You might feel helpless when your superiors hand you an astronomically high target for your team. But don’t just surrender and agree to take it on. Instead, share your concerns with your manager. Calmly and rationally, explain why the target feels unattainable, and use numbers to back up your argument whenever possible. For example, you could say: “I saw the $2 million target for our team. That’s a 23% increase over last year. Each team member would have to improve their year-over-year performance by 38%, but the best improvement we’ve ever achieved is 11%. I’m concerned that attempting to achieve those targets will encourage short-term thinking that will hurt customer satisfaction and ultimately constrain our growth. Are there opportunities to revisit this target?” This kind of reasoning might not work, but you should try. Your team will be grateful that you’re advocating on their behalf.
Adapted from "Managing a Team That's Been Asked to Do Too Much," by Liane Davey
