Why objectives need to be smart

This is the beginning of everything, so put more attention and great efforts to take care of the minutest details. The important thing is to resolve issues surrounding what, when, where, who, with what and how. I have jokingly named this the 5 Wives and 1 Husband technique to remember the Ws and H. More the information you can contribute, better will be the results and it will be easier for you to reach your goals since defining the path to reach your goals will be clearer.

If you are heading an organization or are at a position where you are making strategic decisions for your organization or similar positions, from this point onwards, you will see if you have enough resources to achieve your goals or do you need to something extra to make things fruitful. For this, it is necessary to involve some numbers in definition, for example, percentages or exact amounts.

The more quantitative data you have, the more control you can have over the advances. Many others remain in the air because they are little presumptuous. It is advisable to know that there is going to be difficult tasks to achieve and that you have no choice but to achieve them.

We all want to be the first to achieve something and that feeling can be a motivator for some people, however, setting virtually impossible goals can make the team frustrated.

So to avoid negations, to make an objective achievable, you need a prior analysis of what you have done and achieved so far. This will help you know and understand the leap you want to take or a step back and analyze what you have missed. R-RELEVANT: To define relevant and realistic goals, you must measure the scope of your potential and of those who are associated with you in your organization or business.

One very important aspect of setting up relevant goals is to know if you have the right resources to achieve it. Relevant goals can only be achieved if you have everything in place, right from the ideation stage to knowing the resources that are going to help you achieve these goals. Remember that unreachable goals should not be thrown overboard.

It is essential to make new strategies and stay persistent to achieve these goals. This will not only send out a positive message amongst employees but also befitting replies to your competitors who have ever doubted your abilities to succeed.

If you do not put a start time and an end time, chances are you never achieve the objective. Schedule and put a time to the objective. This will help you to know if what you are doing is optimal to reach the goal in time, or maybe it would be better if you give a little more speed. In case you are a little out of time and you are not reaching the goals in the period you defined, do not worry, you should also learn to be flexible.

Just do not abuse this flexibility as there is a thin line with breaking commitment. Do you know what is the importance of objectives and goals? To summarize it in a very short and very significant sentence: walking without objectives is like navigating without a compass.

Imagine the immensity of the open sea and you in the middle of it, it is a moment in which you do not know what to do, nor do you know the resources you can count on and much less know which side of the ocean or sea will be better to go. The best thing is to start making some kind of effort to move forward, right? You cannot stay there, however, it is difficult to know at that stage, if everything you are doing will have optimal results and will bring you closer to the right path.

The most likely thing is that these efforts might exhaust you and you do not know if everything you did will be worthwhile for something, on the contrary, if you know the goal you should reach, it would be easier to use your energy to achieve it once and for all. The same happens with the objectives of a company. From the particular to a general, people, groups, and systems need clear, structured and well-defined objectives.

We all have an end to this life and we cannot get up everyday thinking about facing when are we approaching the end because in this way there will come a time when we feel that we are not doing enough to sustain in this world.

Learn more: Demographic Segmentation. This was an effective way of completing tasks by prioritizing objectives. SMART goals are a primary way to collect feedback and communicate within the organization. Feedback is important because it showcases the room for improvement and is an insight into the company.

Feedback includes periodic checks to measure current result vs expected and current result vs end objective. The progress can be recorded by asking basic questions like :.

SMART objectives help break down these questions and goals even further where scope of every milestone is measured. SMART objectives helps in setting up smart goals and play an important role in checking periodic progress so that the end objective is met. SMART goals help in following through on goals and prevent from getting distracted. The principles of goal-setting theory are:. Learn more: Customer Satisfaction Surveys. One thing's for sure — whether it's SMART goals or SMARTER goals you put in place, you'll discover that being clear about precisely what you want to achieve and when you want to accomplish it by can be the difference between success and failure.

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To help formulate some answers here, think about your goal in terms of the six Ws: Who will you involve to help achieve the goal? A question that is especially important if you're getting a team involved.

When do you want to complete the objective? What are you trying to achieve? Be precise and detailed. What obstacles stand in your path? Identifying potential hazards can help you determine if your goal is feasible. As an example, if you aim to open a copywriting business, but you've never written copy before, maybe adjust your goal to "Learn how to write copy so I can start a copywriting business. Not always applicable to everyone but if you specifically need things to happen in Edinburgh or New York, say so here.

Why are you doing this? What's the purpose of the goal? If you're self-employed, the answer will probably be to drive the business forward.

JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it. Sign in. Publication date Author Ogbeiwi, Osahon. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.

Peer-Reviewed yes. Metadata Show full item record. Abstract All successful programmes share goal-setting as a standard practice, and many write their goal statements to satisfy the S.