Instructor Spotlight: Dan Howell, PE

At School of PE, we employ multiple instructors to teach the material in their areas of expertise-this sets us apart from our competitors. We have received a great deal of positive feedback from our students, and we believe that learning from experts in their respective areas provides the most comprehensive learning experience.

Our Instructor Spotlight series gives you a peek behind the scenes with some of School of PE's highly acclaimed instructors. Read on to find out more about our very own Dan Howell.

Author Bio:

Dr. Howell has a BS, MS, and PhD in Civil Engineering with a Structural Engineering focus. He has been practicing structural engineering for over 16 years, which includes nine years of teaching experience. At School of PE, Dr. Howell has proven experience in teaching Seismic and Structures.

What is your best advice for someone seeking their FE/PE licensure?

Licensure is an industry-accepted measure of your ability as a responsible engineer to sign and seal construction plans. In addition, it provides you, as an individual, with future marketability to add to your list of advancing skill sets for current or future employment. It is a critical step in your growth as an engineer.

What is the best way to prepare for the PE exam?

For the PE Civil exam, there are many avenues to investigate when initially looking at the available subject matter, which can be somewhat overwhelming. Narrowing down what is important to study is the benefit of a review course.

What is the most important skill for an engineer to have?

In my experience, the most successful engineers are those who are detail-oriented when it comes to calculations and general housekeeping. In addition, engineers with a construction background benefit from looking beyond the equations in the various codes and into what it takes to actually construct a project.

What are the biggest challenges with obtaining FE/PE licensure?

As noted, there is a large amount of material that goes into each exam, and preparing for each potential topic can be overwhelming. Also, some engineers are just not natural test takers, which can be a hindrance when approaching the exam. Repeat test takers also bear the burden of preparing for an exam that takes months out of your schedule in hopes of passing on the next round. It can be an emotional rollercoaster in addition to the technical challenges of solving problems.

What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone starting out in your career?

Be an active listener as you start your career, and don't be afraid to ask questions. I have been a part of companies that provided a welcoming open-door policy for questions and discussions of topics/code interpretation and some that have been very poor. Having an open management that is willing to take the time to invest in your development is crucial for your growth in the first few years of your career.

How do you make sure to stay up to date on skills and technology?

Attending conferences and webinars are the best options to not only keep your licensure current based on continuing education credits but also to stay current on the latest technologies. Conferences also play a role in establishing working relationships with other engineers/consultants/owners that are invaluable for future projects.

What attracted you to structural engineering?

I was always drawn to topics that were technically driven, and I was always interested in advanced mathematics. I enjoy the challenge of an engineering project as well as managing multiple projects at one time; each one is different and presents unique challenges that may include budget, product availability, or contractor preference.

What was your favorite engineering project?

I was fortunate to be part of an inspection team for a large civil engineering project that crossed a bay subjected to tidal movements that included several tunnels, man-made islands with facilities, and several miles of approach bridges. It was interesting to view design decisions that held up well over decades of use while others could have been approached differently for the longevity of the facility. That is not something that is taught well at the university level. Thus, real-world experience was invaluable.

What is the best thing about being a structural engineer?

You view things through a different lens when exploring the world around you. You may inquire about how a specific structure was built or designed to take specific loads or simply admire complex projects that were completed in difficult-to-build locations.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment during your career as a professional engineer?

I have worked both as a consulting engineer in the private sector as well as for public entities, which gave me a well-rounded view as an owner and as an engineer working for the owner.

What is something people might be surprised to know about you?

I love the outdoors and exploring nature. My favorite time of year is fall, when the leaves change colors, and you are on a trail just listening to the birds and animals around you. It is easy to stop and smell the roses - so to speak.

What was your most challenging engineering project?

I was the lead designer for a trail project that traversed a large river, which included attaching the trail to an existing truss bridge. The project had several stakeholders with options for three different path widths depending on the material used. The narrowest path was the heaviest with concrete construction; the middle width was a stiffened steel plate option, while the widest path utilized fiber-reinforced plastic due to the lighter material. It was challenging from a technical aspect to attach the path to the bridge as well as accommodate three different materials/widths. Ultimately, the wider FRP option was the cheapest to build and ultimately got built.

If you could go back and give your 18-year-old self some professional advice, what would it be?

Licensure and what impact it has on future job prospects are integrally linked. I was fortunate to obtain work out of college for a consulting firm that provided a good knowledge base. However, the company was structured such that younger engineers were not exposed much to real-world design. I would advise my younger self to chart a career arc that included several potential employers as experience and to think outside the box in terms of where you could work in the world. Structural engineering is in demand throughout the world; thus, thinking of destinations not normally encountered would be a great adventure.

What is the most important lesson you've learned in your career?

Engineers provide solutions for the world to function and prosper in a time of dwindling resources and funding. Often, engineers are tasked with doing more with less. I have learned to be a proponent of the profession to espouse its benefits for future generations as well as educate the general public about how engineers positively change their lives for the better.

What is the most rewarding thing about being an instructor for School of PE?

Teaching requires an extensive knowledge base of the subject matter due to questions that could be well outside of the written study material. I enjoy providing answers to questions that are unique to the subject matter, as well as taking a measured approach to general exam preparation and exam execution that maximizes time spent on problems.

What is your approach to teaching exam prep?

I include as many real-world scenarios and visual representations as possible to reinforce concepts in the exam - mainly because it is easier to recall an object or picture versus written text in the exam. I also place myself in the shoes of the student for any questions that I come across during the session. In that regard, I address questions as they are received to keep the flow of information moving throughout each class.

Why would you recommend taking an exam review course to prepare for the FE/PE exam?

There are many advantages to taking a review course. One is that there is a specific timeframe that you must block off in order to attend a class. This is somewhat more difficult for the Ondemand versions of the subjects as they are paced with the student's availability. For the live classes, this also lets you interact with a live instructor; thus, getting any questions you may have answered at that time is a great addition. Lastly, review courses narrow down the potential subject matter into topics that have a higher probability of being on the exam versus getting lost in subjects/topics that may not appear.

Effective Time Management During Exam Review Courses: Balancing Preparation and Work

Exams are daunting. Oftentimes, they define a person's career. It can change the trajectory of where they're going and give them the green light to their dreams or stop them in their tracks. Taking an exam is pivotal. The emphasis that people often put on these exams is great, and more often than not, put too heavily on the actual exam and not enough on the preparation portion. Preparing for an exam takes time, energy, and a new level of productivity that people don't know how to manage.

Productivity itself is a rather controversial term right now. That's not to say that being productive is bad, but oftentimes, it's too closely conflated with overachieving, burnt-out individuals who end up binging on their favorite Netflix show by day 4 of their shiny new routine. That's because they're not trying to figure out what works for them individually. Instead, they're taking the exact principles of what works for a different person and trying to fit their lives and their tasks into that idealized version of what they think they should be.

Time management isn't a skill that can be picked up as easily as holding a paintbrush. Instead, creating a masterpiece of balance takes time and intentional effort. Moving forward, we'll discuss strategies that work so you can create a time management plan that helps you balance your exam review course and work simultaneously in a way that won't lead to devastation, frustration, and burnout.

Effective Time Management: Strategies that Work

In order to figure out what works for you in this period of your life, it's important to look at all the facets of your life and personality in order to balance preparation for exams and work. Here are some strategies you can implement as you move into this new period of life.

1. Conduct an audit on your time. Your time is yours to do as you wish. The running theme in life is that we don't have time for anything. That's not true. Our time belongs to us. It's up to us to determine the time we have available for different things, such as work, play, personal edification, family, etc. Using a calendar, write down what you do with your days. If you have a large block of time that's specific to work, then block that off with a marker, but only the time actually spent at work. This will look different for everybody since remote and freelance work is becoming increasingly popular. For instance, where a 9-5 job is pretty standardized, a remote worker can work in chunks throughout the day.

From there, block out any classes or family time you know can't be changed. As you work through this, you'll be able to see sections of time open up that you can fit your studying into.

2. Determine the most and least important tasks. Use something like the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize your to-do list. The Eisenhower Matrix helps you define the most important work that needs to get done by determining what's urgent and important, allowing you to put those at the top of the list. For instance, a project with a rapidly approaching deadline would be both urgent and important, requiring it to be done first.

3. Work in time batches with set goals for the batch. Combine these first two concepts to determine which task goes where based on its importance and urgency. The Pomodoro method works well for making sure that you use your time efficiently. Attach a specific goal to the time you've allotted. For instance, working through a video and its accompanying worksheets could be considered one goal. By assigning a goal to your time chunks and sticking to the plan, you'll be able to see how long the entire course will take you and reliably complete the course along with all of your regular workload.

4. Focus on one goal for one batch. Be careful not to over-assign your task blocks. By making sure you focus only on what you can complete in, say, a 30-minute time block, you eliminate the tendency to overbook yourself and set yourself up for failure. Unless you know that you can definitely complete more than one, keep it simple.

5. Find an effective way to track your goals and outcomes. Time management is only as good as your system of tracking. Notion, Google Calendar, and a notepad are all valid and effective ways to track your goals and tasks. You just need to find one that works for you. Heart Breathings, a YouTube channel focused on productivity and living your ideal life, has the HB90 method of tracking and managing tasks on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis and is a good place to start.

6. Reward yourself. For highly productive people, one of the most satisfying parts of completing something is marking it off of a list, whether it's physical, digital, mental, or a combination of all three. Find a way that's satisfying for you that shows your progress and helps keep up that forward momentum. Studying for these types of exams is grueling and tends to be a major stressor for most people. When you complete a larger goal, such as a section of the review, or make it through the week alive, reward yourself with a walk, an ice cream, or something indulgent that feels like a prize. This helps with internal and external motivation.

7. Block out distractions. Studying takes a lot of concentration. It takes a person an average of 20 minutes to hit that "flow state" of concentration, and that's really only if there is little to no distraction. This doesn't happen very well when kids are running around, construction is happening in the apartment beside you, or a cell phone is within reach. When you know it's time to study, find a quiet place, whether it's a library, a cafe, or a corner in the closet; make sure you're set up right. Realistically, make sure your physical space is clear of garbage and clutter, and use an app like Flora. This app keeps your phone busy growing a tree. If you close the app, the tree dies, and that mostly makes people sad enough to leave their phones alone for a while.

8. Prioritize your health. Listen. Junk food may have been all the rage for study food in college, but you're older now. Put away the Doritos and Red Bull and drink some water instead. Stretch. The better you feed your body, the better you'll be able to focus, the longer you'll be able to sit in a chair happily studying, and the more you'll absorb the information you're looking for.

9. Avoid burnout at all costs. Burnout is the stage of doing anything for so long that your emotional well has run dry, and you have nothing left to give. Sometimes, it can last a few days, sometimes a few weeks, or months. If there's anything you don't have time for, this is it. So, returning to the last point, feed your body well, stretch, and exercise, but also find things that refill that well of energy you need. Refocus on your goal. Find more ways to motivate you internally so you can feel that desire to study. Balancing work and exam review is difficult enough when you're feeling well, but the work still has to get done when you don't.

10. Learn to increase your attention span. We have a major problem with being able to focus on anything for more than a minute. In fact, if something doesn't catch our attention in the first five seconds, we're likely to scroll right past it. Sure, we might give it up to fifteen seconds, but if it's not adding value to our existence, then we don't want it. However, this is an area we can't afford to have fifteen-second attention spans. Find focus music to help, practice meditation, and don't let yourself be a distraction.

11. Develop a support system. Find people to lean on. This can be parents, friends, a spouse, or that weird lady down the hall who always says hello. If you have people who know what you're trying to accomplish, you're more likely to do the work than let it fall by the wayside. A support system isn't only there to catch you when you fall. It's there to keep you from falling in the first place.

Time management isn't a skill you can master in a day, week, or even a year. It's an ongoing process that leads to massive success. By learning how to manage your time effectively in a way that works for you, you'll be able to manage the changing state of your work life and balance your exam review course masterfully.

Time management is especially important during an engineering, project management, or architecture exam prep course. Check out School of PE's courses today to learn more about how we can help you take your career to the next level!

About the Author: Anna Taylor

Anna Taylor is a freelance writer and avid researcher- a jack of all trades, but a master of none. She graduated from the University of Hawai'i with an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts because she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. She has since found her love of Extended Reality and the possibilities it brings to the world, as well as gardening, cooking, and writing. Anna lives in Interior Alaska with her family.

Building Resilience: Strategies for Overcoming Stress as a Team

Stress can make or break a team. In most cases, teamwork is the only way that organizations thrive. It can be difficult to manage your own stress, let alone be responsible for an entire team. However, it's important to learn techniques to manage stress in order to build a resilient team that withstands adverse situations within an organization. Work in corporate environments is often demanding and complex, and the situations that workers find themselves in can often lead to burnout from high-pressure situations. For this reason, it's important to have strategies for overcoming stress as a team, as well as on an individual level.

Let's talk about the importance of resilience, the purpose of stress, and how to overcome stress as a team in a way that builds resilience.

In this Blog,

1. Why is Resilience so Important?

2. The Purpose of Stress

3. The Qualities of a Resilient Team

4. Strategies and Exercises for Overcoming Stress and Building a Resilient Team

Why is Resilience so Important?

What does it mean to be resilient? A simple definition is the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties.

Resilience as an Individual- As an individual, you'll face situations on a daily basis that test your resolve and try to change who you are-as well as your goals and values. These situations can be large or small and can have a great impact on your life. Being resilient and facing stressful situations in a way that leaves you not necessarily unchanged but better than before is a quality that every employer looks for. It's the answer to the "How do you handle stressful situations?" question.

Resilience as a Team- As a team, you'll deal every day with people who are there to test you. You'll be given goals to work towards and tasks to complete that won't be easy. (If they were easy, they wouldn't have been delegated to your team). Finding a way to work together and reach that goal without splitting up the team will go a long way in the longevity of a company.

Resilience as an Organization- This permeates the structure of the entire company. Hiring resilient team members will enable the company to be more forward-thinking, plan for negative interactions, and bounce back from adverse conditions.

The Purpose of Stress

When we talk about resilience, it's usually in conjunction with dealing with large amounts of stress, which is a simple fact of everyday life in business and at home. Resilience is the way that we respond to stress and the ultimate outcome.

It's important to understand here that stress isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Pain Doctor's article on stress states that the purpose of stress is an evolutionary response where "the body senses an event that requires an additional burst of instinctive action, adrenaline, and cortisone in increased quantities."

When we say something like, "I'm stressed," or, "That was stressful," it usually comes as a consequence of a situation that requires a higher level of these chemicals. Our fight or flight response is tied to them, and, as a perfect example in a work scenario, the addition of adrenaline in conferences, meetings, and lectures helps the team members think on the spot in order to come up with a rapid-fire, correct response.

Not all stressful situations are negative, and the addition of these chemicals is not always a bad thing. Rather, they can play a vital role in facilitating steps that can make or break a deal. Building resilience and the way we deal with the stress of a situation is what can affect the end result.

The Qualities of a Resilient Team

A team is a group of people that work together toward a common goal. For a team to work, they need to practice qualities like honesty, resourcefulness, compassion, empathy, and humility,

Further, a resilient team believes they can effectively complete tasks together, share a common mental model of team dynamics, improvise, trust one another, and feel safe together.

Strategies and Exercises for Overcoming Stress and Building a Resilient Team

But how do you build resilience? How do you prepare your team to handle the stressful situations that they'll be part of every day? How do you teach them to go with the punches and learn how to deal with the unforeseen complications that throw you for a loop? Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The Benefits of Stress- Realize the benefits of stress. And not just that, stress isn't as negative as it seems. Besides the internal chemical reactions that occur in high-stress scenarios, there are many benefits of the act of learning how to deal with it. Stress forces us to think rapidly. It creates a sense of urgency that allows us to eliminate the overthinking aspect of life that holds so many people back. Stress helps us learn lessons we might not have otherwise learned and produce solutions that we might not have otherwise found.
• Find Your Purpose- One important aspect of staying resilient as a team is to know your purpose. Why were you brought together in the first place? Knowing that, having a clear goal in mind, reasons why the team needs to stick together, and aligning each person's purpose can help the team withstand the stress that will inevitably arise.
• Acts of Kindness- Just because work is stressful and you're having a hard time managing all of the responsibilities doesn't mean that compassion needs to leave the room. It's important to practice acts of kindness to show your appreciation for the team, which will, in turn, give members an added boost of confidence and appreciation for each other.
• Find Gratitude- Find things to be grateful for. In line with practicing regular acts of kindness, gratitude goes a long way in boosting morale. It can change the attitude of someone having a bad day and make the day just a little better.
• Find Focus- In some situations, thinking clearly can be very difficult. With deadline after deadline, there are a million tasks to mark off the list and dozens of people to keep track of. When something crops up that throws the team out of balance, the vision becomes cloudy. Step back, take a breath, and look at the bigger picture. Find where you are and what your goal is, and find the next step to take that leads you to that goal. Eliminate or delegate everything that doesn't help the team reach that goal.
• Be Mindful and Practice Compassion- Everybody on your team comes from a different background with different life experiences, which can be a huge benefit to the organization. Your team offers unique perspectives that it would otherwise not have. That being said, there are things in their personal life they may not be able to talk about but will affect the level of work they can get done. It's important to gauge the situation in terms of how well they'll be able to work and who might be able to take over certain tasks. Finding focus as a team is difficult. Finding focus as an individual can be even harder. Help team members refocus on the greater goal and eliminate distractions in the workplace whenever possible.
• Model Acceptable Behavior in Stressful Situations- As a team leader, it's your responsibility to be an example of acceptable behavior. Your team is always watching, waiting for you to make a move so they'll know what they should do. This is especially important in stressful situations. Modeling the behavior that you'd like to see and is acceptable for the workplace will teach the team how they should respond to these situations. The word "respond" is especially important. Respond to the situation. Don't react to it.

Another definition of resilience is the ability of a substance to spring back into shape, referring to its elasticity. Not only will building a resilient team create longevity for a company and individual, but the added benefit of being able to spring back from being stretched thin can be attributed directly to maintaining a healthy team dynamic. Building resilience is an integral part of creating an effective and efficient team that will withstand the everyday pressures of work and increase the longevity of the organization as a whole.

Boost your team's skillset and resilience when you partner with School of PE for professional development training. Check out our website today to learn more!

About the Author: Anna Taylor

Anna Taylor is a freelance writer and avid researcher- a jack of all trades, but a master of none. She graduated from the University of Hawai'i with an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts because she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. She has since found her love of Extended Reality and the possibilities it brings to the world, as well as gardening, cooking, and writing. Anna lives in Interior Alaska with her family.

Creating a Culture of Accountability: Driving Team Performance

Working as a team within an organization is a standard for companies seeking to reach goals and drive business success. It only works if every team member takes responsibility for their own progress. A team with zero accountability has members consistently showing up to meetings ten minutes late, missing deadlines as the norm, with one misstep turning into many.

Creating a culture of accountability is not difficult, though it is time-consuming in the beginning. However, when the process has been streamlined within your company, each person is accountable for themselves and the work they do, and personal accountability drives team performance.

In this post, we'll discuss the culture of accountability and what it looks like, how to create a culture of accountability within your workplace, and how to improve accountability through performance reviews.

In this Blog,

1. What Does a Culture of Accountability Look Like?

2. How to Create a Culture of Accountability in Your Workplace

3. Accountability Through Performance Review

What Does a Culture of Accountability Look Like?

Merriam-Webster defines accountability as an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or account for one's actions. So, accountability in the workplace looks like taking responsibility for the tasks that have been given to you, as well as your own personal responsibility for your actions, such as missing deadlines or treating others with respect. Accountability in the workplace can:

• Increase Trust- When each individual is responsible for their own work and proves their willingness to cooperate, trust within the team grows because other team members recognize when an individual is stepping up. They know they can count on each other to get the job done well.

• Improve Quality of Work- When people take responsibility for their work and recognize that it's their name listed, they understand the value of doing a job well. Accountability improves the quality of work overall.

• Boost Employee Morale- When people aren't accountable, it comes down to others who are not directly responsible for the task, leading to feelings of resentment and frustration within groups. However, when each person shows up, does the work, does it well, and proves that they can handle it, it takes the pressure off of others in the team by showing them that all they have to focus on is tasks they're directly responsible for. This leads to a much more positive workplace culture.

• Foster Creativity- When people are happy and not stressed or overwhelmed, creativity flourishes. This enables your team to redefine productivity and progress as a whole and bring collaboration to a whole new level.

• Increase Productivity- Productivity is a tricky sliding scale. One person's productivity can be another's burnout, and still another's easy mode. When allowed to decide for themselves what productivity looks like, team members will reach and usually exceed their own expectations. Improved accountability in a team dynamic allows each individual to figure out where the line is, what they're capable of, and take responsibility for what they can.

How to Create a Culture of Accountability in Your Workplace

Accountability is a skill that anybody can learn. It's a muscle that must be flexed, tested, and grown, but most people can't do it on their own. In order to learn the skill, you must determine that something is wrong in the first place. Here are a few steps that you can take to encourage accountability in your team.

• Lead by Example. This is a real big one, so we'll put it first. If your team is showing up late for meetings, coming in to work ill-prepared, and overall, not meeting deadlines or passing off their tasks to others in the team, first look at yourself. Have you allowed this sort of behavior? Have you participated in this behavior yourself? If you have, stop now.

• Define Expectations. If this sort of behavior has become the norm and you want to reestablish a routine and culture of accountability, set your expectations. Decide what's acceptable behavior and what's not and emulate that behavior. Be on time with your work completed and provide your own perspective and solutions to the pot in team meetings.

• Effectively Communicate Consequences. Reestablishing accountability is easier when there are clear expectations and specific consequences. If they're late, they don't get to participate in the meeting. If they don't reach a deadline, establish a suitable consequence. This communicates that their actions have direct consequences and that continuing negative behavior is not tolerated.

• Set Attainable Goals. Stretching a person's abilities before they're ready can lead to unfortunate setbacks. In order to avoid this, set goals that are reasonably reachable within a given time frame. Moreover, be specific in deadlines, desired outcomes, and consequences of failure. A good goal is measurable, definable, and reachable.

• Monitor Progress with an Accountability Framework. A Gallup study found that 50% of employees don't know specifically what's expected of them. How can a team be accountable for their work if they're unsure what you expect of them? Use an accountability framework like the RACI Matrix, which is a simple, streamlined way to define roles and responsibilities within a team.

• Encourage Commitment to Work. Encourage your team to do their best, to commit to the team and the work you're doing by aligning their individual goals to that of the team and the organization.

• Make it a Habit. Like anything else, accountability is a muscle that needs to be trained in order to perform better. Take small steps every day to cultivate that habit within your team and yourself.

• Take Responsibility for Mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes; no one is exempt from it. When it happens, don't sweep it under the rug. Be accountable for your actions. Most people have a hard time with this facet of accountability, especially when there's a lot at stake. However, by taking responsibility, you're showing your team that nobody is infallible and proving that coming forward with mistakes is the best way to get back on track. After all, no problem can be fixed unless it's made aware of.

• Encourage Positive Feedback. Feedback is a critical part of learning the skill of accountability, though most people struggle heavily with both giving and receiving. The giver often gives non-constructive feedback, and the receiver struggles to not take it personally. However, in order to develop a culture of accountability, feedback is necessary. Get good at it and encourage positive feedback to develop good working relationships.

Accountability Through Performance Review

In the workplace, accountability is a team effort. By defining expectations for your team and developing a system that encourages them to take responsibility for their individual role within the team, you're creating a culture of accountability. But one place within the team structure that has a bad reputation is the performance review, and that's because it's not done with the right intention.

For instance, the defining feature of a review that most individuals leave with is a number evaluation that gives a score of one to a billion of how horribly they've done. But that doesn't help in any positive way. Instead, they leave focusing on a number instead of ways that help make a positive change.

Ron Carucci, in his article "How to Actually Encourage Employee Accountability," lays down a foundational method for providing feedback within these reviews that makes them more efficient.

• Make Dignity the Foundation. We are hardwired to be influenced by others, and so our opinion of ourselves can be highly affected by what others say. By making dignity the foundation, connections deepen, and the quality of feedback and learning increases. Questions like "What did you learn this month?" prove far better because it allows the employee to self-reflect and create their own review of themselves.

• Focus on Fairness. When accountability systems are seen as fair, people are more likely to be honest, act fairly towards their team, and align their goals with the organization, instead of focusing on their self-interest. Carucci states, "Our accountability systems have painfully confused sameness with fairness..." in order to avoid negative repercussions for the company. However, that's the exact mentality that makes them unfair.

• Make Restoration, Not Blame the Goal. A big reason behind the harshness of performance reviews is that team members often leave meetings feeling shamed about their perceived shortcomings. However, when we allow ourselves to really learn from mistakes and not use blame as a learning tactic, we'll find that individuals are far more likely to accept responsibility for their shortcomings.

Accountability is not complicated. It doesn't require extensive knowledge but can be seen as quite an abstract concept. However, by defining the term and creating a process to help restore personal accountability within a team, you can develop a highly productive process of driving team performance in a way that encourages responsibility.

Take accountability for your team's professional training and development with School of PE! We have a wide variety of engineering, project management, and architecture exam prep courses available-learn more today.

About the Author: Anna Taylor

Anna Taylor is a freelance writer and avid researcher- a jack of all trades, but a master of none. She graduated from the University of Hawai'i with an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts because she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. She has since found her love of Extended Reality and the possibilities it brings to the world, as well as gardening, cooking, and writing. Anna lives in Interior Alaska with her family.

Effective Goal Setting: Aligning Team Objectives for Achievement

Every organization should understand the importance of setting and understanding their goals, however, only 50% of top-level managers can name their company's top three goals. This is even after being given up to five attempts to recall them. With such a great emphasis on the outcome of a business, it's a wonder why this number is so high. For many businesses, goal setting is a large factor in the success or failure of the organization.

In this post, we'll discuss the importance of goals and aligning team objectives, the attributes of effective goals, and how to set and track goals effectively as a team.

In this blog,

1. The Importance of Aligning Team Objectives

2. The Attributes of Effective Goals

3. How to Set and Track Effective Team Goals

The Importance of Aligning Team Objectives

As was stated, setting goals is important to the success of an organization. Goals give us something to shoot for, a direction to set the map to. It's infinitely harder to set goals as a team, because instead of one persons' goals, you're dealing with several people all at once. It can be so complicated that you'll want to let them go in their own direction and decide for themselves what to do and how to get there. That will only lead to disaster. Instead, if you align your team objectives and create shared goals, you'll feed into the desire to have one person's success become the team's success. Aligning team objectives will help in these areas.

• Understanding of Long-Term Strategy- Creating a shared goal will help the team understand the ultimate goal of the company. By creating goals together, you're developing a strategy with them that will help with the understanding of the big picture strategy of the company.
  
• Connect Strategic Goals to Specific Tasks- Breaking down the larger goal into smaller, more specific tasks enables you to give the tasks to the individual that the task is most appropriate for, making them the directly responsible individual (DRI). This frees up the time of other team members to get done what they're responsible for instead of piling it all onto one person's plate.
• Understanding the Directly Responsible Individual- Speaking of the directly responsible individual, if you're not capitalizing on each person's unique skillset and availability of talents then you may not get the most out of their position within your team. Breaking down goals to fit the person will help develop a strategy that enables you to fit tasks to team members.
• Obtain Authorization from Leaders- Having a clear set of goals and an action plan to reach those goals helps create appealing propositions that will grant you authorization from overseers of the operation. Showing them your preparation and alignment as a team will get you one step closer to a yes.
• Communicate Goals on Every Level- By breaking down goals from the highest part of your organization to the lowest individual will help create a clear understanding of the goals on each level of the ladder. This ensures that each person is able to complete the job in the most satisfactory way and create a direct line of accountability for their own job.
• Connects the Individual's Goals to the Broader Goals of the Business- Think of the team dynamic as the connector piece between an individual and the organization as a whole. Sometimes it's difficult to comprehend the overall goals of the business in terms that can easily be broken down into tasks. However, the team leader creates a funnel piece that those broader goals are pushed through, making it easier to digest.
• Accountability to Each Other Empowers You to Act- Accountability plays a huge part in the success of an individual. Writing goals down and telling others about them creates this sort of pressure for the person to complete tasks that ultimately get them to where they want to be. Being accountable to others who are not only reaching for the same goals as you, but whose success also depends on you empowers them to act, even when it's difficult.

The Attributes of Effective Goals

It's not enough to have a goal. In fact, not every idea becomes a goal, even though it seems that way. We intuitively start to break down a goal into tasks as a way for us to reach them, but even still, the goal can be unfocused and, as a result, unobtainable. In order for a goal to be an effective one, it must be SMART.

• Specific and focused- It's not enough to want something. Or to say you're going to do something. A quality of effective goal setting is how specific can you make the goal? Can you break the goal down into actionable tasks?
• Measurable outcomes with a time frame- Do you have a deadline to complete the tasks by? Do you know to what degree you should have met the goal? It can be measured in monetary increments, by time, or its quantity outcome.
• Achievable with your individual capabilities, or with the help of others- Goals are meant to stretch you and test your abilities. It should be difficult, a challenge. No matter how challenging, you should still be able to reasonably be able to complete the goal by yourself or with the help of your team. It should straddle the line of difficult, but doable.
• Relevant to you based upon your needs and capabilities- How is the goal relevant to you? How does it relate to the organization? Context is crucial in setting and achieving goals. Why are you setting the goal you're setting? Does it relate to the overall business or team goal? If it's not, it's not effective.
• Time based- Your goal needs a reasonable deadline. If there's no deadline, you won't have the desired drive necessary to complete the goal. Without one, there really is no goal. It's just a statement of desire, and that's not going to drive you towards your overall life, career, or organizational goals.

Example of a goal: I want to write a book this year.

Example of a SMART goal: I want to write a book on effective goal setting by the end of the year and will do so by outlining the concept and breaking down the chapters into individual sections to be written every night before bed.

While the first example is possible, there's nothing specific or measurable about it. This last example is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time based.

How to Set and Track Effective Team Goals

1. Determine that your goals align with the organization's goals. Look at the overall purpose of the organization, paying specific attention to what needs to be done to reach those goals. Think of the team's goals as broken down tasks of the organization. Each task can still be defined as a goal, especially where the team is concerned, but they are broken down to be more easily completed by the team.

2. Analyze your goals using the SMART system. Have you set SMART goals? SMART goals are not only a better way of creating goals. They also help organize the goal into categories and are more easily broken down into tasks that can be completed by the DRI. Check that your goals mark off each attribute of a SMART goal.

3. Determine the highest priority goals and assign them to responsible team members. Prioritization comes down to two things, a deadline, and its level of importance in the process of checking off tasks from your list. The highest priority goes first to the deadline, only to be passed by any tasks that that deadline is contingent upon. If the final task has a series of smaller tasks that lead up to it, then those smaller tasks take a higher priority.

4. List the team's goal with the individual's tasks somewhere like Notion, Google, Slack, or another communication calendar. Writing down goals and tasks helps to keep each team member on track for success by helping the DRI stay accountable to themselves, as well as the team. It also helps to see at what stage each task is at so anybody working on tasks that can only be completed at a specific part of the process can keep track of the progress.

5. Review overall team performance and provide regular feedback for improvement. Even goals that have not been met completely are an opportunity for further improvement. For instance, you can take a look at what parts of the process worked and what didn't. Even something like the length of time given to the goal period can provide valuable information. Maybe the team underestimated the time necessary for the given task? Maybe they overestimated the time and so felt unmotivated and were underachieving as a result.

In order to properly align team objectives with the individual and the organization, it's important to take a look at what makes an effective goal, and how to properly apply that goal setting strategy to a team setting. By setting SMART goals, writing them down, and finding an effective way to track them, you'll prove successful in creating a productive team that drives success.

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About the Author: Anna Taylor

Anna Taylor is a freelance writer and avid researcher- a jack of all trades, but a master of none. She graduated from the University of Hawai'i with an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts because she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. She has since found her love of Extended Reality and the possibilities it brings to the world, as well as gardening, cooking, and writing. Anna lives in Interior Alaska with her family.