Eliminate Goal-setting?: Leadership Challenges for Servant Leaders

W. Edwards Deming's 11th Point for Management reads, "Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.? Was Deming really repudiating one of Peter Drucker?s most respected tools for leaders, Management by Objectives? Does this mean that goal-setting is an inappropriate leadership tool? John Sullivan argues that Deming did not mean the elimination of goal-setting as a leadership tool. What he was opposed to was the misuse and abuse of goal-setting by leaders who had little or no knowledge of the processes under study. Sullivan shows leaders the proper use of MBO as a management tool by defining its principles, creating SMART goals, and treating employees with dignity and respect while fully involving them in the goal-setting process.