Setting SMART goals

Setting SMART goals

How often do you set goals? Are your goals SMART? Are some of your goals more important than others?

What is a goal? One way to think about it is to say it’s what you want to achieve by doing something. If you are driving to the local shop, buying a bottle of milk or loaf of bread could be your goal. Goals at work are the same, they are primarily about getting tasks completed. Some people call goals objectives. In this session we will talk about goals, but they are effectively the same thing. For example, a shop display team may want to have a new display for the summer sale. Getting the new display set up is their goal (or objective). Time management is important in achieving your goals because you need to manage your time to do so. First you need to identify your goals, then put them into order or priority, then you need to look at how you use your time to achieve them. You are more likely to achieve them if the goals you set meet the SMART criteria. In this session we’ll look at what makes a goal SMART and how you can make sure you always set yourself SMART goals.

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 1

Setting SMART goals

Identify Your Goals Your goals are where you want to go or what you want to be. You really have to be clear about what they are and you must also really want to achieve them. In his book The Naked Leader, David Taylor gives the example of people who want to give up smoking. They usually define their goal as being to give up smoking. But he argues that is not their goal. Their true goal is to be a non-smoker. People who want to give up smoking are smokers, so their goal is based on where they are, not where they want to be. Being a nonsmoker is very different, because it represents the person you want to become not the person you currently are. It is the destination, not the journey. But many people feel that they can’t easily give up smoking, so they start off by trying to cut down. Their goal is to give up, but they use intermediate goals to help them. Intermediate simply means that they come between where they are and where they want to be. Read the case study below for an example.

Case Study Tom is a team leader in a plant nursery. At 8.00 am, he plans the day. Tom tells Alex to re-pot 500 shrubs by one o’clock. First, Alex makes sure he understands the task. How many shrubs? Which ones is he to re-pot? What size pots are they to go in? What time does Tom want the job done by? Alex writes down the task as a reminder. Next, Alex sets a smaller goal. He will re-pot 100 plants every hour. But after 30 minutes, he has only re-potted 40 plants. Alex knows that he needs to work faster to make his target of 100 plants in an hour. Because Alex broke his large goal down into smaller goals, he is able to check his progress. He can see what he must do in order to achieve his goal. Alex also warns Tom that he is behind schedule. Tom asks if he needs help. Alex says that he thinks he can catch up on his own, but Tom says he will come and give him a hand in half an hour if he hasn’t caught up by then.

You can see how, by breaking down a large goal into intermediate goals, it becomes easier to manage. It also helps you to know if you are on target to achieve your goal. Now have a go at the exercise on the next page.

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 2

Setting SMART goals

Exercise Do you set goals for yourself and your team? Think about a current (or recent) job task: What is (or was) the goal for the task?

Can this main goal be broken down into smaller goals? If so what are they?

Analyse large tasks In many jobs, tasks are quite complex, making it hard to set clear goals. In such cases you need to analyse the tasks before you set goals. This means thinking about the smaller tasks that need to be completed to complete the large task. This is where the team can help. If your team helps to analyse what needs doing they will share responsibility for meeting goals, and it’s more likely they will be achieved. Teams can juggle workloads between the members to make sure goals are met. Use the following questions to analyse a complex job: What really needs to be achieved? (Sometimes it’s easy to forget what you are trying to achieve because you get sucked into doing the task. ‘When you’re up your neck in mud and surrounded by alligators it’s difficult to remember that you set out to drain the swamp!’) Which specific tasks will help me accomplish this goal? (By breaking the task down into more manageable tasks you are more likely to be able to identify what resources you need and meet.) Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 3

Setting SMART goals What intermediate goals (sometimes called milestones or targets) can I set for each of these smaller tasks? How long will each task take, what resources are needed, and are there likely to be any problems in achieving the goal? Is there any particular order in which the tasks must be completed? This is called sequencing - deciding on the best sequence or order for completing the tasks. The answers to these questions help you set priorities. Priority is about the importance of a task and the urgency with which it is completed. The following case study shows how one member of Tom’s team at the nursery has to organise her tasks.

Case Study Tonya works with Tom and Alex at the nursery. She is another member of Tom’s team. This morning Tonya has been given responsibility for tidying up a greenhouse where young plants have been grown. It must be ready to give customers the opportunity to select the plants they want to buy. Her goal is the get the greenhouse ready for customers. Tonya knows she has to turn off the sprinklers in the greenhouse, as the plants have all been watered for an hour. She also has to sort through a pile of spare pots just inside the door and throw out any damaged ones. The good ones need to be put back into the store room. She also needs to remove any dead or damaged plants. This will leave gaps in the displays. Some other plants will need to be brought in from another area to fill these gaps. Tonya also knows that she must move all the plants on display, keeping the same varieties together. Then she must clean the matting they stand on and pull up any weeds which have appeared in the gaps between the sheets of matting. Then she must put the plants back on display, in the right groupings. She must also put notices up so that customers can identify the plants. But before she starts, she goes to turn off the sprinklers. She wonders if she’ll have time to complete all the tasks before she goes home.

Every large job ask is made up of many small job tasks. This is true for Tonya. Her main goal is to prepare the greenhouse for customers to use. This can only be done by identifying other intermediate goals.

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 4

Setting SMART goals These include making sure the area is clean and ready for customers. It also means making sure there are no gaps in the display, all plants are properly signed and the spare pots are removed. She identifies her goals and studies them. But before she starts, Tonya turns off the sprinklers. When she starts to work out the sequence in which to carry out the tasks, Tonya judges two things: How urgent is the task? How important is the task? These are not the same thing. More urgent tasks need to be completed within a particular time limit or order (that is, before something else can be done). More important jobs may affect a lot of people or cost a lot of money. They may also have major implications if they are not done, or if they are done badly. For example, if you are going abroad on holiday, it is important that you have a passport. If your holiday isn’t for six months, it isn’t urgent. It becomes urgent if you leave it too late. Turning off the sprinklers is urgent and important - if the plants get waterlogged they will rot, and she can’t do anything else until they are turned off. Removing the old pots isn’t urgent, but it is fairly important (because it makes the place look uncared for and puts off customers). Getting the display looking good is very important and is also fairly urgent, because the plants are ready for sale. Left too long and they will be come unsellable. That’s why Tonya turns off the sprinkler first.

Exercise Think about four or five tasks you normally undertake. List them below. In the first column put them in order of importance with the most important first and the least important last. In the second column list them in order of urgency with the most urgent first and the least urgent last. Are your two lists in the same order? Importance

Urgency

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 5

Setting SMART goals Sometimes it helps to use the idea of importance and urgency to work out the order in which to do tasks. This diagram can help you to sort your tasks and plan when to do them.

More urgent

More important

Less important

Less urgent

Must be done soon.

Plan a time for it to

Do you need help?

be done.

Can someone else do

Does it need doing?

it?

Can someone else do

If not, do it quickly.

it?

One way of using the urgent/important grid is to divide your desk or work table into four boxes. You can do it in your head, you don’t need to mark it. Write all your tasks onto pieces of paper or sticky notes. Put each note into the appropriate square. The use the advice

Making sure your goals are SMART SMART stands for: Specific Measurable Achievable (or Agreed) Resourced (or Realistic or Relevant) Time-based (or Timely) The alternative versions have similar outcomes, but in Building Success 2 we will focus on the version that we believe is the most useful and effective. Let’s look at each word in detail.

Specific A goal should be clear and unambiguous. Clear means that anyone will know what it means. Unambiguous means that it couldn’t be understood to mean different outcomes. Look at the goals over the page. Do you think they are ’Specific’?

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 6

Setting SMART goals 1. Get better at what we do 2. Improve quality 3. Reduce reject rates Goal 1 really doesn’t tell you anything - what does ‘get better’ mean; what does ‘what we do’ refer to? Goal 2 is better, but ‘quality’ has lots of different aspects, so it still needs clarifying. Goal 3 is specific - rejects are products that fail to meet defined quality standards, so reducing this clearly means something and can’t be confused with something else.

Measurable Measurable goals means that it’s possible to tell if they have been achieved. Although ‘reduce reject rates’ is Specific, it’s only measurable in the sense that the tiniest reduction means it has been achieved. ‘Reduce reject rates from 4.2% to 2.5%’ is measurable. Measurable goals are either: goals that have a straightforward ‘yes/no’ outcome, which can’t be misunderstood (‘Remove all the desks and chairs from the office, ready for redecorating’ - they are all gone or they aren’t.) goals that have a particular quantity attached to the outcomes (‘Make 50 sales calls a day’)

Achievable There is no point in having goals that can’t be achieved. Nor is there a lot of point in setting goals that are so easy to achieve that they are not worth achieving. The best goals are achievable but stretch you make you try just that little bit harder.

Resourced There is no point setting goals for yourself or your team that don’t have the backing of the organisation. That means that you have the necessary tools and equipment, time, money and backing of your line manager. Make sure you work out what you need to achieve your goals and then check that these are all available.

Time-based Putting time limits on your goals is critical, otherwise you can be working towards them for the next 50 years and still not admit you haven’t achieved them! The time limits should be sensible but not too tight to make the goals hard to achieve, nor too loose that they give you all the time in the world. Also, you should remember that the longer the time you have, the later you will start working towards them.

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 7

Setting SMART goals

Comprehension Check Complete the following exercises. Refer back to the session if necessary. A. Why should you analyse a large task?

B. What’s the difference between a task and a goal?

C. Read the following questions. Circle the letter in front of the answer. 1. How do goals help you manage time at work? a. Goals mean you describe the task in detail. b. Setting goals makes you spend time on planning. c. Goals help you to decide what you need to achieve 2. Elly makes a list of her goals and separates out those that have to be done soon from those which she can do at a later date. What is Elly deciding about these goals? a. what is important b. what is urgent c. what is urgent and important 3. Darren is leader of a team that fits replacement wooden windows. When he organises the day’s work schedule, he is careful to work out how urgent and important each goal is. What skill is Darren using? a. sequencing b. setting priorities c. communicating 4. Which of the following goals is SMART? a. To use the increased size of the team to reduce customer waiting times by the end of this quarter b. To reduce customer waiting times to less than three minutes by the end of this quarter c. To use the increased size of the team to reduce customer waiting times to less than three minutes by the end of this quarter

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 8

Setting SMART goals

Making Connections Answer the questions following each case. Case A Marion is a classroom assistant. She works in a village primary school. She has several goals on Friday. She must go through the teacher’s lesson plans for topics to be covered the next week, get worksheets copied for the pupils to use and make a display from the pupils’ work this week. Put Marion's goals into the appropriate box.

More urgent

Less urgent

More important

Less important

Case B Rachel works as a waitress in a family restaurant. She meets people at the reception and takes them to their table. She takes their orders, serves their meals, and takes the payment at the end of the meal. Her boss is Mike. Mike tells Rachel that her most important job is keeping customers happy. On Saturday lunchtime, the restaurant is very busy. People must wait to get tables. Help Rachel to set her priorities. Number the following tasks from the most important to the least important. The most important task should be number 1 and the least important task should be number 4. Taking the money from customers who are ready to leave. Clearing empty tables so that new customers can be seated. Taking waiting customers to their table . Chatting to people in the queue.

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 9

Setting SMART goals

Think and Apply How well do you use the skills in this session? Think about what you learned and then consider someone that you know who is well organised. You might think of a friend or a team member who accomplishes a lot in a day. How does the person do it? Does he or she identify goals? Does he or she have priorities?

1. Read the list of skills. Tick the boxes to show your strengths and weaknesses. Skills

strengths weaknesses I’m good at this

I’m I’m not I’m quite so quite good good poor at this at this at this

distinguishing goals from tasks identifying your goals breaking a big task down into smaller tasks with intermediate goals setting priorities for goals setting SMART goals 2. Do you want to improve any of these skills?

3. How do you plan to improve the skills you listed in question 2? (You might want to discuss this with your line manager or your tutor/mentor/coach.)

Published by the Institute of Leadership & Management and QMD Ltd © 2006 Copied under licence

Page 10