1.5 - About University

13.4 M ANAGEMENT BY O BJECTIVESInspired by Peter Drucker, Paul Hersey, Ken Blanchard, and George Odiorne.Management by Objectives (MBO) is a timeless and venerable leadership tool. Although itsheyday (the 1960s through the 1980s) has now past, the basic principles of MBO remain relevant.At the time of its introduction, MBO was a reaction to the micromanagement practice ofcontrolling the activities of others, while paying only indirect attention to the actual businessresults an individual or workgroup was achieving. Nonetheless, adapted to present-day organizationalreality, this tool is useful for helping leaders set goals, then plan and manage towardachieving those goals.MBO comes in many variants, but these principles are common:• Effective leaders lead by clarifying goals, then determining and managing activities toachieve them.• The clearer the goal—what you are trying to accomplish—the better the chance ofachieving it.• Goal setting is a collaborative activity. (In the original organizational milieu of MBO,this goal-setting process started at the top and cascaded down. In much faster-moving,modern organizations, goals are clarified at all levels and in real time.)• Success is measured by how well goals are achieved—”What gets noticed is what getsmeasured,” and “What gets measured gets done.”One typical variant of MBO viewed the process as a funnel with business results as the endtarget.GeneralSpecificRole orResponsibilityStatementKeyResultAreasObjectivesIndicators/MeasuresActionPlansLong-termShort-termA typical MBO set of statements would include:➊Role or Responsibility StatementThis statement describes the general reason for the job or workgroup. It answers questionslike:“What is the reason this job exists?” or “What is the basic function of this workgroup?”402 SECTION 13 TOOLS FOR LEADING PERFORMANCE