Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
Evolve

Inspiration

Now’s the time to set your 2020 goals

Don’t wait until after Christmas to write your business goals; do it now while your competitors are winding down and catch them on the back foot after Christmas.

Daley Thompson, a very successful gold winning decathlete in the 80s, once said, “My favourite day for training is Christmas Day as I know that my competitors won’t be doing it so I have a big advantage.”

Going into a new year with no business goals is very demotivating to me as there is no purpose, nothing to aim for so why is this year going to be any better than last year?

Unless you have written your goals, you are unlikely to achieve them which is why successful people set goals. Making goals and writing them down is a very powerful way to focus your efforts and keep you on track; if you don’t have defined goals people will use you to achieve their goals which is not really what a real business leader should allow to happen.

The tried and tested method of creating goals is the SMART method which means:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Relevant

T – Timed

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

Specific

When setting a goal, be specific about what you want to accomplish. Think about this as the mission statement for your goal. This isn’t a detailed list of how you’re going to meet a goal, but it should include an answer to the popular ‘W’ questions:

Who—Consider who needs to be involved to achieve the goal.

What—Think about exactly what you are trying to accomplish and be detailed.

When—Set a time frame

Where—This question may not always apply, especially if you’re setting personal goals, but if there’s a location or relevant event, identify it here.

Why—What is the reason for the goal? When it comes to using this method for employees, the answer will likely be along the lines of company advancement or career development.

Measurable

What metrics are you going to use to determine how you are progressing so you know when you’ve reached your goal? Set milestones along the way so you can see where you are in comparison to where you want to be.

Achievable

This focuses on how important a goal is to you and what you can do to make it attainable. This may require developing new skills and changing attitudes. The goal is meant to inspire motivation, not discouragement. Think about how to accomplish the goal and if you have the tools/skills needed. If you don’t currently possess those tools/skills, consider what it would take to attain them.

Relevant

Relevance is a check to ensure that you goals are relevant to what the business wants to achieve.

Time-Bound

Really effective goals must be time-bound otherwise you might lose focus. You must have a completion date. I suggest several milestone dates along the way to keep you on track.

Ready, set…
Photo by Serghei Trofimov on Unsplash

Example of a great SMART goal:

By the end of September, we will have improved our on-time delivery by 40%. It is currently running at 55% and our goal is 95%.

As this is so important to the business, we are engaging a business change consultant to oversee the success and impart the skills that we need to sustain the improvement.

It is now January so we need to see an improvement of approx. 5% per month.

Achieving this will make us the industry leader in OTD and increase our market share significantly.

As you can see it is very specific, it has figures to make it measurable. The person has identified that they need external help to achieve the goal. It is timed by making the statement that the goal needs to be completed by the end of September. The relevance is that by achieving it, the business will grow market share.

COULD YOU CONTRIBUTE VALUABLE INSIGHT FOR OUR MEMBERS?

X
X
X
X