Get Your People to Set Their Own Targets

“I don’t read many books but I have read the Happy Manifesto,” explained the GCHQ Head of IT, speaking at the recent Spark the Change conference. “And it makes sense. We have found, for instance, that if you let people set their own targets, they set tougher targets and are more likely to achieve them.”

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He gave the example of their tech support people. With security concerns at the forefront, it had always been a long process to book out a laptop if you needed one when travelling. In fact the agreed response time was two weeks from application.

“It was clear we needed to shorten it. If it had been left to me to set the target, then I would have probably set it at one day – a huge improvement on where we were. We left it to the team. They set the target at 5 minutes. When they achieved that, they reduced it to two minutes. They have now got it down to one minute.”

GCHQ colleagues at the conference confirmed this was true: “The difference is amazing. It genuinely takes less than a minute to book a laptop out now. You don’t even have to fill in a form.” (The tech staff now fill in the required form afterwards, a key step in getting the time down from 5 minutes to 1.)

What could your people achieve if you let them set their own targets?

Learn the 10 core principles to create a happy and productive workplace in Henry Stewart's book, The Happy Manifesto.

Support your aspiring and current managers to be empowering and confident leaders with Happy

Happy offers leadership programmes at Level 3, Level 5 and Level 7, from new managers/supervisor level all the way up to senior leadership teams and CEOs. These programmes are based on the ideas of trusting your people. They are practical and based on applying what yo’ve learnt. We aim to inspire and ignite change in your organisation, as well as giving you valuable management skills such as business strategy, decision-making, negotiation and project management.

We also offer programmes tailored specifically to people from Global Majority backgrounds. The content is the same, but have been designed to give new and experienced managers the skills they need to navigate organisational culture with a clearer perspective on their own potential, as well as building their confidence and expanding their professional strengths.

Henry Stewart

Henry is founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happy Ltd, originally set up as Happy Computers in 1987. Inspired by Ricardo Semler’s book Maverick, he has built a company which has won multiple awards for some of the best customer service in the country and being one of the UK’s best places to work.

Henry was listed in the Guru Radar of the Thinkers 50 list of the most influential management thinkers in the world. “He is one of the thinkers who we believe will shape the future of business,” explained list compiler Stuart Crainer.

His first book, Relax, was published in 2009. His second book, the Happy Manifesto, was published in 2013 and was short-listed for Business Book of the Year.

You can find Henry on LinkedIn and follow @happyhenry on Twitter.