What is a Target?
They answer the question what as in what do you want to achieve? Targets are a main focus area, ultimate goal or key outcome. Think in broad strokes when developing targets rather than granular detail. Additionally, targets should be meaningful, challenging, and aligned with your role and needs.
Targets are designed to intuitively guide the creation of clear communication channels and automatically document expectations between people about expected results in a time-bound framework.
Create a Target
1.) Log in to https://live.ialign.work/
2.) From the dashboard, there are two ways to create a target, the easiest is from the blue button on the top right of the dashboard
However you can also click on the target icon (archery bullseye) from the left side menu:
AND THEN select from the dropdown “Create” button (either pathway takes you to the same create target workflow).
Details Section
3.) First add a picture that visually represents your target. You can either select one from thousands of beautiful unsplash photos or upload your own from your desktop.
You’ll have a chance to select which part of the picture you’d like to include with our photo editor… Then make sure to hit “OK”!
4.) Select your target type (see this article for more details on each target type)
- Company Targets are organization-wide targets assigned to all users in an org, they can be used to get everyone in the same boat with a shared mission or goal.
- Department Targets describe the main objectives for a group of people or team.
- Job Targets communicate the central aspects of a job and are often more on the individual-level.
- Competency Targets help direct individuals and/or groups of people on specific skill sets that are needed.
- Professional Development Targets are used to describe the pathways for career growth and can include a detailed plan on how to move someone forward as well as formally document that they are ready for the next step up.
- Realignment Targets are used when other types of targets are not accomplished and a new plan needs to be put in place. They are also useful as formal documentation of warning individuals that progress is needed, or further action may be taken.
- Personal Growth Targets help individuals or coaches set forward-focused goals.
5.) Select a timeframe for your target (note that today’s date is set as the start date by default, but that you can change that if you’d like) and a title that conveys overall what the target is about
6.) Add a target description. Make sure to provide enough detail in this field that those assigned to the target can clearly understand what you want from it. Note that you will have the ability to create specific milestones towards this target and mark points of progress with "objectives" later on.
7.) It’s optional, but feel free to tag any of the 34 of Strengths or our iAlign 35 proprietary skills that you feel you will want to leverage or develop during this target (pro tip, tagging skills to a target unlocks the skills rating survey for that skill!)
Assigning Users
8.) Assign people to the target by typing in their names and selecting them from the pop up list.
For example, if you are in a "coach" role or a people manager, you may assign your team members to a target you are creating. In comparison, If you are creating a target for yourself, you can just assign yourself.
Additionally, "coaches" can be added in the second field. As someone being assigned a target, you will likely want to add your manager as a coach on job targets to ensure clear expectations between you and for your manager to best support your success on those targets.
9.) Final review & rating toggle - by default this is toggled off and reviews/ratings are always available, but optional. If you want to require the people assigned to target have to do a final self-rating and the person who is the lead support person (aka the lead reviewer for the target) in order to mark the target done, toggle this on.
Objectives
10.) For more details, feel free to check out our (Objectives) page with even more detail. But overall, think of these as kind of answering, “by the end of this target, what do I want to have gotten out of it?” or “why am I making this a target?” In other words, objectives help dial in what a successful target would result in.
Note, make sure to click the blue plus sign on the far right of the objective or hit enter to actually add it. If you’d like to, you can assign some objectives to some people on the target and not others (by default it selects everyone on the target).
Advanced Settings (optional)
11.) Optional - You may choose to attach relevant files, such as project files or other important information in this step. Additionally, you can link your target to other targets that you have created or are assigned to.
Just click open this section using the “carrot” on the far right to access these fields.
For example, if the target you are creating is related to an overarching department or company goal, you can link them together to highlight the connection between your individual work and it's overall impact.
Check-ins (optional)
The last part of the creation process if you’d like to do it all in one go is to add check-ins directly while creating the target. If you’re not sure or are tired with the process, feel free to ignore this section as you can add it later.
Final Step, Publish!
Once everything looks correct, hit Publish on the top right!
12.) As the very last step, you will be prompted to confirm that you want to publish your target (if you hit Finish later in the step above you can alternatively save it as a draft).
One additional note is that, while by default set to off, if you really love this target and think you will use it over and over, you can at this stage toggle on to automatically save the target information to your target template.
Toggling this on will save the target information as a template AND publish the target.
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