My Financial Goals Just Seem Unattainable!

This is by far my favorite subject to discuss, ponder and write about as the goal setting and management process is almost always difficult in several ways. Whether the challenge is in the seeming impossibility of achieving the goals, the measurement system, or the incentive system, odds are that the team is not entirely on board with what Senior Management has trickled down. It is a very hard subject and differing opinions run rampant in this area. You also may have the issue of public versus private entities and shareholder expectations. This paper is not intended to walk the reader through the goal setting and management process but is designed to offer some common sense advice and ideas on how to deal with rigorous financial goals that appear to be unattainable but are necessary.

Goals are set for a reason
Without goals, how can an individual or organization set out to achieve a specific objective and know whether they have succeeded or not? We cannot function in an ambiguous, isolated environment with too many unknowns. Businesses are numbers driven and are here for one reason, to make money. Employees are paid for a service and there is a need to measure the output, contribution levels, and performance at all levels. The competition across most industries is fierce. Shareholders have high expectations. Senior management demands results and what is measurable, should be measured. For any organization to reach the next level, goals must be established, measured, and tracked. But they must also be realistic and potentially be attainable.

Why are they so high?
“Well, we performed quite well last year, made all our goals, and received positive input from my superiors”. Low and behold, this year’s goals are released and communicated. They have increased by 50%, contain new metrics never seen before, and coincide with a “new and improved” measurement and tracking system that makes my employees uncomfortable. Well, forward mobility is a must and growth must occur so it is inevitable that this year will bring some challenges versus last year assuming no major changes in the organization, products, market dynamics, strategy, etc. have occurred. Goals set too low and too easy to achieve will result in lazy employees, flat financial performance, dissatisfied shareholders and customers, and the inability to generate incremental profits.

Why do they keep changing throughout the year?
Organizations are dynamic entities subject to constant pressure from all directions. It would be great if goals were set at the beginning of the year and remained static until year-end but that would not be realistic.  Although consistency is important, it is just not entirely practical. The process, even if deemed robust, will be dynamic throughout the year, although the measurement system must be logical, accurate and accepted to employees.  If this in not in place and perfected, the process will be broken from the onset and never be taken seriously by management and employees. It is however a rare occurrence that any organization enters into a new year with a firm strategy, solid goals, and a static plan to achieve them without making some sort of adjustments throughout the year. This is not feasible or practical but the real catch here is to ensure that these dynamics are properly understood, cascaded downwards, accepted and validated. 

How do I communicate the importance to my employees?
It is not enough to cascade goals to my subordinates and expect them to accept them and make changes in the way they personally operate in order to meet them. Goals that have increased in difficulty must be accompanied by changes in the way we do business. Several years in the banking industry have left me perplexed as to the logic that is absent in the goal setting process. I have seen year-over-year more difficult goals being communicated without any modification in the way the organization does business. Does this make any sense? “Here are your goals for this year and oh, by the way, we aren’t going to do anything different than what we did last year in terms of execution”. Think how an employee is going to view this. The employee is left unmotivated, disillusioned, confused and may begin to dismiss the metrics as being unachievable.

So this leaves the challenge of how to work smarter, engage the employees and operate on a different level to accomplish these challenging goals. 

Can I meet them and what if I don’t?
Numerous senior managers and employees are fired every year for failure to meet their goals. Some organizations will eliminate their bottom 10-20% each year to weed out the low performers. I do hope that the organizations that do business this way have a robust goal setting system, accurate tracking system, have properly communicated the process, and have an incentive system in place to reward the high performers. I have witnessed organizations that have none of these and have eliminated employees based on “the numbers”.  I would guess numerous good employees were dismissed and several not-so-good employees remained through this system. But, given this fact, plan versus actual is what we are primarily being judged on, so we must take them very, very seriously and ensure that employees do as well.

Focus and prioritize
Whether your organization operates according to one major metric, such as growth in net income, or several metrics measuring numerous facets of output, focus and prioritization must occur. I firmly believe in taking a systematic approach, dissection of the goals, addressing what can affect and influence success or failure, and the methodology behind achievement of the targeted value. The management process behind goal progression is absolutely imperative in the quest to achieve. Process, process, process!

Attack, dissect, progress, and achieve using the (3) P’s
Personnel, policies, and procedures are the core of effective execution. Does my organization have the right people in the right positions? Do I have policies in place and have I set expectations with my subordinates?  Are processes in place to ensure smooth execution, consistency, ongoing monitoring, and progress towards achievement?  Goals cannot be blindly disseminated to employees with the expectation that they will accept them and “go out” and meet them. This process must be driven by senior management. In addition, it is absolutely imperative that employees are intimately involved in every aspect of the process and are encouraged to provide input and areas for improvement. 

So we finish reading this thinking well isn’t this all so obvious? While common sense tells us that the above concepts must be in place, most firms do not address all the factors and fail to effectively manage the process. The results of this tends to be a mad rush at the end of the fiscal year, dissatisfied employees, the loss of top performers, and organizational performance well below what can be achieved through a systematic, logical, precise process designed to guide us towards those unattainable goals and metrics.


Michael J. Green is CEO & Principal CFO Consultant of BPR Methods, LLC, a firm that specializes in Fractional CFO services to start-ups and small businesses.  Mr. Green has 25+ years of business experience in senior level financial roles as well as a background in banking, operations, marketing/sales, and engineering.. Mr. Green intentionally authors basic, straightforward, no-nonsense papers focusing on thought provoking ideas and concepts that can be applied in virtually an organization. 

Please e-mail BPR Methods at info@bprmethods.com for more information.