Setting goals without specific plans
As stated by Addicted2Success.com, a common mistake managers make is setting goals for their teams but failing to plan the steps necessary to achieve them. In some cases, managers leave the creation of these plans entirely to the employees themselves. Setting a goal is only a small part of the overall planning process; a much more important part is to plan the actual method by which the goal will be achieved.
Too vague or poorly articulated goals
Sometimes goals are poorly communicated. They may be too abstract and insufficiently precise, which means every employee has a slightly different understanding of what the goal actually entails. Alternatively, the goal itself may be well-defined but the manager fails to communicate or explain it clearly. A good manager must ensure every team member fully grasps and interprets the goal in the same way.
Only 100% success is good enough
Some goals are designed in such a way that only complete success is considered acceptable. Any other result, even partial completion, is viewed as a failure. The problem with this approach is that once a team realises it will be unable to achieve the goal in full, motivation often drops sharply, and instead of achieving 95 percent success, the result may fall to only 60 percent. The ideal approach is to set a maximum or ultimate goal, but also define interim milestones the team should aim to reach if attaining the ultimate objective proves unrealistic.
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