Set benchmarks

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With just less than three months left until Election Day, things are heating up on the campaign trail. One of the most common mistakes people make on campaigns is staying busy without accomplishing the key milestones needed to win. With so much going on, it's easy to spin your wheels constantly without achieving your primary goals.

So how do you make sure that your team stays on task and builds a solid framework for success? Try out these tips for setting benchmarks:

• Create a timeline. Draw up a calendar to Election Day, and start filling it in by going backwards. How are you getting to victory? Add in vote goals, fundraising numbers, volunteer shifts,key events, holidays, and election milestones (vote by mail deadlines, etc.). This is a great way to visually represent all of the benchmarks you've set.
  
  
• Set benchmarks and stick to them. If you set daily, weekly, and cumulative goals to help track your progress, you and the team will have a clear path to victory. These benchmarks will help you stay on task and measure your performance. You can also adjust them based on how things are going.
  
  
• Hold people accountable to their goals. There's no point in setting benchmarks if you aren't going to hold people to them. Give each member of the team a piece of the campaign they are responsible for bringing home. Set clear roles and responsibilities so that everyone is accountable to each other.  

How do you deal with setting and meeting milestones in your work? Share in the comments on the blog.

Cristina Sinclaire is the Program Assistant for the Voting Information Project at NOI. 

Photo by SD Dirk, via Flickr.