Your manager and yourself will mutually agree on your work objectives. Corporate and Departmental objectives are cascaded down to your personal aims. They will document the expectations of your work, over the coming year. Therefore, objectives draw your contributions into corporate aims.

Why Do We Have Objectives?

The objectives will define your role within the organisation and how you can contribute to the overall strategy of the organisation. They also provide you with a guideline as to what is expected from your work, during the year. Consequently, this means that your appraisal will focus on each objective and your yearend grade will be calculated based upon your objectives.

My Appraisals and Objectives

Your Objectives will determine the type of work that you will be doing over the next year. It may also detail training requirements and your aspirations for promotion.

You will need to be very careful about your final objectives, as it is will form the basis of how you will be assessed at the end of the year. Objectives that are difficult to attain, you may not get a bonus or a promotion that you deserve. Therefore, you must take care before signing off on your objectives.

How To Write Your Objectives

Caveat your Objectives:

Make sure that your objectives are realistically obtainable. A year is a long time in a modern workplace where things change quickly. Your objectives may become unattainable or obsolete; therefore you should always include a caveat to protect you from such situations. For example,  phrases like ‘subject to business needs’ or subject to successful delivery by another person, to caveat yourself in case you have a failure that was beyond your control.

State your yearend aspirations:

For those who want a pay rise or a promotion make it clear in your objectives that this is your aim. This will show to management that you have clear ambitions and you are here for the long run.

Clearly Defined and Measurable:

Clear measurements are established for each objective, to make sure there are no misunderstandings. For example, you can measure your performance against budget or timescales in a project.

Layout your training requirements:

For those people that need to get training agreed, there is no better time than when setting your objectives. After fixing your objectives, it can be hard to arrange a discussion on the subject and get a new agreement.

Discuss all key points with your manager:

You need to ensure that your manager feels the same way as you do about the objectives.

This guide is valuable to a successful PA, Secretary or Executive PA. Therefore, these skills are covered in Executive Assistant Courses. However, some courses do not cover this topic.