By Gabe Scorgie
13 min read
Goal setting is an essential component of performance in the workplace. Clear goals and targets help employees feel more competent and confident and support their professional aspirations. It also contributes to organizational efficiency and productivity as employees with goals have a sense of purpose they bring to every task.
The SMART goal framework is critical to successful goal setting as it provides a structured approach and many other benefits that resonate throughout the organization. Applying the SMART methodology to goal setting provides clarity and specificity and makes goals measurable, time-bound, and relevant to the project or company mission.
Today’s article will dive deep into SMART goals—what they are, examples of SMART goals in action, the many benefits of applying the SMART framework, and actionable tips to ensure success.
SMART is a goal-setting framework that follows a hierarchy of tenets to ensure the objectives are clearly articulated and reachable within a set timeframe. Working through each step in the SMART framework can highlight areas where resources and priorities are misaligned, allowing teams and individuals to adjust and get back on track.
SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
Let’s first think about the result. Let’s say the goal is to improve employee happiness. What measure of improvement would indicate success? In what timeframe would you hope to achieve this goal? And what strategies will be implemented to ensure success?
Successful goal-setting requires the goal to be specific. Ask yourself questions like, “What do I need to accomplish?” and “Who is responsible for seeing it through?” and, ultimately, “What steps need to be taken to achieve the result?”
Thinking through these questions will help you understand precisely what you’re trying to do.
Always establish specific metrics with real deadlines. Don’t be too broad or vague. Sensible, simple, and significant are other words you could apply to the “S” in SMART.
Gauging success will require measurability. Choose software, strategies, and tools that will help you track progress toward the goal. Measurability enables progress tracking and helps you know when you’ve achieved the desired result.
If it’s employee happiness you’re after, how much of an improvement will represent success? Let’s say we’re hoping for a 20% increase from the baseline. You’ll also need to be able to track progress along the way to ensure your efforts are going in the right direction.
Always ensure your goals are trackable. Don’t lean on concepts that leave success open to interpretation. Other words: meaningful, motivating.
Reality check—is your goal realistic? Aspirations are only as good as your ability to reach the finish line. Setting impossible goals will only set you up for failure, which will cause morale to drop and make it much more challenging to get back on track. Ask yourself what you can reasonably accomplish. If focusing on company-wide employee happiness is too broad, focus on specific departments or teams and repeat the process once you have a viable system in place.
Protecting the achievability of your goals can be much more complicated if the task is handed down from above. Be sure you understand the barriers you face in achieving the stated goals and make them known before you start. For example, working with remote teams may require specialized software and a slightly different approach. You’ll want to ensure the resources are in place to support your success.
Always set achievable goals. It’s okay if they are challenging, but don’t make them impossible. Other words: Agreed.
To gauge relevance, think about the “why” behind your goal. In our example, you know that employee happiness reduces turnover, increases productivity, and improves collaboration, all of which contribute to the company’s bottom line. Happy employees also make it easier to recruit top talent and tend to translate to customer satisfaction. So, while there are many reasons why improving employee happiness is relevant, articulating them will help you focus on the right things as you progress toward the goal.
Always be honest about what your stakeholders are capable of. Be realistic about the challenges you may face. Other words: resourced, reasonable.
Setting a timeframe to achieve your stated goal helps everyone stay on the same page and know when the goal has been reached. Think about the time needed to implement the tools and any potential challenges to the timeline. All SMART goals should have time parameters built in from the start so the initiative stays on track.
Always give yourself a deadline. Don’t chase goals that you “might” achieve “someday.” Other words: time-limited, time-sensitive, time and resource-limited.
Goals without adequate planning are just ideas. Imagine any competitive sport without a game plan—winning teams always have a strategy.
Goals establish accountability and enhance clarity and focus, enabling employees and team leaders to assess progress.
Setting SMART goals helps prevent overreaching or having unrealistic expectations of what you or your people are capable of. Guided by SMART goals, employees and teams have clarity and can focus not just on the task but on why they are doing it and what it will take to get there.
For teams, SMART goals provide a sense of direction and shared purpose, making it easier to establish a game plan that charts a clear, viable path toward the goal.
SMART goals can be applied to just about any workplace initiative. The SMART framework will improve performance and ensure you are focused on the right things. Here are a few typical examples of SMART goals in action.
Better time management improves productivity and efficiency. Improving time management skills may help teams accelerate project timelines and reduce waste across the organization. Here’s an example of how to apply SMART goals to this challenge.
Communication in the workplace is essential to collaboration, inclusivity, innovation, and maintaining a strong, connected culture. Here’s how to set SMART goals around enhancing communication skills.
Improving technical skills increases in-house knowledge and helps to align the workforce with evolving technology and trends. Increasing company knowledge may reduce recruiting needs and provide development opportunities for existing staff.
Customer satisfaction improves loyalty, reduces the cost of acquisition, and generally makes everyone’s jobs easier. While there are many ways to achieve this goal, it’s best to focus on specific tools and metrics and find what works best for you and your teams.
Now that we better understand what SMART goals are and how they can be applied to typical workplace objectives, let’s dive deeper into the benefits they bring.
SMART goals provide clear direction for your employees, managers, and teams. When people understand what they need to focus on, they’ll apply themselves to those goals and move forward with confidence and clarity.
Ensuring employees know the “why” behind what they’re being asked to do is vital. Without substantiation, they may lack critical pieces of the puzzle that will help them visualize success. Having a direction and objective allows people to focus on what they need to do to get it done rather than being distracted by the minutiae.
SMART goals increase motivation by providing attainable goals to work toward. For example, when employees have a task to complete and are provided with the support and resources to do it within the allotted time, they will be more motivated to dig into the task to ensure completion. Completing tasks represents victory, boosting morale, improving engagement, and instilling a sense of accomplishment.
Measurable goals support more accurate progress tracking and help leaders identify opportunities for improvement along the way. For example, if support performance hits its marks in all but one or two areas, the outliers could be highlighted for further investigation and resources.
A structured goal-setting approach leads to better workflow efficiency and more predictable results. SMART goals are designed to be measurable and achievable, which enables tasks to be broken down into smaller steps. Tracking progress and milestones along the way helps workers manage their time more efficiently, leading to increased productivity.
SMART goals benefit professional growth as they help individuals focus on areas they want to improve or develop and craft a SMART framework for each domain. For example, a manager with aspirations of advancing into a higher leadership position might need to develop key relationships within their industry, enhance their negotiation skills, presentation skills, or the ability to think broadly. Achieving these goals may require coaching, training, mentorship, and practical experience, all of which can be built into the SMART framework.
Some organizations struggle with goal-setting. Many simply forge ahead and eventually reach the finish line, but SMART goals offer a better way to keep your people, teams, and projects on track. SMART goals were created to make goal-setting more predictable and provide a repeatable template for continued success.
Here are a few SMART goal-setting tips designed with companies and teams in mind.
Setting the right goals is as crucial as goal-setting itself. When creating your SMART framework, ensure the goals you choose align with the company’s organizational objectives and that the result will contribute to the company’s success.
Communication is essential for a successful campaign. All stakeholders, from individual employees up to the executive suite, must understand the process and purpose of the initiative for it to succeed. Articulate the core objective, who owns each process, what will be measured, and at what intervals. Most importantly, define what success looks like so everybody understands.
Before launching, create a step-by-step action plan to detail timelines and what will happen at each stage. Deadlines and milestones are critical as they are what constitutes success, failure, or a need to recalibrate.
Monitoring progress allows you to visualize progress (or lack thereof), enabling adjustments if needed. It’s critical to keep the momentum going. Milestones should be based on measurable outcomes and are usually measured using KPIs appropriate to the goal. Check in regularly and solicit feedback to inform improvements. In the case of long-term initiatives, frequent check-ins are critical as the changes may be less dramatic.
Seek feedback from all sources—peers, mentors, leaders, team members, and third parties, if applicable. Objective feedback is vital as it provides an outside perspective on your progress. People tend to take ownership of goals if they are asked to contribute, and constructive feedback will help you improve the results and the buy-in.
As with any initiative, there are bound to be setbacks. Keeping your people engaged, committed, and focused on driving positive results is vital to success. Recognition helps to boost morale and keep everyone on track. Keep track of who is excelling, reach out to them directly, and share their wins with the team on the company’s intranet feed or newsletter. Many small victories are the building blocks of great achievements, and recognition will keep your teams focused and resilient.
SMART goals are powerful tools that motivate, invigorate, and unite your teams around a common purpose. Best of all, the SMART framework can be applied to any goal or initiative, large or small. The strategy works just as well for company-wide or individual goals and can also be used for professional development.
The concept of breaking down goals into small, measurable, achievable steps can make light work of even the most monumental challenges. The tips and insights we’ve shared today are designed to get you started and ensure you’re focused on the right things.
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Gabe Scorgie
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