I am the General Manager of a small company (just over $1m turnover). The company has 2 directors. The majority shareholder (70%) often lives in a different country and has no input in relation to the company. The other director (30% shares) is the Managing Director who I report to.
I manage the sales and after-sales service, which equates to 100% of the company's income. I recruit, write employment contracts, service and sales contracts, and set the company rules. I choose the metrics and set targets for the departments and the staff in the company.
My issue is that I have never been given any targets by the directors. At this level, it's obvious that the metrics are growth and profit. Without direction, I have focused on maximizing profit over growth. However, without targets I get no positive feedback in relation to these metrics and nothing to put on my resume.
Yes, I have asked for targets on several occasions. Do I set myself fixed targets and note on my resume that I have achieved them? Should I not worry?
Feedback would be most appreciated.
Make you own, get signoff
G'day Mark,
What about creating your own targets. Make them achievable, but a stretch. Now take them to the business owners and ask them what they think. Ask them to sign off on them as being your targets. Now they've not had to do the work (which they obviously aren't interested in) and you have targets to achieve.
Cheers!
Rick Measham
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Read my blog: Geek Herding - Explorations in the art of leading IT professionals
I agree with Rick (sort of)...and additionally
You can set your own targets if you have the resources to make them so. I would not bounce them off the boss as managing upwards rarely works. And obviously, the boss is not interested in targets as long as you manage to keep the cash flow going. I mean, what is he going to tell you? That you need to slow down as the company is making too much money and he can't deal with the success?
And just because you have no formal targets does not mean you have nothing to put on your resume. If you increased sales 8%, you increased sales 8%, formal target or not. If you improved retention, you improved retention. If you acquired 3 new customers and expanded the product offering to 4 existing clients, you did it. You don't need the formal targets to put these things on your resume.
who judges your work?
Hi Mark
I just wanted to add my support to the guys above - create your own. Seth Godin says it better in his blog 24 April 2010
Here's the mistake we make in high school:
We let anyone, just anyone, judge our work (and by extension, judge us.) Sue, the airheaded but long-legged girl in Spanish class gets the right to judge our appearance. Bill, the bitter former-poet English teacher gets the power to tell us if we're good at writing.
And on and on.
The cheerleaders are deputized as the Supreme Court of social popularity, and the gym teacher forever has dibs on whether or not we're macho enough to make it in the world. These are patterns we sign up for, and they last forever (or until we tell them to go away).
In high school, some people learn to ship, they learn to do work that matters and most of all, they learn to ignore the critics they can never possibly please. The ability to choose who judges your work--the people who will make it better, use it and reward you--is the key building block in becoming an artist in whatever you do.
So in looking to the positives - you sound like you know what success looks like so enjoy the freedom, be your own goal setter (and make them stretch) and decide who you wish to judge you. Asteris...gets it right when they say you do not need a target to state achievements on a resume OR to remember a great year (how many years do you remember the targets and the achievement??)
good luck
Paul