Goals get sent back for the same few reasons: too vague, too easy, too disconnected from what the business cares about, or too obviously self-serving. Getting approval is less about clever wording and more about showing that your goal helps your manager and the company as well as you.
Understand what your manager is judged on
Your manager has goals too. If you know what they are, you know what they will approve. Ask directly, or look at team targets, recent announcements and what your manager raises in meetings. A goal that helps your manager hit their own targets is an easy yes.
Did you know? Robert Kaplan and David Norton, creators of the balanced scorecard, reported in Harvard Business Review (2005) that 95% of a typical company's employees are unaware of, or do not understand, its strategy. Simply showing you understand it puts your goals ahead.
Frame the benefit in company terms
The same goal can be framed two ways:
- Self-focused: "Learn Power BI."
- Company-focused: "Build a Power BI dashboard for weekly sales reporting by April, replacing three manual spreadsheets and saving about four hours a week."
Both involve learning Power BI. Only one tells your manager why it is worth your time. Framing your goals around company benefits is not spin; it is showing you understand how your work creates value.
Hit the right level of ambition
Managers reject goals that are either trivially easy or obviously impossible. Aim for a stretch you can explain: "This is about 20% above last year, and here is how I plan to get there." If you are unsure, ask. See how to know if a goal is achievable.
Make it specific and measurable
Vague goals get sent back because they cannot be assessed. Include what will change, how you will show it and by when. Our guide on how to write work goals that make sense covers the structure.
If your manager has left the goals entirely up to you, see how to set your own work goals.
Include one goal for yourself, framed honestly
It is fine to have a development goal that mainly benefits you. Managers expect it. Just connect it to the role: "Complete a leadership course and apply it by running the team's monthly retrospective" shows ambition and usefulness together.
Bring a draft, not a blank page
Arrive at the conversation with drafted goals and an open question: "Is this the right focus and the right level of stretch?" That positions you as proactive and makes it easy for your manager to say yes with small edits. More on this in how to present your goals to your manager.
The bottom line
Goals get approved when they are clear, appropriately ambitious and obviously useful to the business. Learn your manager's priorities, frame benefits in company terms and bring a draft. Our Business Planning and Goal Setting course shows how individual goals connect to business plans and KPIs.