What might be the hardest part of balancing individual goals

What might be the hardest part of balancing individual goals and group goals?

Solution

In most circumstances, we work as a group rather than individuals. In normal working conditions, individual goals mostly preside over group goals for various reasons. Some of the simplest explanations are money, power, influence or just plain penchant for being better than colleagues. Having individual goals dominate the group goals may lead to undesired results to downright disastrous. Self-centric goals also meant individuals compete for resources, which undermined the group as a whole. Having said that, if the individual goals are aligned with that of the group’s, the results could be spot on to spectacular.

The toughest part of forming a group comes down to basic requirement i.e. having the right people. It is difficult to find people whose individual goals match with that of groups. But it may be possible to have a balanced approach in terms of achieving both in a uniform pace. The trick is to have proper understanding of each individuals goals and where they may be used in the groups. An accountant cannot be given the job of a janitor for obvious reasons. The person would be highly demotivated for not doing a job that he/she is over qualified for and this in turn would affect his performance in the present role.

It is also important to have a clearly defined goals for individual as well as the group as a whole. Unclear goal setting would result in unclear direction. A map is of no use unless you know where you want to go (be it group or individual). Let’s take the case of a start-up. Many of the start-up companies end up under performing cause in most cases there is no sync between individual goals and group goals. The group as a whole may want to be being ‘big’ company as its goal. The individuals in the company may just want to be ‘rich’. This may lead to early breakup of the group or failure of the company as a whole due to lack of uniform direction. If we look at each of their goals, they are very ambiguous. ‘Big’ is not goal, rather it is just a perception. There can be always be some bigger company. Also the same with rich. There can always be someone richer.