How do you set professional development goals?

For those that are new to a position and could use some extra seasoning, I have established goals to obtain a CPA certificate. I add the extra incentive that I raise their pay $2-$3K per year on the day they pass. I have wanted to use a BS/BA degree as an incentive for someone I see as extremely talented, but may be limited for future roles without a degree. I may implement that incentive this year. For annual reviews, we like many others try to put in at least 1-2 professional development goals in each review, which is in writing.

I think it depends if you're talking about personal professional development (e.g. education, CPA certification,etc.) or work goals (e.g. completing a project this year, implementing a new system, etc.).

For the personal professional development, we encourage it by making sure our incentives align with the desired behavior (reimburse for CPA review classes and exam fees as well as CPEs, tuition reimbursement). We also talk about the individual's desired career path and what requirements are necessary for the next level so they know if a degree or CPA is expected. Finally, we make sure we are flexible so that people can accomplish these goals; perhaps someone has to leave at 3:30 on Thursday to attend class. We do not count these towards work goals as the individual benefits through the reimbursement and the skill set they acquire.

For work goals, we tie these to an annual bonus program. Each year, every person, along with their manager and team, establishes 3-5 goals that are written down at the beginning of the year. These may be metrics driven (decrease DSO by x days) or project driven (implement a fixed asset system by x date) and should align with what the team wants and needs to accomplish during the year as well as align with company objectives as much as possible. It's important to help everyone understand why these goals are important and how they tie into the company's success so you have buy-in and alignment. Finally, make them SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. Make sure everyone knows the deliverable expected, what the measure of success will be and what the deadline is. Make sure that people believe they can achieve the goal within the time frame (e.g. reducing your close by 1/2 within 6 months may not be attainable, but reducing it by 2 days by the end of the year and an additional 4 days the following year may be) and again, that they understand why they're important to the team and company.

It's also important to dialogue with them as to their internal motivation. For example, a community project may help them develop leadership skills. This type of activity can address their "passion" and develop them at the same time.

We have a very nice system of roadmaps meetings in which we ask the employees to list down his goals and then we see how we can align the same with the organisation's goals. We also have a periodic (say monthly for a senior employee and quarterly for others) catch meetings to monitor the progress.

Love the SMART goals as Carrie mentions; we use that same method for achieving results. I am reading a lot about how you handle this for the team; but what about for yourself?