Why SMART Goal settings Matter?
Defining smart goal settings objective is crucial to know where we are going, otherwise, it would be like walking around blindly or choosing any way to get somewhere. In the first, it is most likely that we will stumble many times and in the second, that we arrive at an unwanted place.
Having goals Smart allows better allocate resources, whether of time or financial. In addition, they always keep us in focus, allowing the entire work team to know and point in the same direction.
What are SMART goals?
As the acronym says, SMART goals are smart, directing a company’s strategic efforts to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-limited. The SMART criteria, therefore, help you to distinguish between effective objectives and those that are not, and refer to the 5 basic characteristics that each objective must have to be considered as intelligent:
- Specific (specific): what do you want to achieve in your focal area?
- Measurable (measurable): What KPI or indicators can be used to measure efficiency?
- Attainable (achievable): is it reasonable with respect to the internal and external situation of the company?
- Relevant (relevant): why is your company or your customers interested?
- Timely (time-limited): When do I have to achieve this goal?
How to set SMART GOAL SETTINGS objectives according to each characteristic?
Specific
An objective is specific when it is punctual and at the same time, it answers questions such as the what, when, how, who, where or why of a certain action. This characteristic is limited to a specific aspect, task or action of a company.
In addition, define who your objective is directed towards, since it can be towards a known audience, towards new markets or, even, towards your collaborators.
Measurable
To be measurable, an objective has to be specific, otherwise, it is not possible to interpret if the results are within the expected. Since it is a process, it is necessary that you have the indicators, that is, the criteria and quantitative metrics. To help you analyze compliance after certain determined periods and in this way establish its effectiveness.
Achievable
It is very important that you set realistic goals. We must be ambitious, but also make it possible to carry them out, with the human, technical and financial resources that we have. In addition, you need to be honest with yourself and stay informed about what is happening in your company and around you, which will help create challenging goals, but with your feet on the ground.
On the other hand, it should be taken into account that depending on the compliance we achieve, later on, we can aim for higher goals.
Relevant
A relevant objective is attached to what the company is looking for, since irrelevant objectives are not only not met, but also guide the company in the wrong direction. To define it, you need to know what means you have and what additional means you need. In addition to taking into account the obstacles that you will find on the way.
Time Limit
By defining the date of achievement of an objective, you help your team to continually seek its fulfilment, otherwise, it may be forgotten or become irrelevant. It is very important that you do not forget to set a deadline to achieve the objective set. Thinking about time is synonymous with focusing; When you set goals without a deadline, they are just dreams.
SMART – Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely
Define temporary objectives in a general, partial and daily way: if you want to increase the number of employees from 50 to 80 in 1 year, in 6 months you will have to have 50% of new employees trained, and each day you will have to carry out 2 interviews to fulfil the total goal.
4 examples of SMART Goal Settings objectives:
SMART Objective 1
“Increase visits to our website by 50% (from 1000 to 1500) in the next 30 days, by doubling the distribution of content and in order to prepare for the launch of our new product.”
- S: Increase visits to our website by 50%
- M: 50% (from 1,000 to 1,500)
- A: doubling the content distribution
- A: To prepare for the launch of our new product.
- T: in the next 30 days
SMART objective 2
“Increase sales by 20% in the next 12 months, offering new products to existing customers.”
- S: Increase sales by 20%
- M: 20% (from $ 200,000 to $ 240,000)
- A: offering our new products to existing customers
- A: (customer retention and increase sales)
- T: 12 months
SMART 3 objective
“Grow the marketing team by 10% (from 100 to 110 employees) by the end of the first quarter of next year, by hiring 3 employees every 3 months to complete the content creation team.”
- S: Grow the marketing team by 10%
- M: 10% (from 100 to 110 employees)
- A: hiring 3 employees every 3 months
- A: To complete the content creation team.
- T: by the end of the first quarter of next year
SMART 4 objective
“Increase your qualified leads from 300 to 3000 in 6 months with the creation of 5 new content offers”
- S: Increase the number of qualified leads
- M: from 300 to 3000
- A: with the creation of 5 new content offerings
- R : (increase sales possibilities)
- T: in a period of 6 months