Setting Smart goals is an important facet to building a team as well as developing and inspiring them to success. It is also a simple tool to help provide focus: Focus on what you want to achieve, how you will achieve it and the impact of completing the goal.
Think of this well-known analogy: Dorothy gets to the fork in the road and asks the Hare, “which way should I go?”
“That depends on where you want to go,” Replied the Hare.
“But I don’t know where I am going,” Dorothy wearily confirmed.
The Hare assertively replied, “Then it doesn’t matter where you go.”
In the business world, if you don’t set a direction, then how do you know what to do,
what to focus on and how to inspire your team to achieve success?If setting smart goals eludes you and you don’t have clearly defined targets and expectations, then what you do on a daily basis may not be the most productive, targeted and affective method of working. You and your team may well be working in a scatter-gun way, which is time consuming, not very resourceful and mostly non-effective.
What Suffers without Setting Smart Goals?
Morale
Productivity
Improvements
Team Spirit
Discipline
Results!
Setting smart goals bridges this gap. Creating a clear way forward; a roadmap if you like, to lead your team in an agreed direction and to set clear expectations, for the benefit of the team, the company and its individuals is often easy to say, but hard to implement for many managers and supervisors.
But it is the all-important facet of great leadership and business results.
Setting SMART Goals
The ability to provide goal setting for your team members is absolutely imperative. An inspirational leader accepts a challenge but does not agree to do the impossible. More so, a leader links the team goals to the overall company goals and makes them SMART.
The acronym for setting SMART goals has a number of variations, but essentially, they mean the same thing and when setting a goal for yourself or your team, or indeed each individual, you must ensure that a goal covers every area of the SMART acronym.
SMART Goals are those that are:
S – specific – This means that the goal has to be detailed and clear enough, to demonstrate exactly what needs to be done.
M – measurable – Without an idea of what success looks like, how do you know that you will ever achieve a goal? The measurable section ensures that once you have a clear and specified goal, it has to be linked to an end goal. You must be able to record success.
A – attainable – Pure and simply, there is no point in setting a goal that you cannot achieve. The attainable stage, allows you to focus on the things (key tasks) you will do in order to achieve the goal.
R – relevant – your goal must be relevant to what you are trying to achieve and fit in the context of the bigger picture. This must be relevant to your main goal. If it doesn’t fit, get rid of it!
T – timely / Time-based – This last stage identifies the target, setting expectations of when it should be completed by. Without a targeted completion date, the goal is merely just a wish. Putting a time / date on it, ensures that there is accountability to complete it in the agreed timescales.
Now, the great thing about setting SMART goals is the simplicity. It is a very effective way of setting goals – not just one-off goals, but team goals, department goals, individual goals, and even business goals for the year.
Here are some examples of SMART in action. Notice that once I have completed each stage of SMART for a specific goal, I write a short two-to-three sentence summary of the complete goal.
Here’s what I mean:
Setting Smart Goals – Example 1: I want to start a business!
My broad goal could be: I want to start a business. Let’s use SMART to bring this goal to life!
· Specific: I will sell my digital artwork and design services through People Per Hour and Fiverr (these are freelance websites).
· Measurable: I will be ready to take my first job within 2 weeks.
· Attainable: I will get set up on People Per Hour and Fiverr, first, then, I will offer my services for a rock-bottom price to gain market presence and a good following. I will promote myself through the quality reviews I receive and will market my work via my facebook account as well as Fiverr and People Per Hour.
· Relevant: Selling my services will allow me to grow my business and use my skills to do something that I love and have been trained in.
· Time-Based: My Freelance accounts will be up and running within 2 weeks, and I will acquire 3 happy customers and reviews within 4 weeks.
Base on the Above, My SMART Goal (Summary) might be:
I will setup my own freelance business as a digital designer, using People Per Hour and Fiverr websites, within 2 weeks. I will start by offering my services at rock bottom, introductory prices, to gain a good following and build my status up and will aim for 3 happy customers and reviews within 4 weeks.
See how by setting SMART goals and by using the framework above, you can create clarity in your goals, and then use it to create a well defined and clear mini-roadmap to achieve that very goal!
Setting Smart Goals – Example 2: I want to Increase Sales!
Broad Goal: I want to increase sales.
· Specific: I will increase my sales turnover by selling more product As &Bs to current markets.
· Measurable: I will increase the sales by $50,000 each month, minimum.
· Attainable: I will focus on developing a unique Sales Proposition (USP), which beats my competitors, and competing on value, not price, whilst developing a winning guarantee. I will then develop new marketing literature to support this message and begin promoting this brand.
· Relevant: Developing my industry leading USP will help me increase my turnover and gain market share.
· Time-Based: My Marketing literature, complete with USP will be completed and used within four weeks, with an expected increase in turnover within 6 weeks.
Base on the Above, My SMART Goal (Summary) might be:
In order to increase my business’ turnover and market share, I will develop a world-class USP and guarantee, and then promote this message in new marketing literature, within 4 weeks. As a result, the business will achieve a minimum increase in sales by $50,000 per month, within 6 weeks.
Setting Smart Goals – Example 3: I want to be a Well-Known Business Expert!
Broad Goal: I want to become a well-known Business expert.
· Specific: I will become a well-known expert on the topic of growing small businesses.
· Measurable: I will be successful ‘Expert’ if I am asked to write for a major blog once a month, deliver a monthly workshop and asked to provide coaching for small businesses at the local Chamber of Commerce, whilst providing my thoughts as a regular expert in the small business journal.
· Attainable: I will achieve this by using a PR / Marketing firm to run a three month campaign. I will also engage in pipeline filling activities, like attending breakfast seminars, conducting free presentations and training sessions, as well forming partnerships with other service providers, targetting the same companies as me.
· Relevant: Establishing myself as a small business expert will strengthen my 15+ years of experience in the field and academic knowledge, and will also allow me to reach more small business owners who need business advice, thus growing my practice.
· Time-Based: I want to be considered a small business expert, and the place to go for help, within two years.
Base on the Above, My SMART Goal (Summary) might be:
I will use the services of a PR/marketing firm and launch a publicity campaign that will help establish me as a well-known small business advisor. I will be asked to speak publicly on the topic at least once a month, receive interview requests every month and deliver training courses on various topics, as wells writing one article per month for the local business journal. This will strengthen my 15+ years of experience in the field and academic knowledge, and allow me to reach more small business owners who need business advice.
I hope you can see how easy and effective setting SMART goals can be. Most small business owners I speak to, fit into one of two camps: Either they don’t set SMART goals at all, or they have tried but “it doesn’t really work.”
Why not use this framework today, and get a head start on your competition?
Elbert Hubbard, an American philanthropist, once said, “Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organised their energies around a goal.”
Get your team together, agree some targets and set team goals, the SMART way!