For leaders, there are several "soft skills" that is
valuable for them to be comfortable with, both on a personal level as well as
to use within their organizations. As we
have passed the New Years (and the idea of New Year’s Resolutions), I
think it’s important to touch on one: Goal Setting. This skill, along with time management and
planning are important for all.
Goal Setting is something we all must face. As individuals we should be setting goals for
ourselves. The organizations we are part
of should be doing the same. Many groups
will have an annual planning session in which they review the accomplishments
of the group in the past year, including how well they met their goals, set new
goals for the coming year, and make plans for the organization. As leaders, we should be comfortable with
goal setting ourselves if we expect to lead our groups in setting and keeping
their goals.
When speaking of goals, most use the concept of SMART goals
(tho one organization I am part of extends this to SMARTER). If you’ve taken any training on goals, you
have probably been introduced to the concept.
The letters stand for:
Each letter represents an aspect that the goal should
meet. Be advised that some sources give
different words for some of the letter.
Specific means the goal must be specific, not vague. Basically meeting the “who, what, where,
when, why” kind of questions. Usually
“what do you want to accomplish”, “why” are you working on the goal, “who is
involved”, “when” is a possible location, and “which”- basically any
constraints. Having a goal like “I want
to do better” or the like is just too vague.
Measurable means the goal must have some way to measure if
it’s been achieved, by qualitative or quantitative means (ie amounts or
percentages). We want to recruit 10 new
members is a good measurable goal. We
want more members is not.
Attainable looks at if the goal is attainable: do we have
the means (resources) to attain the goal.
It’s ok for goals to push or stretch an individual or a team (they can
grow from that), but the goal should not be something difficult to achieve.
Relevant is about the goal being a meaningful goal vs one
that is silly or unnecessary. Are you
willing to achieve that goal?
And finally, you need to set a time for when the goal should
be achieved. This could be next week,
next month, or next year. But you need
to know when it will be accomplished.
Now, I mentioned that some groups extend SMART to
SMARTER. What do the extra letters
mean? E is Evaluate. This means that you are evaluating the
progress of the goals as you go along.
This is important to know that if you are halfway on your timeline that
you have achieved what you expected at that point, else you need to put more
effort OR take another action. R is for
Revisit. This means revisiting the goal
and changing it if there is a problem.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you can have different
kinds of goals. Some goals may be long
term (several months to a year or more).
Some may be short term (weeks or months). Some may be in between. Sometimes short term goals lead into long
term goals. A long term goal may be to
graduate from college. Medium term goals
would be the successful completion of coursework to graduate. Short term goals would be the assignments and
work that goes into completing those individual courses.
As noted, as individuals we need to set goals for ourselves
and work to accomplish them. These goals
can be of various kinds. Some may be
personal. Some may be tied to work,
school, or the organizations we are involved in.
Also, groups should have goals. Goals for groups may deal with growth of the
group, meeting the purpose of the group and the like. Many organizations, to help their constituent
groups meet goals, will have programs that push their groups to do better. These may be called quality or distinguished
programs that are based on recognizing the groups for meeting defined
goals. While many people put down these
programs, they fail to understand the underlying purpose of such programs. They are all built around the basic goals
that those particular groups should be achieving, such as membership group,
meeting the purposes of the group for the membership and the like. If only groups would take these programs more
seriously, the groups could be more successful.
As with all of the Leaders Notes, I have tried to find
works that tie in to the topic, to give people further materials to learn from. But I wasn’t that successful with this. Ken Blanchard in his works touches on goal
setting in his original One Minute Manager, but doesn't get into SMART. He does cover the concept in his later
Leading at a Higher Level (2006, 2009).
Goal setting is also part of Covey’s 7 Habits, but he also doesn’t make
use of SMART. If others have some good resources, let me
know.
I did find a couple of videos that illustrate this concept
that I think may be of use.
The first is part of a series- Venture Guide: SMART Goals
The second is an animated video using xtra normal:
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