How to write and maintain goals to be successful in the workplace
Over the course of the last five weeks, we have focused individually on the parts of SMART goals and how each piece is important to creating a good well-balanced goal. In week one, we focused on “S” or goals that are specific. Week two, we focused on “M”, goals that are measurable. Week three focused on “A”, goals that are achievable or attainable. Week four, focused on “R” or goals that are relevant and finally in week five, we focused on having goals that are timely or time-bound.
The last five weeks have had plenty of bad examples and it is very easy to get goals wrong. In this recap, we will show you a couple of good examples of goals.
Scenario 1: You own an online website where you sell t-shirts for dogs. The goal: Increase sales by 10% over last month’s sales by providing a special incentive for first-time buyers. With this goal, you can see it is very specific and easy to measure sales over last month’s sales. A 10 percent increase is a very attainable number and is relevant to the company’s mission of selling dog clothing. Measuring sales over last month’s numbers, adds the time-bound element required to complete the SMART acronym.
Scenario 2: You are a safety manager for a small oil and gas company. The goal: Reduce work-related accidents by 20%, through increased focus on standard safety practices, by the end of the third quarter. As in the previous scenario, this goal is specific to what the employee is trying to accomplish, decrease accidents. One can measure the difference between accidents now and previous accidents. A 20% reduction is a reasonable number to try and decrease accidents, which makes it attainable and measurable. This goal is relevant to the success of an oil and gas company.
SMART goals can be used at work or home and can help you focus on accomplishing goals and tasks. Hopefully, this series on writing SMART goals will help you better understand how to write goals and how those goals will make you more successful in your job.