THE trouble with targets is that bosses set them.

If you are a boss and you are setting targets for your senior colleagues you are doing the wrong thing. Let them set the targets and the outcomes will be better.

Of course, there is more to it than that. You will not reduce your own workload by doing what I suggest. In fact you may even increase it a little, but, in the process, you will remove many pointless tasks and much fruitless negotiation.