How to write and maintain goals to be successful in the workplace
In the fifth and final issue of SMART goals, we will discuss the “T” or time-bound component and why it is important goals have time periods that are measured.
When creating goals, it is important to have a review period. The review period allows you to evaluate whether or not the goal has been achieved or not. The time period needs to be long enough to truly achieve the desired results, but not so long you lose focus on the desired outcome. The review date is the point in time a result will be due; most goals are tracked with a 30-day review period. If your goal requires more attention, you may need to have weekly or even daily review time-frames.
Bad Example:
You are a used car sales person and you set a goal to sell more cars. This goal misses the mark on many of the other letters in the SMART acronym, but also lacks a defined time period. Without a defined review period, you cannot evaluate if you have truly sold more cars or not. It is important to have the review period to measure against.
Good Example:
You are a realtor and you sell houses locally. You set a goal to sell three more houses per month. This goal is specific and has a review period. At the end of the month, you can determine whether or not you sold three more houses within the time frame.
By setting a defined review period or making sure your goals are time-based, you can see whether the goal worked or not. This is a good time to determine if the goal was too easy or too hard and you may decide to tweak the desired outcome. If your desired outcome is correct, meaning the goal is correct but you still cannot achieve the desired outcome, then you may want to do a root cause analysis to determine what obstacles are in your way that hinder you from being successful. By having goals that are time-based, the goal will be correctly written and will lead to your success.