"Just set whatever goals you think make sense." For some people that is liberating. For many it is stressful: what if you pick the wrong thing, aim too low, or get judged for it later? Here is why companies ask you to set your own goals and how to do it well.
Why your company makes you set your own goals
It can feel like your manager is avoiding work. Usually the reasons are better than that:
- You know your job best. You see the problems and opportunities your manager does not.
- Ownership improves commitment. People tend to work harder on goals they helped shape.
- It is a development test. Setting sensible priorities is a skill managers look for before promoting someone.
Freedom is not the same as no expectations, though. Your manager still has a picture of what good looks like. Your job is to find it.
Step 1: Find the boundaries first
Before writing anything, gather context:
- What are the team's or department's priorities this year?
- What did your manager praise or complain about recently?
- What would make your manager's own review look good?
Our list of questions to ask before setting work goals gives you a ready-made script.
Step 2: Pick one goal from each bucket
A balanced set of self-directed goals usually covers:
- A performance goal tied to your core job (quality, speed, cost, customers).
- An improvement goal that fixes something broken in how your team works.
- A development goal that builds a skill for your next role.
This mix shows you understand the business and your own growth. See professional development goals examples for ideas for the third bucket.
Step 3: Make each one SMART
Once you have the idea, tighten it: specific, measurable, owned by you, realistic and time-bound. "Learn Excel" becomes "Build the monthly budget tracker in Excel using pivot tables and lookups by April, so the team stops maintaining three separate spreadsheets." Not sure how SMART differs from ordinary goals? Read SMART goals vs regular goals.
Did you know? In a well-known set of joint experiments, Latham, Erez and Locke (1988) found that goals assigned by a manager worked about as well as self-set goals, provided the reason for the goal was explained. What mattered most was how specific and challenging the goal was, not who wrote it.
Step 4: Test it with your manager early
Do not wait for the formal deadline. Share a rough draft and ask, "Is this the right level of ambition?" That turns a guessing game into a conversation. For how to frame that discussion, see how to present your goals to your manager.
The bottom line
Self-set goals are an opportunity to steer your own work. Learn the boundaries, balance performance, improvement and development, make each goal SMART and check early. If you want a framework you can reuse every year, our Business Planning and Goal Setting course covers it step by step.