S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Smartphones, smart TVs, and smart goals! What makes a smartphone and a smart TV, well… smart? The enhanced features intended to make your life easier. S.M.A.R.T. goals also involve “enhanced” features meant to improve performance. When developed correctly, they become motivating road maps to help you venture on.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for the necessary elements of an effective goal: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. For S.M.A.R.T. goals to be effective they must be aligned with the overall goal you’re trying to accomplish. To start, identify what’s important to you as the business owner and combine this with your company purpose. Allow yourself the opportunity to brainstorm freely, then collect common threads into a general statement.

To transform your conceptual goal into an effective tool, determine which aspects of this goal might be open to interpretation and get Specific. Define exactly what successfully meeting the goal will look like. What are you trying to achieve? Who needs to be involved? Does the location matter? The more clearly you draw the map, the easier it will be to follow.

Thoroughly addressing the S in S.M.A.R.T. feeds into the remaining elements. All the details may not end up in the wording of the goal itself, but they are vital to successfully implementing the goal.

• • Specific: What does success look like? Is anything unclear?

• • Measurable: How will you know if the goal is achieved?

• • Achievable: Are the specifics you’ve outlined realistic? Do you have the resources needed to accomplish the goal?

• • Relevant: Does this goal emphasize, and help accomplish, what’s important to you? Does it tie-back into the company purpose?

• • Timely: When will you evaluate whether the goal has been met? Does the time frame affect the goal’s achievability and relevance to the company?

While setting S.M.A.R.T. goals can be time-consuming, the resulting clarity of direction will improve your business performance! As with any strategy, it must be flexible to change as new information is received.

Communicating expectations and how the goal is applicable, as well as reviewing the goal itself, are also part of the process. The key is aligning the goals with what is actually important to you and following through with their implementation.

If you’re thinking goal setting’s easier said than done, don’t get discouraged! We at Venture Further Consulting, Inc. would love to help you reap the benefits of creating S.M.A.R.T. goals for your company. Contact us today and, just like the learning curve for new technology, once you get the hang of it you’ll be glad you did.