One of the most important things you can do to have really great employees is to let them know what you expect them to do and what attitude you expect them to show. Even the best of us all have different ideas about what it means to be doing a great job. Do we think we should:

If employees don’t know what you think makes a great worker, they can’t deliver.

From the very start, tell your employees what you want!

What Do You Want

Be clear with employees about what you want from the very start. If you want someone who enjoys working in a group, make sure you say that in the work description and the job advertisement. Ask about it in the job interview. Talk about it again on the first day of the job.

Say what you want when it comes to attitude. If you want someone who doesn’t complain, tell the person who complains a lot. If you want someone who gets along with other people, tell the person who is always having squabbles with co-workers.

When you see what you do like, let the employee know. If you see someone take extra time with a customer, tell the person how important that is to you. If someone is cheerful on a difficult day, say thank you.

Walk the talk. Show the same attitude you want from your employees. If you want your employees to give great customer service, don’t let yourself complain about irritating customers.

If you want your employees to accept constructive criticism without being defensive, listen carefully when they have something negative to say. Reach your own goals when you say you will. (Some days walking the talk is harder than other days. This is one of the reasons that offices have doors....)

Setting Goals

We all want great employees who get a lot done, do terrific work, and have a terrific attitude. One of the best ways for helping employees achieve this high level of performance is by setting goals with them.

Goals are specific results you are aiming for. A customer service goal for a financial accountant could be to get financial statements to company managers within three business days of the end of the month. A quality goal for a recruitment officer might be to have supervisors rate new employees one point higher on their first performance appraisals than new employees were rated the previous year.

Some tips for setting goals:

Monitoring Goals

When you set the goals, decide how the employee will report progress. You may want written reports from the employee. You may want a verbal report from time to time. You may want the results reported at staff meetings. The only rule is that the reporting needs to be often enough that if something is going wrong -- or really right -- that you can help the employee figure out how to fix the problem or maximize the success.

Right from the start, decide how often you will meet to talk about the goals. Employers always want to set frequent meetings to talk about goals. In reality, they don’t really have time for too many meetings. The meetings get put off and the employee gets discouraged. Meetings scheduled too often also don’t give the employee enough time to get enough done. Time the meetings to fit the goal, your schedule, and the employee’s schedule.

Focus your discussion on achieving results, not assigning blame. If there is a problem, you should understand the facts. From that point on, you need to focus on how to improve the situation (see Coaching). Get the employee’s input on this.

Keep your word about having meetings to follow up on goals. Put these meetings in your calendar and don’t change them. Be there. If you don’t think it is important enough for you to keep a commitment related to these goals, there isn’t any reason for an employee to think the goals are important either. If you absolutely have to change the meeting time, ask to move it to an earlier time rather than a later one. That way, the employee will know you are not putting him or her off.

Click here for a sample form that you can use to help monitor goals.