them on your own (or you're co-developing them with your boss) you should poke around your company's intranet, etc, looking for group mission statements, company strategy, and other materials that can provide some context for you.
You can look at budgets or announced initiatives to see where they're investing, and align with those efforts.
John