Team Goal Setting

Free ice breaker activities and team building tools for goal setting can assist leaders to gain the commitment of their employees by connecting with them on a personal level.

Clearly defined goals lay out the vision, the action plan and the tracking system for measuring incremental progress.

Goals should be broken down into short-term, measurable and attainable objectives, each with a set time period attached.

Goals also provide a means for leaders to reward and recognize employees based on their abilities to achieve specific targets.

The following questions can be asked as you proceed with establishing clear and effective SMART goals:

• Does the goal support the overall purpose or mission of the team?
• Is the goal Specific?
• Is the goal Measureable?
• Is the goal Achieveable?
• Is the goal Realistic?
• is the goal Time Sensitive?

Making your goals clear and easy to understand using the above SMART technique will ensure that your goals are fair to your team.

Ice Breaker Activities for Goal Setting

Resume Builder

Purpose of this activity: To provide an ice breaker activity that will help to identify your next project or team leader.

Explanation: This exercise is a fun way to get your people involved in identifying their next team or project leader.

Let’s say you have a new project that you need someone to lead. You have a lot of existing employees who have a high desire to become the new team leader.

Since your team members already know each other, you can be certain that there is already some office politics going on as people begin to jockey for position for the new role.

Your task as the leader is to not only identify the new leader, but also to do it in a way that supports the new leader. The new leader must have credibility in the minds of those that will be working for him or her.

Gather your group together and create ice breaker activities that get everyone involved in defining the key roles and responsibilities of the new prospective leader.

Next, get everyone involved in defining the skills that that are necessary for this new leader to be effective in the role.

What you are doing here is getting your entire group to help define and eventually identify their new leader. By getting the feedback of the group, you are already helping to build valuable credibility for the person who is ultimately selected.

Give everyone a blank resume form. The resume form will have areas that need to be filled in for the following:

• Skills
• Accomplishments
• Leadership Abilities
• Team Building Abilities
• Customer Service Abilities
• Education Requirements

Inform your team that they cannot complete their own form. Instead, they need to talk with various members of their team to discuss and agree on what is needed from the new leader who is selected to head the team.

Each team member, upon completing his or her resume form will hand it in to you to assess. These forms provide great tools for group discussion and also provide insightful information for the leader to analyze as she works through the important process of selecting the new team or project leader.

Once you’ve selected your new team leader, you can make the announcement to the team that in fact THEY selected their new leader via the process of defining the perfect resume for the job.

Details for Results

Purpose of this activity: To engage the team in identifying the smallest details of a project in order to ensure maximum positive impact to the organization.

Explanation: While we often hear very well meaning, yet somewhat negative, thinkers make comments like, “The devil is in the details”, it sounds much more productive to turn this phrase around and state, “Success is in the details”.

When leaders are confronted with an opportunity for action planning for any particular goal or objective, this is a great time to get your team involved in creating a clearly defined plan.

The more detailed the team can be in identifying every key aspect of the task, the more likely they are to succeed.

First take your group through a short exercise by asking them to complete the following:

• Write down your next vacation destination.
• Make a list of tasks that must be completed prior to leaving (booking travel and lodging, arranging for pets, packing, arranging itinerary, planning to be absent from work, etc.)
• Make a list of things that must be planned for during their trip. (meals, activities, childcare, etc.)
• Make a list of items that must be addressed upon your return from your trip (paying bills, unpacking, getting photos developed, getting kids ready to return to school, etc.

Team building and ice breaker activities point out to your employees the fact that there are a multitude of small details that must be identified and pre-planned in order to limit the number of mistakes that are made, and to ensure the ultimate outcome of the project.

Make the point that most people take more time to plan their vacation than they do to plan their retirement. This is why 65% of all retirees must count on government assistance. Unfortunately, the government will not be here to bail the team out if they fail to properly plan for the success of this project.

Highly effective teams and organizations are very detailed in their pre-planning. The more you plan before you begin a project the better prepared you will be to adjust and adapt to issues and barriers you encounter throughout the process.

Now that you’ve made your point, get your team on track with planning their next greatest Success in a highly organized and detailed way.

Download Free Ice Breaker Activities and Teamwork Exercises

Receive our free Team Building At Work tool, a collection of 40 fun and effective team building ideas, teamwork games, ice breaker activities and exercises. All team building activities are included in a single pdf file.

TO RECEIVE OUR FREE TEAM BUILDING TOOL: Subscribe to our FREE monthly newsletter. Instructions to quickly access ALL of our free leadership tools will immediately follow.

Next Team Building At Work Chapters

» Leadership Development
Leadership is influence. Leaders who utilize team building tools regularly, positively influence the behavior of their team members. Begin with these ice breaker activities.

» Networking
Grow your library of ice breaker activities and team building resources. Great leaders continually identify and leverage successful team building tools.

» Problem Solving
Solving problems as a team helps to show employees that there are many potential solutions to even the most common problems. Identify a team building game that your group will enjoy.