Goal Vs Objective: How to Differentiate Between the two?

Understanding the difference between goal vs. objective will go a long way in your professional life. Especially if you are in a supervisory or leadership position, you must be able to differentiate between objectives and goals.

Goals and objectives help you to achieve growth and development. At this juncture, people tend to confuse the two. This article presents a clear comparison of goal vs. objective to understand the difference from the foundation level. 

What Is an Objective?

Objectives are steps that you will take to achieve your aim in your personal or professional life. An objective should always be a measurable task. If you can not assess the objectives, you will not be able to find out if you will achieve your aim.

Businesses set objectives to get readily available data for reports and presentations. For instance, you have set the following objectives for your sales and marketing team:

• Increasing lead conversion to 10%
• Getting 5% more leads than in September 2022
• Taking 10% of users to the shopping cart, which is more than 5% since September 2022

The above are tasks with a lot of business data. You can easily include them in your business reports to impress your managers, clients, and so on.

Examples of Objectives: Personal and Business

Personal Objectives

#1. Becoming More Productive

• Utilize the commuting time to listen to Spanish lessons for 1 hour.
• Writing 500 words instead of the regular 300 words in an hour.

#2. Managing Time Efficiently

• Minimize daily entertainment content consumption by 1 hour.
• Limit social media activities by 30 minutes.

#3. Improve Communication

• Practicing online writing challenges for 30 minutes daily.
• Speaking in a foreign language at home for 1 hour weekly. 

#4. Upskill

• Undertake coding classes in Udemy for 2 hours a week.
• Undertake GRE preparation courses for 5 hours a week. 

Business Objectives

#1. Business Revenue

• Increasing revenue earning by 15% than the last quarter.
• Maintaining a profit after tax (PAT) figure of $10 million this financial year.

#2. Sales and Marketing

• Increase your brand’s market share by 3% this FISCAL year.
• Connect with 10 local communities to find product promotion opportunities.
• Boost the email marketing campaign by 20% than the last year.

#3. Human Resources

• Reduce churn by 10%.
• Increase overall employee productivity by 20%.
• Sign up at least 25% of the sales and marketing employees in upskilling programs.

#4. Technological Enhancements

• Implement the use of CRMs and ERPs for 50% of the employees by next quarter.
• Upgrade manufacturing units with robotic process automation by 25% by the next FISCAL. 

#5. Research and Development

• Invest 25% of the R&D budget in product or service improvements.
• Build 5 novel apps or services by the R&D department in every quarter.  

#6. Accounting and Finances

• Reduce accounting and financial errors by 5%.
• Implement automated accounting tools for 100% of employees in the accounts section. 

Guidelines for Objective Setting

#1. Objective Classification

You must classify the objectives into the following four categories: 

• Basic: Objectives that help your business perform regularly.
• Outstanding: These tasks will need extra effort from the team.
• Derivative: Objectives that affect the team, department, or individual employees.
• Major: These are organizational objectives that help your business grow. 

#2. Selecting the Area

You also need to categorize your business into departments like marketing, sales, HR, accounting, production, customer service, etc. Then, according to the Major objective, you need to set Derivative objectives for these sections. 

Do not forget to onboard specialists from each department when setting up objectives. 

#3. Coordination With Departments

All the business departments must achieve their objectives, so the entire organization can achieve its Major objectives. But, you will find that some Derivative objectives are interrelated.

Two or more sections must work together to achieve an objective. Hence, you must select a key person from every department for collaboration. 

#4. Only Choose Realistic Objectives

You can not just set any objective, put your team members under stress, and fail the entire project. You need to set realistic tasks that your employees can accomplish. Consider your team members’ skill and productivity levels before setting up business objectives.  

#5. Allow Room for Adjustments

Objectives are some figures that you will attain in the future. Any changes in the team, like someone exiting the company, hiring trainees, etc., will delay the attainment of your objectives.

Hence, if the objectives are longer than a month, adjust their parameters depending on the statuses of your departments.  

What Is a Goal?

A goal is simply a purpose that individuals set in their lives and work to achieve in the future. Similarly, a business or team also sets goals to transform its shape or make itself more competitive in the future market.

Goals are for the long term, with at least three to five years. Within this time frame, you must accomplish several tasks to attain the goal that you have set for your business.

Businesses consider goals as targets, accomplishments, or endpoints that the organization must touch to stay afloat in the market. On the other hand, some companies set up goals to grow their activities globally and locally to become business leaders.

Organizations reflect their business goals through mission statements. Though the statement mainly explains the company’s reason to exist and the purpose, both end up being one or more goals. Sometimes, you can also articulate your company’s goal in a vision statement.    

Examples of Goals: Personal and Business

Personal Goals

#1. Educational Goals

• Pass the SAT exam for admission to some of the best undergraduate schools.
• Prepare for the MCAT exam and pass it to become a medical student. 

#2. Career Goals

• Securing an internship as a programmer trainee at Google.
• Becoming a Senior Product Manager by passing the CSPO certification.  

#3. Financial Goals

• Invest $ XX million in secured bonds to earn a steady income.
• Save $ XX million by the age of 55 to prepare for retirement. 

Business Goals 

#1. Growing the Business

• You might want to set a goal for offshore manufacturing plants by the end of 2025.
• You are a social media app platform and now setting up a goal to enter the OTT video content business by 2025. 
• Creating a Google Ads service-providing department by 2024. 

#2. Finance

• List the company on the New York Stock Exchange by 2026.
• Get Series A funding of $1 billion by the end of 2024.
• Get a Series B funding of $5 billion by 2027. 

#3. Business Process

• Implement advanced software development processes like Agile, Scrum, and DevOps.
• Transforming the customer service team with automated chatbots and ticketing apps. 

#4. Human Resources

• Develop at least 5 managers and leaders for succession planning.
• Upskill, the programming team, to have at least 10 full-stack developers by the following year. 

#5. Time-Based

• Short-term goals include increasing website subscribers by 25% in two months.
• Long-term goals like converting 50% of the website traffic into newsletter subscribers by the next 3 years. 

• Making your production plant carbon neutral.
• Increasing employee diversity.
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next 10 years. 

Guidelines for Goal Setting

#1. Define Goals Clearly

You must clearly outline your business goals in a paper, Word, or Google Docs. Once drafted, approve the goal in a business meeting so that all the stakeholders know what to achieve. 

You must also share the goal document with all the responsible parties. 

#2. Do Not Set Overcomplicated Goals

Goals should not be overcomplicated. If a goal looks highly complex to attain, break that into multiple goals. Your final aim is to set a goal that the involved parties understand. 

#3. Set Achievable Goals

You can set ambitious goals but within a limit. Goals must be achievable according to the current market status. 

#4. Set Accountability

If you manage multiple business goals as a business leader, delegate some of the goals to your subordinate managers. 

#5. Goals Should Be a Team Work

Business goals should involve all or some of the departments. Do not set goals that only impact a specific department. 

#6. Set SMART Goals

Since goal-setting is essential for business growth, expert business managers have developed the SMART goal theory. In this concept, your goals should have the following characteristics: 

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound 

Goal Vs. Objective

#1. Order

Goals sit on a higher hierarchy than objectives.

#2. Alignment

An organization’s goals define its vision and mission in the industry. On the contrary, objectives are there to accomplish the goal. 

#3. Quantification

Goals are usually abstract. You may not be able to quantify goals all the time. However, you must set objectives that are measurable and quantifiable.

#4. Scope

The scope of business goals is broader than business objectives. Goals exist in the overall business, whereas different departments have objectives to attain this overarching goal.

#5. Outline Specific Responsibilities

Goals are just statements about the company’s intentions. It does not always specify the underlying tasks. Conversely, objectives are always explanatory and specific to a task.

#6. Tangible or Intangible

Goals could be intangible. For example, take an app to the market faster. On the contrary, objectives are tangible. For instance, reduce the time-to-market for an app by 10 days.

#7. Period for Completion

A goal is a long-term concept. For example, a 2-year goal, a 3-year goal, etc. On the other hand, objectives are short-term, like days, weeks, and months.

#8. Language of Goals and Objective Statements

You must describe your business goals in conceptual thinking. On the contrary, businesses describe objectives in creative, technical, and problem-solving language.           

Here is a bite-sized table about goal vs. objective:

How Does Goal Vs. Objective Work Together for Better Business Outcomes?

The goal is your destination, and objectives are the pathways to reach that destination. Goals and objectives will always come one after another since they are related concepts. Here is how you can sync them together for better results:

#1. Review Past Goals and Objectives

If the business objectives in the past did not contribute to the overall company goal, then you need to drop those objectives. 

#2. Set Goals and Then Set Your Objectives

First, you need to set your overall business goal. Then, you need to create branches of tasks that will lead to achieving the goal. Now, you can call these tasks your objectives. 

#3. Brainstorm With Your Team

Host an online or in-person meeting with the stakeholders of your business goals. Stakeholders could be the leadership team, managers, team leaders, etc.

Use an online whiteboard app to allow the participants to draw their ideas and thoughts about goals and objectives.  

#4. Create a Flowchart of Goals and Objectives

Use any flowchart maker to create a detailed roadmap to the goal with its underlying objectives in branches. 

Final Words

This article taught you concise definitions of goals, objectives, and examples. Additionally, you have discovered the ultimate differences between goals and objectives. You have also gone through the best ways to set up objectives and goals for your business. 

In a nutshell, a goal is a long-term plan, while objectives are the steps to achieve that long-term business target.

You may also be interested in OKR vs. KPI to measure your team or business’s success rate and performance regularly.