SMART Goals

0:09 have you ever been told to do your best 0:11 it's a goal it's a form of goal setting 0:13 it turns out it's not a particularly 0:15 effective goal in terms of driving 0:16 people's performance 0:18 in short most people when asked to do 0:20 their best don't do so 0:22 there is one exception to this general 0:24 rule that we will discuss 0:26 later in our lessons 0:30 but i would like for us to talk about 0:33 setting smart goals 0:37 now smart goal is a framework that has a 0:40 significant body of research behind it 0:42 it's also 0:43 wildly popular in organizations many of 0:46 you may have heard of 0:47 of smart goals smart is an acronym that 0:50 stands for 0:50 specific measurable agreed upon 0:53 reasonable and time bound 0:55 now you can quickly see that by this 0:57 framework 0:58 do your best is not a particularly smart 1:00 goal it's neither specific nor 1:02 measurable 1:02 there's no clear timeline attached to it 1:06 so let's start with a hypothetical goal 1:09 say i'm asking you to increase 1:10 sales is this a smart goal 1:14 and if it is not a smart goal how can we 1:16 make it smarter 1:19 well we could start for example by 1:21 making this goal more specific 1:23 instead of asking you to increase sales 1:25 in general i can ask you to increase 1:27 online sales for a certain group of 1:30 accounts 1:31 say in the top three counts i can also 1:34 make this goal more measurable 1:37 so for example i can say increase sales 1:39 by 10 1:40 compared to sales in the third quarter 1:42 of last year 1:44 i also hope that we would have a 1:45 discussion about increasing sales 1:48 by that particular number in addition to 1:50 setting specific and measurable goals 1:53 these goals need to be agreed upon so 1:55 you and i need to have a discussion 1:57 and make sure that we're on the same 1:58 page when it comes to these goals recall 2:00 from our earlier discussions 2:02 that it's absolutely essential for goals 2:04 to be accepted 2:06 by the way goals are most effective when 2:08 you're able to secure 2:10 people's public commitment to those 2:11 goals we also want to make sure that the 2:14 goals we set for people are reasonable 2:17 make sure that people have the necessary 2:18 skills to reach out a particular sales 2:20 goal 2:21 if they don't you might want to provide 2:24 necessary mentorship support and 2:26 training to make sure that they view 2:27 these goals as reasonable 2:29 i often get the question of how to think 2:31 about what a reasonable goal is 2:33 what are the benchmarks well you can 2:36 look at sales statistics for a given 2:37 geography for a given region 2:39 you can adjust these cell statistics by 2:41 the tenure of a given employee 2:43 you know how experienced are they you 2:45 can look at their personal 2:47 sales records over the last couple years 2:50 for example 2:51 all those could be valuable inputs into 2:53 understanding what is a reasonable goal 2:56 also make sure that goals are time bound 2:58 there's a particular timeline attached 3:00 to the accomplishment of a given goal 3:03 it's tempting for us to put really short 3:07 fuses in our goals to have really tight 3:09 deadlines 3:11 but think about this in the context of 3:13 setting really challenging 3:14 really aggressive stretch goals short 3:17 timelines 3:18 yes they can stimulate more intense 3:20 cooperative experiences we tend to work 3:22 harder per unit of time 3:24 but they can also push people toward an 3:25 ethical behavior they can increase 3:27 dissatisfaction 3:29 now in some situations it may be 3:31 unavoidable where we have to set goals 3:33 with very strict deadlines 3:36 if that's the case and you can do so 3:40 help your team anticipate those 3:41 deadlines so for example 3:43 tell your people look we have an 3:44 important project coming up in the end 3:46 of the month 3:46 i'm really counting on you then perhaps 3:49 even give them a day off in anticipation 3:51 of this very 3:52 tough deadline now once you set that 3:56 deadline 3:58 and the team starts working on it be a 4:00 role model the most demotivating thing 4:02 you can do for your team 4:03 is you set this tough deadline and the 4:05 next thing your team sees is you 4:07 strolling out of your office with a goal 4:08 back in hand 4:11 and make sure to reward your teammates 4:13 accordingly after the accomplishment of 4:15 those goals 4:16 i mentioned to you earlier that smart 4:18 goals framework is 4:19 very popular among many many 4:22 organizations 4:24 in fact i would be hard-pressed to think 4:25 of an organization that's not using a 4:27 smart goal 4:28 framework in some shape or form take 4:30 amazon for example 4:32 jeff bezos the ceo of amazon is 4:34 personally overseeing 4:35 over 400 goals and they're all in the 4:38 smart goal framework 4:41 i have some homework for you i would 4:43 like for you to use 4:44 the smart goal framework apply it toward 4:47 developing 4:48 your leadership skills so set for 4:50 yourself a smart goal 4:52 in terms of developing your leadership 4:53 skills make sure that it's consistent 4:56 with the smart goal dimensions 4:58 and then i'm asking you to go to 4:59 discussion forum smart goals 5:02 thread and discuss this goal 5:05 with your peers 5:11 you