How to write and maintain goals to be successful in the workplace
Part two of the series on how to write goals will outline the Measurable part of SMART goals. If you will remember in part one, we discussed how goals should be Specific in order to successfully write a goal. Much like having goals that are specific, it is important for the goals to be measurable. There are two ways that Measurable goals are important. The first, is the goal should have a number of dollar amount that you are trying to achieve. This number should be realistic and pertain to the goal you are trying to reach. The second part to think about is where the measurable number is coming from. If you are tracking an increase in sales, you would most likely get the final sales number from a sales report.
Similar to being specific in the goal, measurable helps to complete the specific part of the SMART goal.
Bad Example:
Serve more customers. This goal is specific as it tells you what you are trying to do, however without stating how many or what percentage of more customers you want to serve, then you will not accurately know if you achieved your goal.
Good Example:
Serve 10% more customers per hour. By adding the percentage and a time period, then one can measure if the goal was achieved. By simply tracking on a daily basis how many customers are served per hour, then one can determine if there is an increase or not. By adding the measurable component to the goal, one can easily determine if the goal is successful.
The measurable component will also help to determine if the number is realistic, which we will discuss later in this series.
In part three of this series, we will discuss the A in SMART goals, which is Achievable, Attainable or can also be Agreed upon. We will discuss these variations in greater detail.