Example Goals in the workplace: S.M.A.R.T. Goals - Framework
Welcome back and Happy New Year!
It’s that time of year again. Get out your annual planners, your vision boards, and your goal setting sheets. Let the New Years Resolutions begin!
Hm…
I can see how a new year can drive us to wanting a fresh start, and fabricating multiple to-do lists, but is that approach really sustainable? Can you get all the things you’re looking to accomplish done in a 12 month timeframe? Let’s take a step back. I’d like to shed a different perspective on goal setting to help set you up for real success.
And while I can appreciate that we are a few days into the New Year and you may be thinking, ‘I’m behind, I’m never going to achieve my goals if I don’t have them mapped out…’ relax, goals take time. Anything worth accomplishing should not be rushed. If you want quality results, you need to put in quality effort. The fact that you’re reading this blog on goal setting, in and of itself is the starting block to working on your goals.
For the record, I have been there. I created the habit trackers, I put crazy health goals out there (10k steps a day, 1 mile run every day, fasting for 23 hours). The results? Disappointment. Why? Because I was seeking perfection. I was trying to achieve everything in one day, EVERY DAY. That’s not logical, nor sustainable. Goals are about progression, not perfection. Your goals need to be realistic; this will give you endurance to keep on track instead of letting everything slide come April 27th (with 8 more months of the year left to go. Since then, I’ve changed how I approach my goals.
Let’s talk about how I approached my personal goal setting this year.
I didn’t immerse myself into writing out all the ‘tasks’ I wanted to complete in 2025. Instead, I took two whole weeks to reflect on 2024 during my holiday (not all day everyday, but I dedicated some ‘quiet time’ to reflect). What did that entail? Connecting with my husband and asking him his thoughts on the year. We played a trivia game and asked questions like, ‘what was your favorite newly acquired habit from this year?’ Sounds nerdy, but it was fun, and it allowed us to reflect on the past year and all that we learned, accomplished and endured. I also spent time reading through my journal entries for the past year. I took out my highlighter and began highlighting areas of interest. Some highlights were based on my growth, other highlights focused on areas I would like to improve. After reading through my journal, I compiled a list of subjects. I further refined that list, into themes. In the end, I came up with three themes for myself:
Surround myself with people and activities that give me energy
Let go of/remove toxicity
My health and energy levels
And I left it at that.
No timelines. No daily rituals. No habit trackers. No cold water plunges.
While these themes are high-level, they’re easier to manage. Why? Because they’re easy to remember and I can easily check-in with myself to see if I’m on track.
You’re probably wondering how any of this has to do with your corporate goals. Actually, it’s all applicable.
Before I jump into setting up your corporate goals, below are a couple of articles related to goal setting, you may want to check out.
Let’s talk about your corporate goals.
The ‘process’ I leveraged above for my personal goals, was leveraged earlier in 2024, when putting together my corporate goals. My goals are written and tracked in a spreadsheet. Nothing sexy, but I can use Excel to do virtually anything and it’s easier to track my goals there.
Although I review my goals on a weekly basis at work, I spent time in July and August doing a deeper dive into the progress and strategic thinking for my goals in 2025. Much like what I did for my personal goals (because I leveraged the process I used for work - talk about efficiency), I reflected on what goals were achieved and identified the bottlenecks and challenges. I also spent time asking myself what my team needed most going into 2025. I then spoke to my team members and asked them what they felt they needed in 2025. I did the same with my Leadership team, and asked them what projects or support they needed from me in 2025. I then put together subjects, converted those into themes and….you guessed it! I came up with 4 goals I wanted to achieve in 2025.
Now, in the corporate world you can’t simply present 4 goals to your Manager/Leader and then move forward. They need to know what success looks like. They need to know how to measure your success. Much of what I mentioned above (realistic, sustainable, timebound), is related to the S.M.A.R.T. goals framework.
S - Specific: What do you want to do?
M - Measurable: How will you track your progress?
A - Attainable: How will you do it?
R - Realistic / Relevant: Is this relevant for your current role?
T - Timebound: When do you want to do it?
In Chapter 7 of Stop Managing, Start Leading, I’ve dedicated a whole chapter on how to put together S.M.A.R.T. goals and provide a template you can use to build your goals.
Keeping your goals as simple as possible is the key to success and achieving what you set out to do. While there may be some complexities embedded within your goal (some tasks might be more difficult than others), there’s no need to spell that out in the goal. Leave that for the results and accomplishments. Goal setting is truly about identifying what you want to accomplish (S - what you want to do), how it will be tracked (M - measurable: timelines, cost savings, time savings, etc.) and how you will get it done (A- attainable). Having too many goals, with too many action items will discourage you from moving the needle forward. Start by asking yourself, what do I need to start with? Then, when it’s been accomplished, ask yourself: what do I need to do next? Continue to build from there, week over week. Check in weekly, bi-monthly or monthly to measure your progress.
