SMART Goals Template: Use This to Quickly Write Your Goals In addition to writing down the criteria for a SMART goal and checking that the goal you set matches each criterion, you may also find it beneficial to make use of a more thorough goal setting template. How you decide to use a goal setting template depends on the template itself. Writing SMART Objectives; Developing and Using a Logic Model; Fundamentals of Evaluating Partnerships; Practical Strategies for Culturally Competent Evaluation; Tips & Training plus icon. Five-Part Webcast on Economic Evaluation; Spotlights & Strategies; Results & Lessons Learned plus icon. Coverdell Program 2012-2015 Evaluation Summary.
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How to Write a SMART Goal? Now that we have discussed a lot about the SMART goal criterion, we will help you understand how to write one effectively. Check out the steps below to writing a SMART goal. Step # 1: Provide the Summary of the Goal. The very first step to writing a SMART goal is to provide a summary to your goal.
When setting development goals, people have little trouble translating the tangible ones into SMART goals. “Increase revenue by X% within six months”….”Reduce customer wait time on the phone by 4 minutes by end of Q3”….and so on.
On the other hand, when it comes to goals targeting “soft skills” or corporate competencies, people often struggle to create SMART goals. They’re often pretty broad and general. It’s not uncommon to see something like, ““Be a better communicator” or the ever popular “improve my leadership skills.”
While it can be more challenging to make SMART goals for competency-based areas as compared to more technical work (widget production, customer satisfaction, financials, etc.), it’s certainly not impossible. In fact, the reason I've typically seen clients struggle to build SMART goals targeting competencies is because they lack understanding of the behaviors associated with the competency. It’s tough to be specific with your goals when you’re not clear on what exactly needs to change. Even tougher to determine success measures.
In this post I will review two SMART goal examples with a focus on specificity and measurability. Less focus will be given to the “ART” because 1) only you can determine if your goal is attainable and realistic, and 2) you surely don’t need to see examples to learn how to specify a timeframe (but if you do please share in the comments so I know for future!)
Also, these are examples of goals as opposed to activities which support the goal. The activities are the things you do and the goal is the reason you’re doing the activities. People have no problem coming up with the activities, they’re pretty much structured task lists (e.g., take my team to lunch once a month, attend change management training, etc.). They’re also often mistakenly referred to as goals. They’re not. Therefore, the SMART goal examples presented here focus on the purpose or reason for completing development activities. Ideally, you should establish the goals prior to determining the activities.
Specific and Measurable SMART Goal Examples
To make competency-based SMART goals more specific and measurable, follow these four steps:
- Add context
- Consider desired state
- Identify success measures
- Identify data points to capture the success measures
Example 1: “Be a Better Communicator”
Step 1: Provide Context
Communication is such a broad area. Think about all the types of communication you engage in throughout the day. Verbal conversations with clients about deliverables. Emails to your work team with announcements and updates. Questions you ask in meetings. The list goes on.
To make this goal more specific, think about what it looks like when the communication transpires. What kind of communication is it – verbal or written? Who is the audience? What kind of information is being communicated? Here are few examples of what “communication” might mean:
- Deliver verbal presentations to senior leadership for quarterly update meetings.
- Write emails to direct reports assigning them a new client or project.
- Provide feedback to members of a project team regarding their performance.
Step 2: Determine Desired State
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Next think about your desired state. What aspect of the communication would you like to improve? Clarity? Comprehensiveness? Message quality?
- Deliver verbal presentations to senior leadership for quarterly update meetings that are clear and concise.
- Write emails to direct reports assigning them a new client or project that provide enough information for them to begin working immediately.
- Provide feedback to members of a project team regarding their performance that is viewed as meaningful and timely.
Step 3: Identify Success Measures
Think about how you will know you’ve communicated successfully.
Deliver verbal presentations to senior leadership for quarterly update meetings that are clear and concise.
- Senior leaders describe the presentations as clear and concise.
- Minimal signs of confusion by the audience during the presentation.
Write emails to direct reports assigning them a new client or project that provide enough information for them to begin working immediately.
- Direct reports indicate they received sufficient information to get started immediately.
- Client indicates satisfaction with amount of time it took to get started.
- The actual amount of time it takes for direct report and new client to make first contact.
Provide feedback to members of a project team regarding their performance that is viewed as meaningful and timely.
- Team members indicate the feedback they receive is meaningful.
- Team members indicate the feedback they receive is timely.
- Amount of time between delivery of the feedback and the event or incident it’s about.
Step 4: Identify Data Points
What data is available or can you collect to evaluate your success measures?
Example 2: 'Improve My Leadership Skills
Step 1: Provide Context
Many leaders seek to improve their leadership skills, but like communication, leadership is a very broad area. Just a few examples of what “leadership” skills could mean to provide context in this example are:
- Provide coaching to direct reports.
- Motivate employees working on a project.
- Build a strong team.
Step 2: Determine Desired State
Again, think about your desired state. What impact will your leadership have on employees and the organization?
- Provide coaching to direct reports so they are able to independently resolve technical issues quickly and correctly.
- Motivate employees in the organization to stay focused and persevere through challenges when working on a project.
- Build a strong team that collaborates to build innovative products.
Step 3: Identify success measures
How will you know you’ve achieved the desired state?
Provide coaching to direct reports by so they are able to independently resolve technical issues quickly and correctly.
- Direct reports indicate they felt supported and coached during difficult situations.
- Successful resolution of difficult issues by direct reports.
- Reduction in number of complaints/delays/returns/whatever your negative metric is.
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Motivate employees in the organization to stay focused and persevere through challenges when working on a project.
- Employees indicate you are taking action that helps keep them focused.
- Employees continue to work on the project during challenging times.
- The team successfully achieves a challenging project or goal.
Build a strong team that collaborates to build innovative products.
- Feedback from team indicates members feel they work well together.
- Successful delivery of an innovative product by the team.
Step 4: Identify Data Points
Once again, identify what data can be collected to evaluate success measures.
Final Tips
Make sure your goal is achievable and realistic given your circumstances. It is important that your goal presents you with sufficient challenge, but also a reasonable likelihood you will succeed at achieving it as long as you do the work required. Apply this rationale when assigning timeframes as well – give yourself enough time but not so much time that the goal is irrelevant by the time you are scheduled to complete it. Very often your timeframe will be determined by how long it will take you to complete the activities that support the goal.
View Part 2 of this post for examples of leadership development activities to support your SMART goal.
20+ Examples of Work Goals That Follow the SMART Criteria
The SMART in Smart Goals stands for stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. In order to be a SMART goal, the goal needs to meet all five of these criteria. For a more detailed run-down on what each of these means check out our Guide to Smart Goals.
As you review the examples below, notice how each outlines actions and timelines that need to take place in order to accomplish the overall goal. Each goal can be broken into specific subgoals to make them more measurable and achievable to accomplish the overall goal.
Examples of Business Smart Goals
- Reduce overtime in the department from 150 hours per month to 50 hours per month by the end of the fiscal year with no increase in incident reports.
- Identify, execute and run 5 customer education webinars this quarter with 10+ attendees and 80%+ satisfied/very satisfied rate
- Prepare for product launch by developing launch checklist of activity, tasks, due-dates and drive approval by all stakeholders by April 1
- Conduct at least 10 phone screens and 3 on-site interviews to achieve the goal of hiring new finance manager by end of quarter
- Gain four new clients for my business this quarter by conducting 3 or more customer meetings each week
- Acquire 45,000 new online customers this financial year at an average cost per acquisition (CPA) of $30 with an average profitability of $5
- Increase the reach of the business Facebook page from 35,000 likes to 100,000 likes by July 31 through ads, events, and video
- Ensure that the 90%+ of the team has completed training on the new inventory management software by the end of the quarter.
- Secure $10K in sponsorship commitments for our event this fall by the end of March
- Review all customer accounts above $20K/year revenue and schedule a strategic review with the top 5 with the greatest opportunity for upsell
- Deliver customer support with a 90%+ Satisfied/Very Satisfied customer satisfaction rate and reduce overall customer contact volume by 10%
Examples of Professional Smart Goals
- Present at two or more internal employee per quarter to improve confidence and presenting skills. Improve industry knowledge by attending 3+ industry events and provide a write-up to the rest of the team on key learnings afterward
- Develop and practice my management skills by conducting weekly 1:1s with my direct reports, quarterly 1:1s with my indirect reports, and quarterly all hands with my team resulting in 10% improvement in employee engagement score at the end of the year
- Review and reduce the number of meetings on my calendar by 50% in order to enable more time for strategic planning by end of the month
- By end of quarter, complete course work and pass for CFA certification
- Grow my network by having at least one lunch each week on average this quarter with an external professional relationship
- Improve my product understanding by creating, drafting, and delivering two projects using our product by the end fo the quarter
- Spend 2 days per month building my customer understanding by shadowing teammates in operations and sales; deliver a write-up at the end on key learnings to the rest of the team
Five Tips for Using Smart Goals at Work
If you're implementing Smart Goals for the first time, here are a few tips on how to get started.
Tip #1. Get everyone on the same page
If the team does not have a shared understanding of what a Smart Goal is, this is a sure recipe for disaster as far as getting specific and measurable goals in place. Run a training, have a meeting, send an email -- whatever it takes -- in order for everyone to understand all of the criteria for Smart Goals.
Tip #2. Set an example and make your goals shared and public
Making the organization's goals public can be a powerful tool for driving alignment in your business's goal setting process. By being able to see the goals of their leadership and peers, employees have a stronger understanding of where they fit in in the process. See our guide on how to leverage Notejoy for goals for how-to and templates.
Tip #3. Create a schedule to keep everyone on track
In order for the entire team to be using Smart Goals effectively, it's important to have a system in place that encourages regular review and feedback on goals. It's often helpful for leadership teams to send out the initial Smart Goal plan with a calendar of events specifying when goals will be reviewed, finalized, adjusted, and finally evaluated.
Tip #4. Be clear on what success looks like
Do you want your organization to be setting Smart Goals that are very safe and achievable, or do you expect them to be reaching with Stretch Goals? By establishing a clear expectation of what Success looks like within the organization, leaders can actively encourage people to reach for ambitious goals. For example, a clear message that 'We expect you to achieve 70% of your goals and that is what success looks like. Achieving 100% of your goals is failure and means you set the bar too low.' is a very strong message.
Tip #5. Collect feedback and optimize your goal setting process
Every organization is a little bit different, both in its work customs as well as culture. Because of that, the way goal setting processes are established and run can be very different but still effective. Involve the entire team in the process by running an internal survey on the process.
Notejoy makes setting and sharing Smart Goals easy
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Notejoy makes it fast and easy to get your team on the same page to set SMART goals and establish them with pinned notes and templates.
- Real-Time Collaboration - As a cloud-based solution, Notejoy allows you to share your goals with internal and external collaborators. These collaborators can view, discuss, and comment on goals as well as view the latest version.
- Always in Sync - Rather than managing different versions of agendas or multiple threads of conversation, Notejoy allows the entire team to always see agendas including changes and discussions at the same time.
- Keep Goals in One Searchable Place - have one place to keep track of and maintain one system of record for your team's goals. Manage who has access to what information, and enable team members old and new to search across past and current goals.