Welch's 21 Steps to Management Greatness - 18
Stretch targets energize.
"We have found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, we often actually do the impossible; and even when we don't quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done."
When Welch talks about stretch targets, he simply means initiating goals that seem impossible to attain and let our people see how far they can go to reach them.
There is something to consider when we put a vision like this before our people, and that is how and what to communicate to them after the time to complete the mission is over.
For example, workers may consider themselves a failure if they don't reach some extraordinary goal, while having accomplished tremendous success, as Welch says concerning if they don't quite make it.
How we communicate with them concerning that is vital. While we obviously need to encourage and brag on them about their accomplishments, we also have to be careful not to get them trained into thinking high goals ensure not reaching them. It could result in workers devaluing the goals set before them.
That's another way of saying they could start looking at goals as unreachable and start believing and acting as if the real goals is in reality a notch below the stated goal.
It's a fine line we have to walk here. Set a goal that isn't realistic, and our people could start to be trained and set up for failure, set a goal too low, and they aren't motivated or challenged because it's too easy to reach.
How do we measure something like that? It's in what Welch says about being energized. How do our people respond when the goals are set before them? Are they encouraged and challenged or discouraged and lethargic?
We must know our people and be able to listen to and read their response or lack of responses to the goals set before them.
In the end, if they're not energized, it's because the goal is considered too hard or not challenging enough. Our job is to find out which one of those is the reason, and respond accordingly.
Other Jack Welch Resources:
Jack Welch's advice to MIT Sloan students
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