 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. In this video, I take you through five steps to prepare for your objectives meeting and five tips on how to manage the objectives meeting itself. I've always felt it better to propose a list of objectives to your manager rather than wait for them to give you a list of objectives and I'll explain why as we go through the steps. My name is Jess Coles and I've spent 25 years working in corporates and household names through to SMEs at all management levels. Learning how to prepare and propose objectives to my manager helped me get better objectives for me and also reduced my manager's workload, a win for both parties. And if you're new to this channel, Enhance.train provides online business courses to help professionals, managers and business owners improve their performance. And if you like this video, please give a thumbs up and subscribe. So let's get straight into the five preparation steps. The first step when setting objectives with your manager is to start with your manager's objectives or goals. You need your objectives and those of your team to align with your manager's objectives or at least those that you and your team will be involved in delivering. Your objectives must help your manager achieve their objectives if you want yours to be approved. Ask for a copy of your manager's objectives or the ones that you and your team will be helping to deliver. And if these are not available, then look at the company or the business unit strategy or if you're in a larger business to functions or departments objectives. Before starting to write your own objectives or those of your team, you need to understand the direction you and your team will need to travel in to fit into the goals and objectives of the wider team. While planning your objectives, focus on what you can control and are responsible for. Try to avoid giving yourself objectives for areas that you can't influence or have very little influence over. This helps manage the expectations of your manager and gives you a fairer set of objectives. Set out your own personal objectives and team objectives. As a manager of a team, you'll be responsible for achieving all the objectives. I always found it very useful to keep clear in my own mind which ones I'll be achieving through my team and which ones I had to do personally. The second step when setting objectives with your manager is to decide on which objectives you plan to propose to your manager. There are a lot of objectives and goals you could choose. So use your judgment in conjunction with your manager's objectives and factor in what you want to achieve with the team to decide which objectives you're going to put forward. Some of you may be thinking, surely it's just easier to ask my manager to tell me what objectives they want me to do for the year ahead. This is an option of course. I have three reasons I think it is better to propose a list of objectives and these are firstly of being proactive and helping solve a problem for your manager. 95% plus of managers will thank you for this approach. Secondly, you have more control of your own objectives and the level of the goals in those objectives if you're in the driving seat. And third, if you don't do the preparation, you won't be able to negotiate well, which could leave you with unrealistic goals. I always prefer to be prepared so choose which objectives you want to put forward. The third step when setting objectives with your manager is to create a rough plan of how you would reach your objectives. Having goals is great if you've got a reasonable plan of how to get there. With a plan, you know, firstly, the activities you need to undertake. Secondly, the resources you need to undertake them. And thirdly, if the goals or outcomes are reasonable or not. I mean, would you want to sign up to objectives and goals without any idea of how to achieve them? I never liked doing this and I haven't come across many managers that do. Don't go to town on the planning at this stage, but do have a rough idea of the activities and resources needed for each of your objectives that you choose. The fourth step when setting objectives with your boss is to list out the assumptions you are making. This is a super important step and helps massively with later negotiations. I once saw a country manager get a sign off for a 20% drop in his budget against expectations of a 10% growth because he prepared his assumptions really well. His manager didn't have much of a leg to stand on once they had gone through all of the assumptions in detail. So go through each of your assumptions in your rough plan. Think internally and externally to your company. What are their key assumptions and what are the secondary and less important ones? And note them all down. The fifth and last step in preparing setting objectives with your manager is to think about your personal development. What do you personally want to achieve in the next year plus for your career? How could your manager and the business help you achieve this? You know, examples might include, you know, firstly, would a mentor from another part of the business help? Secondly, what courses could you take for technical and soft skills? Thirdly, what projects could you get on that would build your CV? And that might also be available within the business. Fourth, what is your manager currently doing that you could take on? And fifth, what should be on your reading list or maybe your research list for YouTube, etc. Find out the options for developing your career and skills within the business and externally from the business. And put together a personal development plan which with the actions that you're going to take. With this preparation completed, you are ready to book in the objectives meeting with your manager. And I've got five tips to share to help you manage this meeting to your advantage. Firstly, ask how the manager would like to run the meeting and listen to their response. Hopefully they will ask you to put forward your proposals early in the meeting. If not, say that you have thought about your objectives and have a number that you'd like to propose. Ask that you put these forward at the start of the meeting so that you can get your manager's feedback. Secondly, present your objective proposals to your manager and explain how and why they align with the manager's objectives or the stated company goals. Make sure that you link your objectives to the bigger picture. This significantly increases the chances of them being accepted. Thirdly, ask your manager for feedback and input. This is explicitly asking your manager to actually suggest changes to what you've put forward or agree or disagree with your proposals. It is really important that you take the time to listen carefully, take in what is being said and come back with clarifying questions. Only when you understand the manager's position should you think about negotiating if this is needed. Setting objectives should be a two-way conversation and you must let your manager input and make changes. This is usually much better than you having your manager set objectives for you from scratch. Fourth tip is to start negotiating where your manager has discarded objectives that you feel are important, has set two stretching goals or has changed objectives in a way that doesn't make sense to you. This is where your work on your assumptions really comes into its own. Push the conversations to the assumptions when you're negotiating. If, for instance, resource is an issue, ask for more. If your manager doesn't agree with your assumptions, then ask why and discuss. Make sure your final objectives are specific. Ensure that you and your manager are clear about how you're going to measure and thus know when you've reached your objectives. And lastly, fifth, when the meeting is finished, then make sure you write up the final versions of your objectives, even if there's not been asked for by your manager. You need a written copy of the final objectives to send to your manager and refer to as you work towards meeting your objectives. If this is not written down and shared, then there is a danger of the goalpost moving because you both had different recollections of your final objectives and goals. So there you have five tried and tested stats to preparing for setting objectives with your manager and five tips on how to run and manage the meeting to get the best outcome for you. Most managers really appreciate their direct reports doing most of the heavy lifting when coming up with good measurable objectives that align to their own. This gives you a great way to take the driving seat and get objectives that work for you too. And if you like this video, please hit the thumbs up button below and subscribe. And if you have any questions or suggestions, please leave them in the comment below. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for watching and I look forward to seeing you again soon.