Brainstorms

Forget Stretch Goals — Set Targets Your Staff Can Only Reach by Redefining How They Work

The idea is to have them totally rethink the way they do things.

Published

3 years ago

December 15, 2021

INSTORE Staff Instore January 2022 Issue

Forget Stretch Goals — Set Targets Your Staff Can Only Reach by Redefining How They Work

2022 is here, and with it, normalcy. We hope. That means setting targets for a fairly regular year and then hoping your staff can just beat them. Or giving your people “5 percent stretch goals” and seeing if, through extra hard work and efficiency, they can attain them. But what if you told them to improve their performance in a certain area by 30 percent? Then no longer will the same old approach, no matter how much harder they work, be effective. They would have to totally rethink how they go about hitting their numbers. And that’s the idea: To kickstart innovative thinking, you have to first destroy the old ways of doing things.

Looking for a Seamless Sale? Call Wilkerson

After almost 60 years in business, Breakiron Jewelers in Erie, Pennsylvania, was closing its doors. And the store’s owner, Linda Breakiron, was ready for it. She had run the store as its sole owner since the beginning of the millennium and was looking forward to a change. Of course, she called Wilkerson. Breakiron talked to other jewelers who had used Wilkerson and was satisfied with their response. “They always had positive feedback,” she recalls. With the sales, marketing and even additional inventory that Wilkerson provided, Breakiron insists she could never have accomplished her going-out-of-business sale without Wilkerson’s help. She’s now ready for the journey ahead, but looking back, she’d be sure to recommend Wilkerson. “They just made the whole process very seamless.”