Great point. No matter how attainable or even practical a goal may be, if it is not in alignment with the company's mission then it is unreasonable.
Ryan
Yes, to use unreasonable goals as a means of weeding out employees is truly unethical.
Ryan
A gold must be reasonable and reachable in order for a person to accomplish the goal.
My perception of a reasonable goal is when there is a clear understanding of what is needed, the timeline for it's completion and that all parties involved understand the goal. As an IT person, initial goals are set but have to be re-evaluated as the project/tasks continue. A review of milestones is very important to the successfull completion of a project.
An unreasonable goal is one assigned with no explanation.. just order to be completed. The goal will fail because of poor communication.
A reasonable goal is one aligned with the organizational mission and goals. When these critical components of any organization match, employees can accomplish great outcomes.
Another characteristic of a reasonable goal is the outcome is doable with the resources available. When a goal is given an unrealistic time frame and not enough resources, employees may panic.
Great points & also important for the supervisor/leader to make sure that everyone involved understands how the goal matches the overall mission & vision.
Ryan
Yes, explaining the "why" behind a goal or objective is very important step that is often overlooked.
Ryan
a reasonable goal is one that has the ability to be a achieved and reachable with the person feeling great about what they have achieved. An unreachable goal is one that is nothing more than a dream that the person has no desire to achieve.
Avia,
I think you hit on two important aspects of an unreachable goal. First of all, it may just be a dream that we won't be able to achieve. Dreams are important, but we all have those "dreams" that we know aren't reality. I dream of retiring at 40 to a beautiful ranch in the mountains...Not happening!
The other thing is that a goal may be reachable, but if the person has not desire to achieve that goal (for whatever reason) it essentially becomes unreachable. We cannot want something more for someone than they want for themselves.
Ryan
Goal setting can be dependant on the individual, task or even group. As members of a group focus on a goal; it is essential everyone has a pace and time limit when things need to achieved. Reasonable goals are ones that can be achieved with work. unreasonable goals are ones that are unrealistic and irrelevant to begin with.
The reasonable one for me is when a person wants to make a goal a determinate time, the unreasonable es when a person whants to reach to many goals at a same time and you know that you are not going to be able to make them or reach them
A goal that can be measured. Unreasonable are usually goals that can't be measured or out of reach.
Agreed if a goal can't be measured I would definitely consider it unreasonable. Sometimes you have to get creative in how you measure, don't you think?
Ryan
Yes, the important thing to remember here is that when this happens we are not challenging or pushing people, but we are overwhelming them. Stretch goals are a good idea, but we all have our breaking point & need to remember this.
Ryan
A reasonable goal is something that I believe can be attained where an unreasonable goal is something that cannot be realistically attained.
My perception of a reasonable goal is a goal that I actually have control over acheiving.
Yasmin,
I think you make a great point here & to me the key word is "control." It is very important that we do have the ability & control over achieving our goals because if we don't then they are not really our goals anyway.
Ryan
To become more organized.
What would be your plan to go about accomplishing this goal?
Ryan
Reasonable goals are time-tested, direction-driven and purposely attainable. Unreasonable ones are the opposite: impossible dream.
