Making goals fun and meaningful

In today's episode, Mattias talks about making goals more fun and why the meaning is so important when talking about goals.

Making goals fun

There are two reasons why Mattias tries to make goals more fun for his team:

1. What's the point of doing anything if it's not fun?
2. Setting the right energy to achieve something.

Mattias has set up iGoMoon for growth in the last months, which obviously resulted in higher costs than before. Right now, there are not enough sales to keep up with the growth which has caused some tension lately.

Especially now, he can see how vital the right energy is. Some months ago, before the Christmas vacation, there was a specific energy around the goals; now, six months later, there's a completely different energy around these same goals. In the end, it's all about meaning, and people often forget about that part when working with SMART goals. They only look at the numbers but don't think about how important the purpose is when reaching goals.

The meaning of goals

To understand this meaning, which after all creates the right energy, it's essential that you, as a leader, inspire your team and make sure that everyone is on board. You might have the entire picture and a clear overview, but you can't expect anything from your team if they don't.

This is also something that Mattias is working on. He's especially improving his communication to make everything as straightforward as possible for everyone and inspire them in the end.

To make goals and achieve those more fun, he and his team came up with some playful ideas:

Every week they give kudos to the person who:
- closed most deals
- has the highest labor utilization rate
- is most engaged on the cultural side and gives most karma to others

They also have the so-called 'marble jar'. It's exactly what you'd think: a glass full of marbles. These marbles could either symbolize money or hours. It's an excellent visual motivator that is connected to different processes-driven goals.

Motivating people

In this context, Mattias talks about how people are motivated by different things. Some people get motivated by the effect of actually reaching a goal. Other people are driven by the different milestones along the way. Others are all about the difference or the meaning they create by reaching their goals.

He emphasizes how important it is to find out what drives your people and not force something onto them that might be motivating for you.

💡 EPISODE TAKE AWAY
Different people are motivated by different things.

How do you make goals fun and meaningful for your employees?