Things Leaders Do

Setting 2026 Goals That Don't Suck (Year-End Leadership Series)

• Colby Morris

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93% of employees can't align their personal goals with company objectives—because most goal-setting is one-directional garbage. This episode shows you how to create SMART goals using the two-way framework that balances corporate priorities with what your team actually wants to develop.

What You'll Learn:

  • Why SMART goals remove ambiguity and prevent performance review conflicts
  • How to cascade corporate goals using the trickle-down effect (not copy/paste)
  • The two types of personal development goals your team actually wants
  • How to find the overlap between business needs and employee growth
  • Why writing goals together (not for them) creates ownership and buy-in

Key Stats:

  • 93% of workers say lack of clarity on company goals prevents them from aligning their personal goals (Passive Secrets, 2025)
  • Employees are 3.2x more likely to be engaged when goals align with organizational objectives (Gartner, 2024)
  • 94% of employees would stay longer if the company invested in their career development (LinkedIn Learning, 2023)
  • Employees whose goals align with company objectives are 8.9x more likely to think their jobs are important (Leadership IQ)
  • Employees with goals are 3.6x more committed to their organization and 6.5x more likely to recommend it as a great workplace (Leadership IQ)

Questions I'll address:

  • How do I make sure goals are specific enough to be actionable?
  • How do I cascade department goals down to individual team members?
  • What's the difference between career advancement goals and personal development goals?
  • How do I have the two-way goal conversation without it feeling forced?
  • How many goals should each employee have?

Part of the Year-End Leadership Survival Guide - 4 episodes to finish 2025 strong

Perfect for: Middle managers setting 2026 goals who want to create objectives their team actually cares about achieving

Need help building a goal-setting framework that drives real performance? Colby works with leaders and teams through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training.

📧 linkedin.com/in/colbymorris | 🌐 nxtstepadvisors.com

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts | Share with a leader setting goals with their team

#TheThingsLeadersDo #GoalSetting #SMARTGoals #LeadershipDevelopment #MiddleManagement #CareerDevelopment #EmployeeEngagement #PerformanceManagement


SPEAKER_00:

People first leadership. Actionable strategies, real results. This is Things Leaders Do with Colby Morris.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so it's mid-December. You're setting goals for 2026 with your team, right? And you already know what's going to happen. You'll spend hours writing them. Your employee will nod, say, sounds good. And by February, neither of you will remember what they were. Why? Because most goal setting is one-directional. Corporate priorities pushed down to employees who don't see how it connects to what they actually care about. So they treat goals like that terms and condition box, like nobody really reads it, nobody remembers it. It's just something you have to get through. Here's the problem: 93% of workers say the lack of clarity on the company's overall goals prevents them from aligning their personal goals to achieve the best outcomes. 93%. That is not a small gap. That's nearly everyone feeling disconnected from what they're supposed to be working toward. But here's the good news. As John Doer said, a goal properly set is halfway reached. If we can get this right on the front end, we're already halfway to success. Today, we're fixing that. Hey leaders, this is Colby Morris, and this is the Things Leaders Do podcast. This is week two of our year-in leadership survival guide, which is four episodes hoping to help you finish 2025 strong and set up 2026 for success. As usual, each episode is 15 to 23 minutes of practical, actionable tools that you can use immediately. No theory, no fluff, just real guidance. Last week we tackled performance reviews and how to give feedback that actually sticks. This week we're talking about goal setting. And we're doing it with two-way goal setting, half corporate goals that ladder up to what the business needs, and half personal goals that help your people grow into who they want to become. When you get this right, goals aren't something done to your team, they're something created with your team. So let's dive in. Okay, so if 93% of employees feel disconnected from company goals, and we know that goals properly set are halfway reached, how do we actually set them right? Before we talk about what goals to set, we need to talk about how to set them. And that means SMART goals. I know, I know, you've heard this a thousand times. SMART goals are one of those things that sound like corporate jargon that consultants made up to sell more workshops. But here's the thing: smart goals actually work. And they work for one very specific reason. They remove ambiguity, they make it clear. Think about it. How many performance review conflicts come down to this? You thought they were supposed to do X, they thought they were supposed to do Y. You both are frustrated because you had completely different interpretations of what success looked like. Smart goals fix that. Because when a goal is done right, both you and your employee can look at it on December 31st, 2026, and agree on whether that was achieved or not. No subjectivity. No, well, I thought you meant no, just objective clarity. Christina Watke nailed it when she said, vague goals are the enemy of progress. And that's exactly what we're fighting against here. So let's break down smart. S is specific. Okay, that doesn't say be more strategic. Okay. What does that even mean? Think more, talk in meetings more, wear glasses and look thoughtful. Okay. Instead, say something like lead the Q2 planning process for the product launch. Include competitive analysis, timeline development, and stakeholder alignment. Now we're getting somewhere. That is specific. The ILM is measurable. You need to be able to track progress. So not improve client satisfaction. That's pretty vague. Instead, increase our NPS score from 42 to 50 by Q4. Now you can look at the data and know exactly where you stand. The A stands for achievable. Now, this is where a lot of managers screw up. Okay, they set goals that are technically possible, but realistically absurd. I want you to increase revenue by 300% while also reducing cost by 50%. Okay, cool. And while we're at it, let's also solve world hunger and teach the team to juggle flaming chainsaws. Yeah. Achievable means challenging but realistic. Stretch goals are great. Fantasy goals just demoralize people. The R is for relevant. Okay, the goal needs to matter to the role and to the business. So if you're a finance manager, a goal about improving your public speaking skills might be nice, but it's not really relevant to what the business needs from you right now. So make sure the goal connects to either corporate priorities or the person's development in their current role. The T stands for time bound. Okay. No deadline equals no urgency, which equals no action. Okay. So not launch the new product eventually. Instead, say launch the new product by June 30th. Okay. Time constraints create focus. They they force prioritization. They make it real. So SMART goals aren't just a corporate acronym. They're how you create objectives that both you and your employee can look at and say, Yep, we did it. Or nope, we didn't. No ambiguity, no arguments, just clarity. Now, let's talk about what goals to actually set. Because here's the thing every goal your team sets falls into one of two buckets corporate goals, or what the business needs, and personal goals, which is what they want to develop. So let's start with corporate goals. Your company has priorities. Your department has goals, and those need to cascade down to your team. This is the corporate goals piece, and it's non-negotiable. The business has to hit its targets, and your team is part of making that happen. So here's what most managers do wrong. They just copy and paste their own goals and hand them to the employees. Hey, I need to increase department revenue by 20%. So you need to increase revenue by 20%. Good luck. Yeah, that's not goal setting, that's goal dumping. Here's how to do it right the trickle-down effect. Let's say you've got a department goal to increase client retention by 12% this year, and you have four managers reporting up to you. You don't give each manager the same 12% goal. That doesn't make sense. Instead, you break it down. Each manager owns 25% of that goal. So each needs to deliver a 3% increase in retention in their area. Now, each person has a specific, manageable piece of the bigger picture. They know exactly what they're accountable for. And when you add up all four pieces, well, you hit the department target. That's the trickle-down effect. You're cascading corporate priorities down in a way that's specific to each role. But here's the critical part: don't just assign the number and walk away. Okay, you have to communicate the why behind the goal. Here's what that sounds like when you're meeting with your employee. Okay, here's the corporate goal piece. The company has focused on client retention this year because we're seeing higher churn in the industry, and it's five times more expensive to acquire a new client than keep an existing one. For our department, that means we need to increase retention by 12%. Your piece of that is a 3% increase in your client base. That means taking your current retention rate from 85% to 88% by the end of Q4. Here's why this matters for you. Retained clients are also the ones most likely to expand their contracts. So if you're successful here, you're not just hitting a corporate goal, you're setting yourself up for easier revenue growth next year. See the difference? You're not just assigning a number, you're explaining why the company cares about this, how their piece fits into that bigger picture, and what's in it for them. That context matters because when people understand the why, they're way more likely to actually care about the what. And here's the data to back that up. Employees are 3.2 times more likely to be engaged when their performance goals are aligned with the organization's goals. 3.2 times. That's not a small bump. That's the difference between someone showing up to collect a paycheck and someone showing up ready to make an impact. And one more thing, make sure the corporate goal is actually specific to their role. Okay. Don't just copy and paste your goals into their goal sheet and call it done. If you manage four different functions, you know, sales, operations, client success, and finance, their corporate goals should look different because their roles are different. Okay. The sales manager's corporate goal might be revenue focused. The operations managers might be efficiency focused. The client success manager might be retention focused. Same corporate priority, different applications. So that's the corporate half of goal setting. Now let's talk about the other half, the part most managers completely skip. This is the part of goal setting that separates good managers from great ones. Personal and development goals. These are the goals your employee chooses, not because the company needs them, but because they want them. And when you get this right, you tap into something that's way more powerful than corporate accountability. You tap into personal motivation. There are two types of personal goals you should be talking about. Type one is career advancement goals. Okay, these are skills or qualifications that they need for stepping into that next role. Let's say you have someone on your team who wants to move into a senior leadership position within the next two years. Well, what are the minimum job qualifications for that role? Maybe it's you know leading cross-functional projects or managing a budget or presenting to executive leadership. So their developmental goal for 2026 might be lead one cross-functional project from initiation to completion, including stakeholder management and executive presentation. Now they're building the exact skills they need for the role they want. And you're setting them up for success. And then type two is personal development goals. Okay, these are things they want to learn or accomplish that just kind of makes them better at what they do, even if it's not directly tied to a promotion. So maybe they want to get better at public speaking. They want to learn a new technical skill, they want to develop their coaching abilities, they want to build stronger relationships across the various departments. These goals matter because they're intrinsically motivated. Nobody's making them do this. They want to do this. And here's what's cool: when people are working on something they actually care about, they bring way more energy into it. That energy spills over into everything else they do. Here's the stat that matters. You want to keep the top performers? Simple. Invest in their personal growth. It's not rocket science. People stay where they feel like they're becoming better versions of themselves. So, how do you have this conversation? Look, don't overthink it. Just ask. Say, we've talked about what the business needs from you in 2026. Now I want to know what do you want to be able to do in 2026 that you can't do today? And then shut up and listen. They might say, I want to feel more confident leading meetings with senior leadership. Great. There's your developmental goal. Present to the executive team at least twice in 2026 with preparation support from me. Or they might say, I want to understand our data analytics tool. I want to understand it better. So I'm not always asking people, you know, to pull reports for me. Perfect. There's your goal. Complete advanced training in the tableau and build three custom reports for the team by Q3. These goals don't have to be earth-shattering. Okay. They just have to matter to that person. Here's the truth. People care about goals they chose, not goals that were assigned to them. When you let them own half the goal setting process, you're not just building a developmental plan. You're you're building buy-in. All right. So now that you've got both pieces, corporate goals, what the business needs, and personal goals, what they want to develop. The question is, how do you actually bring these together in a conversation? This can't be you dictating goals to them and them accepting. This has to be a two-way conversation. And here's how I want you to structure this with your employee. Step one, I want you to start with corporate needs. All right, here's what the business needs from your role in 2026. Here's the corporate goal I need you to own. Let me explain why this matters and how it fits into the bigger picture. Lay that out clearly. Make sure they understand the why behind it. And then step two, ask what they want. Now, what do you want to develop in 2026? What skills do you want to build? What do you want to be able to do today that you can't? And then listen. Take notes, even ask follow-up questions. And then step three, find the overlap. This is where the magic happens. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, there's beautiful overlap between the business needs and what they want to develop. Let's say your corporate goal for them is to improve cross-departmental collaboration. And their personal goal is to build stronger relationships across the company. Well, those aren't the same goal, but they do support each other. So you might say, what if we structure your corporate goal around leading a cross-functional initiative? That would hit the business need for collaboration, and it would give you a built-in reason to build those relationships you want. Now, you've got one goal that serves two purposes. They're more motivated because it connects to what they care about. And you're more likely to hit the corporate target because they're genuinely interested. And again, here's the data. Employees whose goals align with the company objectives are 8.9 times more likely to think that their jobs are important. 8.9 times. When people see how their personal growth connects to company success, they don't just work harder, they care more. All right, step four, write them together. Don't go away and write their goals for them. Do it right there in the conversation. Something like, okay, let's make sure this is a smart goal. Is it specific? Is it measurable? How will we know you achieved it? As Stephen Covey says, goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them. So make the plan together, right there in real time with the employee. When they help write the goal, they own it. When you write it and hand it to them, it's just another task. And then step five, check for balance. What does that mean? Well, before you end the conversation, do a gut check. Do they have too many goals? Usually more than that three to five is too many. Okay, they won't remember all of them. And then is it balanced between corporate and personal? If you could do 50-50, that's ideal. It doesn't always work that way. Can they actually control these goals or are they dependent on things outside their influence? And then do they seem energized or defeated when they leave this conversation? That last one is the tell. If they leave excited about 2026, you nailed it. If they live, you know, feeling like you just piled more work on them, you missed the mark. Here's the thing when you do this right, goals aren't something your team dreads. They're something they actually care about. Here's what happens when you get goal alignment right. Employees with goals are 3.6 times more likely to be committed to their organization. They're 6.5 times. More likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work. That is the power of two-way goal setting. Half the goals are pushing them toward what the business needs, and half the goals are pulling them toward who they want to become. That's how you create goals people actually remember and achieve. So here's your assignment before you set goals with your team. First, make sure you understand how your corporate goals trickle down. Okay, what's your piece of the company's priorities, and how does that break down across your team? Second, prepare to ask this question What do you want to be able to do in 2026 that you can't do today? And then actually listen to the answer. Third, make sure every goal passes the SMART test. Is it specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound? Because your people don't need goals that sound good in December and then are forgotten by February. They need goals that connect to what the business needs and what they personally care about. And when you give them that, you're not just setting goals, you're setting them up for success. If your organization needs help building a culture where they have goals that actually drive performance instead of just sitting in a drawer for 11 months, I'd love to help. I work with leaders and teams through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training to build people-first cultures that drive real results. Hey, I'd love for you to connect with me on LinkedIn. That is in that link is in the show notes, or you can visit my website. That's also in the show notes. And if this episode resonated with you, would you do me a favor? Please subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review. Love reading those. And share this episode with another leader who's about to set goals for their team and wants to make sure they actually matter. That's how we grow this community. That's how we get the word out to make a bigger impact on the workplace. Because the more leaders who get this stuff right, the better workplaces become for everyone. And remember, keep connecting corporate goals to what your people care about. Keep making goal setting a two-way conversation. And keep building goals that actually motivate your team. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.