Is your management team using the SMART goal-setting approach?

Chances are you and your management team have already set goals for 2021. But, is your management team laser focused on them using the SMART goal-setting approach?

The effort taken upfront to set SMART goals helps your team stay consistent and achieve results. The five criteria below dramatically increases their chances for success and promotes strategic alignment and motivation across the company.

1. Specific: What exactly do you want to achieve?

2. Measurable: What is the end zone that lets you know you achieved your goal?

3. Attainable: While your goals should stretch and challenge you, they shouldn’t be impossible. Set goals you are able to achieve through specific actions.

4. Realistic: Your goals should align with your mission and make sense to the project you’re working on.

5. Time-related: When do you want to achieve your goal? Set a deadline that drives you to take action.

Your management team might have a leadership goal on their list. At Pathfinder Solutions we focus on 10 Core Leadership Skills:

1. Goal Setting – to meet targets on or before deadline

2. Building Trust – for collaborative and innovative teams

3. Team Resilience – to turn challenges into opportunities

4. Conflict Resolution – for seamless teamwork and increased morale

5. Positive Accountability – for effective execution, to reduce distraction and stay on track

Check out our other 5 core skills here.

‘Positive accountability’ is too vague a goal to provide direction for achievement. Instead, pick a leadership skill and set a SMART goal around it.

Two SMART Goals Considerations:

1. What is the end result you want? If the goal is positive accountability, what does that look like in the real world? Is your team taking initiative or achieving more? Are they asking fewer questions and completing projects faster?

2. What metrics will you use to know you’ve achieved your goal? Intangible or soft skills can be difficult to measure. How do you know if you’ve created accountability? The key to measuring soft skills is to go back to your end result to create measures. For example, to gauge if positive accountability is up, you could track projects in a project management system or use a time-tracking data process to measure the goal.

What are your company goals for 2021? Share a comment below or schedule a time on my calendar that works best for you and we’ll talk about how SMART goals can help your management team stay focused and lead effectively

I look forward to connecting with you soon.

Yours on the adventure of 2021,

Tamie