Evaluating How Goals are Achieved

Whether you are evaluating your own goals on your self assessment, or evaluating individuals' goals on your team, it's important to consider not only the "what," but the "how." 

What you evaluate is the content of the goal itself -- timelines met, deliverables created or sent, changes made. Setting SMART goals helps with evaluating what was done in terms of goal progress. The more specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound the goal, the easier it is to assess what was completed. 

Also important is how goals were achieved. Did you collaborate with stakeholders to make sure what you created met their needs? Did you take risks and come up with an innovative solution no one saw before? Did you work with a diverse group to ensure you listened to different voices and created something that reflects our community? Providing insights into how you (or your employees) met their goals helps to show how you are living our GW values, demonstrating our service priorities, or showing leader behaviors in all you do. 

Your goals do not need to be at 100% completion in order to have a successful check-in. Some goals take multiple years to complete, so demonstrating progress that meets the expectations you and your manager set is what counts. 

We recommend utilizing milestones to show how much work has gone into your goals. Milestones are steps or achievements necessary to make progress toward goals. Even if your goal is not 100% complete, your manager will be able to evaluate your progress and give performance feedback. 

Goal comments will also be an important part of completing your check-in. Your goal comments will provide additional information and context to your manager that will allow them to evaluate your performance. 

Finally, communication is key. If the expectation between you and your manager that your goal will be at 50% completion when completing your final check-in, then you are on track. Prior to completing your self assessment, you can add or edit your goals, including adding milestones or clarifying expectations. The system is designed to be flexible so that you can add or edit goals at any time (don’t forget your manager needs to approve changes so they appear on your performance review).

Read our guide to evaluating how goals are completed (PDF in Talent@GW).