[jnwatson]

In my experience, these are top-down directed management fads. For personal goals to work, the company must allocate some of your time to achieve them. When push comes to shove and it is work on your goals or your manager's/team's goals, the team's goals win.

[igetspam]

And that is how you measure whether or not the goal setting is valuable. The company I work with has found their way to the OKR model. Personally, I'm a fan, if they're used correctly. Objectives should be the thing that drives work. It's the "what" and often the "why" part of the equation. Key results are the "how" in "how are we going to achieve that objective?" and in "how do we know if we've succeeded?" If those objectives and key results aren't driving work and, more importantly, being used as a shield against unplanned work that isn't aligned, then they're not useful. I've seen both and I quickly stop participating when the model isn't used correctly. Models lime this are only valuable when they are part of the core of the org. When they're lip service, they're a major hit to both trust and morale.