I prefer both. I like to set top-down goals for general business sales. THen bottom up for me personally.
Christopher,
yes, this is a good approach & it works well when we know the top level goals.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
As director of an educational program in one campus of a multi-campus corporate owned school, I believe that top down goal setting method best fits in achieving overall goals of the company. More importantly, since company goals change on a frequent basis, my team feels that my establishing goals and assigning tasks eases the process when goals must be changed mid-stream. Thus I am able to keep the team motivated toward achieving goals in an everchanging environment.
Lynn,
this is a great illustration of finding the right fit for each situation & how you can help ease the process somewhat for your team.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I have used the SMART system for several years now and I find that it is the most straight forward results a person could ask for. I have tried to skip a part or to only to go back and pick it up again.
Details are Details and you just can't skip over them. Especially if you want to grow a business.
We do use top down and bottom up when it is called for. When a lot of folks think they are self starters and demonstrate differently top down is better. I do prefer the bottom up self motivated and fast learner.
I prefer bottom up goal setting. If the people who are to carry out the plan have not been involved in the planning they will not work very hard to achieve the plan. They must have full buy in and there is no better way then setting the goals, or most of them, themselves.
In education and teaching both goal settings can serve an institute quite well. A top down goal setting calls for the Dean/Chairman to determine general goals which the faculty members must meet and achieve them. A bottom up setting call for the faculty member to be creative and educate themselves on better teaching techniques that will make teaching more challenging and enjoyable for the students.
I would say Bottom-Up since I work with self directed employees. Each person has specific job duties and responsibilities and know their jobs well but still need unit and individual goals.
Janet,
yes, in this situation the bottom up goals can be great as long as they know the direction of the organization as a whole.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Given my personality, my goal setting would be top bottom. Because I am responsible for the department outcome then I would be very involved in our goal setting for the company. Monitoring our process and make sure we are on track. I also like to apply a monitoring process for goal set for my personal life.
