Demanding goals: what leaders need to make observable
In the “Leadership d'excellence” programme at SHR — Swiss Human Resources, goal setting deserves to be treated as more than an exercise in wording. The specific management question is this: how can a demanding goal be paired with feedback that genuinely helps a team improve?
What the literature establishes
Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham (2002, American Psychologist) review research showing that specific, difficult goals generally lead to better performance than instructions to do one's best. This relationship depends, among other things, on ability, commitment to the goal and access to information about progress. A goal therefore does not work simply because it appears on a dashboard.
Feedback does not automatically improve action
Avraham N. Kluger and Angelo DeNisi (1996, Psychological Bulletin) show in their meta-analysis that feedback interventions do not consistently improve performance and can make it worse. Their theoretical framework proposes that the effect depends partly on where feedback directs attention: towards the task or, instead, towards concerns about the self. For a manager, describing a process deviation and passing an overall judgement on a person are therefore not equivalent interventions.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that all it takes is tougher targets and more feedback. These studies justify neither an automatic escalation of demands nor a universally applicable feedback frequency. When a task is new or complex, clarifying what needs to be learned and which strategies to try may be more appropriate than immediately increasing the required outcome. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence does not prescribe
A review of goal-setting research and a feedback meta-analysis do not validate a single protocol for a company in Fribourg. Routine practice also often leaves a crucial question unanswered: does the employee actually have the means to influence what the indicator measures? Without this check, monitoring may document a gap without making it possible to close it.
A practical check in Fribourg
As a proposed exercise for “Leadership d'excellence”, an agri-food team, a bilingual industrial workshop or a project team within Fribourg's university hub could track one operational goal for four weeks, without changing quality or safety requirements. At each review, record the observed gap, a corrective action within the team's control and a verification date; in a bilingual team, check that the work instruction is understood consistently in French and German. Then measure the proportion of reviews containing all three elements and, on the scheduled date, check whether each action was completed and whether the indicator changed. This record makes the practice auditable, without establishing that leadership alone caused any improvement. To go further: explore the Executive Leadership training in Fribourg, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Executive Leadership in Fribourg
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