A Guide To Smart Goals

 

Working and achieving positive results becomes easy when you set realistic and proper goals. A study by Dr. Gail Matthews, at the Dominican University in California, reveals that people are likely to achieve their goals when they have specific goals in mind and they write it down.

Mostly, when teams fail to meet the desired results, it is because of non-ideal goals, goals that are impractical to fulfil, or when there’s a lack of accountability towards said goals. Writing down goals introduces a sense of commitment and accountability to the process.

For this, you get SMART or SMARTER goals. These two are a set of clearly defined and measurable values that help set up goals that are easy to achieve and yield good results.

Today, we will go over these two variables and see how they help improve workplace efficiency.

What Are Smart and Smarter Goals?

For this purpose, we will take the example of a boss who tasks his sales manager with improving the company’s presence and driving more sales.

In the past, the results were coming in, but due to a lack of management, they were not as great as the boss wanted. Now, he puts this entire operation under the leadership of the sales manager. Now, the sales manager devises a strategy on the basis of SMART and SMARTER goals. Let us learn what they are first:

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive. Going over these parameters helps achieve goals more efficiently and drive effective outcomes.

1. Specific: A goal must be specific to be effective and achievable. It must answer questions related to the person performing it, the required end result, and the steps to achieve it. For Example: A boss wants the sales manager to engage the audience and achieve valuable growth within a month.
2. Measurable: A specific goal is good to work with, but it must be measurable. Also, you must track the progress, and reevaluate it to proceed further. For Example: The number of sales the boss demands are 10 per two weeks before setting the target for the next one.
3. Achievable: In order to achieve a target and reevaluate the goals, the target must be reasonable, realistic, and achievable. For Example: The boss wants the sales manager to achieve 20 sales in a month.
4. Relevant: The goal must be relevant and must provide value at the end. It could be growth, more sales, customer loyalty, etc. For Example: The 20 sales will bring in more audience, grow the brand, and generate revenue.
5. Time-Sensitive: To measure success and set new goals, each goal must have a time limit. These can also include the start time, reevaluation time, and end time. For Example: The 20 sales must happen within a month with 10 sales every two weeks.

Now let’s move over to: what do smarter targets stand for? And the SMARTER goals meaning. Basically, the start is the same as SMART goals, but you have two new demands to fulfil, i.e. Evaluate and Readjust and Reward.

1. Evaluate: You must evaluate your progress, priorities, and action plan related to the goal. It will help achieve it and set new goals. For Example: The boss gives the target of 10 sales for the first two weeks, checks often for updates, and at the end asks for a report to set new goals.
2. Re-adjust and Reward: At the end of the goal, you must reward yourself and the team involved. It will improve the focus and motivation to work better for the next goal. Also, re-adjust the goals for the further progress. For Example: The boss provides a cash bonus once the target is achieved and gives a day off to himself and the team.

What You Should Know?

Now that you have a brief idea of SMART and SMARTER goals, we will go over some important things you should know.

First, you must know what are some common types of goals. These can be:

• Improving something
• Creating something
• Increasing something
• Decreasing somethin
• Saving something
• Producing something

In the case of S – Specific, you have to answer the 5Ws to produce a specificity in a goal.

• Who – Define who is going to fulfil the task or who will be involved (in case you are working with a group).
• What – Define what you want to achieve. You can be as detailed as you want, whether alone or with a group.
• When – Although you have the time-sensitive parameter to define this, it is better to at least set a time for yourself.
• Where – This mostly applies when there is a specific location or event that you have to cover.
• Why – Finally, define the idea of the goal and why you want to achieve it. In the case of a business, it can be to gain an audience or achieve more sales.

SMART Goals and SMARTER Goals Examples

Finally, now that you know what each of the two means, here are some examples of both. First we will go over the SMART goals examples.

SMART Goal to Become a Valuable Leader

• Specific: My goal is to make sure my team can approach me, count on me, and grow alongside me. I want to ensure complete trust and transparency.
• Measurable: I will understand my team members and learn their strengths and weaknesses. I will conduct a survey to get their current thoughts, future planning, and feedback regarding new leadership and expectations.
• Achievable: I have prior experience in leadership and have learnt quite a few things from my superiors. I can fulfil this role.
• Relevant: I want to ensure my team is working hard with my support at every turn. Also, as the company grows, I must ensure my team grows along with it.
• Time-Sensitive: I must improve my team stats by 10% by the end of this month. It will require a lot of hard work, but I am sure I can achieve it.

SMART Goal to Establish Better Communications

• Specific: I must help my team, both in-house and remote to communicate effectively and make work seamless.
• Measurable: I must use a dedicated platform to make it happen. In this case, I can use Slack for better monitoring, efficiency, and productivity tracking.
• Achievable: Communication is essential to achieve goals and help yourself and the company grow. We must work on it promptly.
• Relevant: Our company has multiple offices and teams in various locations and it will only expand more. So, it is essential to establish better communication to strengthen that.
• Time-Sensitive: We must establish a Slack channel by tomorrow and set it up properly. Then, we must invite everyone and give a briefing. We must all start communicating and collaborating on Slack by the end of this week.

Now, let’s move over to SMARTER goals examples

SMARTER Goal to Increase Sales

• Specific: The boss wants me to work on strategies and teams to improve sales. I will first focus on one area of improvement, i.e., outbound sales leads.
• Measurable: I must improve the outbound sales leads by 20% by introducing a new channel for working and devising a strategy for it. For example, LinkedIn sales, Instagram sales, social media sales, in general, etc.
• Achievable: I must see if my team can achieve this goal and see if they can work on this strategy to achieve desirable results.
• Relevant: Upgrading the IT infrastructure for the sales team will make their processes more streamlined and efficient, so recycling old computers and approving the purchase of better systems and a sales CRM.
• Time-Sensitive: I must improve the brand’s presence and achieve the required 20% increase in leads by the end of this quarter.
• Evaluate: I must monitor the progress every week and month and look for valuable audiences to work on sales. If the strategy is not working, I must make some changes to improve the end results.
• Re-adjust and Reward: If me and my team fulfill this task, I will arrange a dinner party along with a one-day off for the entire team to rejuvenate and come back stronger to secure more sales. Meanwhile, I will re-adjust the goals for further improvement.

SMARTER Goal to Reduce Employee Turnover Rate

• Specific: First, I must identify the area of risk and issues. I must try and reduce the amount of employee turnover rate, at least for those employees who have been with the company for less than a year.
• Measurable: I must try to reduce the employee turnover rate by 20% by addressing the issues and resolving them.
• Achievable: I must thoroughly consider if this target is achievable. If it is, then it’s great. If it is not, I must communicate with my peers to set a more realistic goal.
• Relevant: A high employee turnover rate can damage the reputation of the company and reduce the chances of good candidates applying.
• Time-Sensitive: I must ensure the set reduction in employee turnover rate must happen within 6 months.
• Evaluate: I must evaluate the progress each month, go over the process of improvement, and if everything is working well, let it run. However, if the results are not as expected, I must see what is not working well and adjust those parameters to achieve desirable results. For example, the onboarding process or the working schedule.
• Re-adjust and Reward: I must talk with the boss to arrange a bonus for the team that helped achieve this. It is not a small task, and a simple Thank You won’t cut it. Moreover, I must ensure the team keeps on working to improve the employee retention and engagement rate for further progress.

Tips for Using SMART and SMARTER Goals

Even with completely devised parameters for goal setting, some people struggle to set up goals and achieve them. However, you must remember that it is a skill that will improve overtime. Although your first goal may not be as defined or well-executed at the end, you will learn valuable things to apply in your next effort.

Sill, we are here to help and not just motivate you to do better. Here are some essential tips to help you get better with the SMART and SMARTER goals strategy.

• Follow Simplicity

Making large goals or big-scale objectives may hinder your progress and may not be ideal to fit in this framework. For example, making the company achieve 100% revenue may seem difficult to do at once. So, break the objective into smaller chunks that are easy to achieve or attain. As a result, you will be able to move forward more efficiently and effectively.

• Reward Yourself and the Team

Sometimes, it is good to gift or reward yourself with a little treat after successfully completing a task or goal. Also, you can do the same with the team. It motivates the inner working person and allows more focus next time.

• Goals are Separate for Everything

The same milestones, parameters, and strategies that worked for one goal might not work for another. You must remember that it is no one-size-fits-all. Instead, you should try different approaches for work, personal, and health or wellness goals.

• Evaluate Each Goal

Before starting off or even setting it for yourself, you must carefully evaluate yourself. It will help you check if you are fit for the role or have the ability or capacity to do so. Identify what you want to achieve, and you may motivate yourself further.

• Measure Your Limits

Another step to take before starting off with the goal is to measure and understand your limits. Check to see if the goal meets your or your team’s capabilities. If it is out of your or your team’s league, it might be better to take a step back and re-evaluate. You can also try breaking the goal down into multiple steps to make it much easier.

• Make Notes

It is good to plan out things in your head and be passionate about achieving them. However, it is much better to write down what you plan to achieve and how you plan to achieve it. You can write down the complete SMART or SMARTER statements according to your goal. It will help remind you how, why, and when you started it all, as well as the time you have to complete it. Also, you must do the same with progress tracking.

• Be Flexible

You must have heard the phrase, “There is no ideal machine”. Likewise, there is no perfect plan. It is possible that the results you had in mind beforehand don’t happen, and you find yourself stuck. Now, trying again and again with the same strategy may not be a wise thing to do. So, at this point, it is better to step back and think again. Do not be afraid or frustrated to readjust your action plan and start again.

• Learn from Failures

Failures and hurdles are part of every journey. You must think of them as opportunities to learn and grow. Whenever something like this happens, stop for a while, evaluate what you have done wrong, and consider what you can do to achieve a desirable outcome. Also, don’t dwell on your past or mistakes, move on stronger.

Conclusion

The SMART idea of our today’s blog was to provide you with enough information about the subject that you can apply it in your daily life and achieve success. We hope we have achieved our goal and made you a lot SMARTER.

However, to follow these parameters, you must set some goals of your own first. After that, you can measure them and track progress with proper metrics and results. It will help you determine whether you are on the right track. Also, it will save energy as you will be heading in the right direction with a proper plan, notes, progress, and results.

SMART and SMARTER objectives help support the future and secure good positions at every stage. Remember, progress is progress, no matter what. Even if you are struggling at the start, don’t give up; you are learning a lot. Try again harder, and we are sure you will be able to achieve all your goals, successfully.