HBR Guide to Leading Teams (HBR Guide Series)

Chapter 3

Establish Your Team’s Goals

No matter what kind of team you’re leading, the group must set two types of goals: Task goals specify what your outcomes should look like. They direct what gets done, defining the work of the team. Process goals describe the team’s approach to working together. They direct how individuals do the work and interact with one another. (You’ll work out the “how” in more detail when you create rules of conduct, addressed in chapter 5.)

Although it’s tempting to skimp on the goal setting and immediately start planning tasks, taking the time up front to develop both task and process goals yields several benefits:

• Group decision making becomes clearer and more efficient—and conflicts are easier to resolve. The