Defining goals for the role

In last week’s post, I started writing about considerations for having the right people in the right roles, whether in senior management team roles, individual contributor roles, or for running specific projects. This applies to venture capital, as well as technology and law, sales and marketing, product management and development, and strategic consulting services.

The first thing I suggested was:
Very clearly define the results you expect from the role in the next 3, 6, 9, 12 months, and determine how much risk you’re willing to tolerate with those results. That is, are you okay if the results are missed to some degree, and to what degree?

Seems straightforward, but it’s not. I’ll illustrate the complications with a story.

I have seen a senior manager define a clear goal of getting a software product to a certain stage within 12 months (so far so good), and then appoint someone with very limited experience but high potential in charge of getting that product out.

Now, this decision was perceived as “taking a chance” on the individual, and setting high expectations. In reality, it was a decision that “took a chance” on the product goal, since there was a very high risk that the goal wouldn’t be met, given lack of validation of the individual in the role.

If the senior manager viewed the product goal as a nice to have, but not critical, and thought if we get 30% of the way there, the resource investment is worth it, then this decision may have made complete sense. And there are such reasonable goals and risk tolerances out there.

If the senior manager viewed the product goal as critical, and needed to get 100% there by the end of the year to justify investment, then taking a risk on the junior product manager made absolutely no sense and created potential for disastrous consequences for the product, the project manager, and the senior manager, which is pretty much what happened in this situation.

I recently saw the exact same thing happen in a sales organization, where a “young manager with lots of potential” was put into a critical role, without regard for how much risk was tolerated on the sales goal (not much, it turned out).

So in defining goals for the role you’re looking to fill, understanding the risk and variation tolerance around meeting that goal is key, as it has significant ramifications on your staffing decisions.