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SMART Goal Setting 


SMART goal setting should be an individual process, but the manager needs to take an active role in
 guiding and supporting their team members through the process.

Here are a few important steps to a successful SMART goal setting process:

1. Explain to your employees what SMART Goals are (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timebound), their  purpose and benefits of keeping them focused to reach desired outcomes. Provide examples of goal statements and smart goals. Share your goals with them. Give them tips and strategies on how to create their goal statements: smart, specific, measurable goals always answer questions as: what do we need to do, how, when, how much etc? 

2. Explain the difference between goals and objectives: we reach goals and we do objectives. Objectives are the means to accomplishing a goal. Usually it  takes several objectives to reach a goal. All objectives begin with an action verb.  Goals define outcomes in terms of end products or results and they act as a point of reference that all our objectives and activities are on track.  

3. Know and share the goals of the organization. It's important  to envision and communicate  the big picture to all members of your team and how their jobs and roles fit into the big picture. This facilitates an easier and realistic  goal setting journey as well as helps landscape future directions.

4. When setting smart goals encourage your team members to  include personal goals: as education, skills development and other ambitions on a personal level. This would motivate them to achieve goals that benefit them and the company.

5. Analyze their goals' to determine action steps. Provide reality testing when goals are unrealistic by assessing their capacity and identifying barriers (internal and external). Finally support them into translating their goals into an action plan. The action plan would be the final outcome of the smart goal setting process that would act as a communication and working document and a record of a achievements. It is the compromised  and finalized agreement of the goals, boundaries, expected outcomes, timelines, resources, methods to achieve them, benefits, support needed etc. This stage also defines the measurable indicators (qualitative or quantitative).

6. Provide them tools as goal setting forms to help structure the process.

7. Monitor the plan periodically. Provide more tools and support if needed. Often team members feel overwhelmed and may demonstrate side effects as resistance, time management issues etc. Make time management tools and other resources easily available to them. More importantly:
Celebrate success!

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