Q: We’ve been having trouble with goals at my workplace. Given the economy, our salespeople aren’t hitting many of the goals we set for them at the beginning of the year. While we don’t want to reward them for failure, we also want to acknowledge that their shortfalls are understandable.  How can we keep people motivated when their goals seem out of reach?

A: You’re certainly not alone in wondering about this. While setting goals has become a standard motivating and measuring technique for all kinds of employees, not just salespeople, there is also a growing backlash to the most rigid types of goals.

The main problem comes when you treat goals like they’re carved in stone. As described above, say you had originally set high but achievable goals for your staff. As the business climate has changed, they’re looking more and more unreachable. No one gets bonuses and morale goes into a tailspin.

Your best bet is to reset your goals. Like companies that do “reforecasts” to adjust their budgets throughout the year, take a look at your current path and adjust the goals to keep people engaged. Major companies are doing it and you could, too.

Consider switching to other types of goals. Instead of pure revenue numbers, set goals based on retention, new customer conversations, or learning new sales strategies.

Getting goals right: it’s about attitude

Changing economic situations aren’t the only problem with goals, though. The Ideas section of the Boston Globe ran a great look at goals and how they can backfire a while back. They describe the history of goals as a corporate mantra, from successes at GE and Southwest Airlines to failures at GM and Ford.

Part of the key seems to lie in how goals are treated, rather than the goals themselves. If the goals become the be-all-end-all for a department or a company, it’s easy to lose site of the big picture: you wind up with the Ford Pinto, or the Enron situation. Especially in hard times, it’s up to corporate leadership to make sure employees are working for long-term interests rather than short-term victories.

And as Matt at 37 Signals points out, goals can also blind you to new opportunities. Too many goals keep people from innovating or re-imagining their work.  An example from Cindy Alvarez — new IBM Thinkpads have a hole in the bottom, just in case you spill liquid on them. Think that was some designer’s goal? Unlikely. Instead, it’s the result of a motivated employee thinking creatively.

What’s your take on goals?

What do you do at your company? Strict goals, overall corporate goals, individual goals? How do they work? Share your stories below.