Most people have heard of the concept of SMART goals, and whilst they can be used in any aspect of life, they are most commonly used as a way to set goals within a business. If you work with a Gloucester business coach like those from https://www.randall-payne.co.uk/services/business-advisory/business-coaching/ you will probably have already had a conversation about what your long term and short term goals are.
SMART is an acronym that stands for Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. By following each one of these steps when you set goals, you are enabling your team and yourself to not only meet and hopefully exceed these pals but also providing your business with ways in which to monitor and measure them. This then means that it is possible o report on the successes and to analyse any failures or difficulties that arose and find ways in which you can avoid them from happening in the future.
Smart – this looks at what you really want to achieve in your business and will relate very much to the long term vision that you have for your company and the work that you do. There will then be smaller steps that you want and need to take to help you move towards this vision. This element of the goal looks at who will be involved, what you want to achieve, where it is going to happen if it is specific to an area of your business and why you are doing it in the first place?
Measurable – this is where you define how you are going to measure the performance against the goal. This means that you are clearly able to analyse whether the goal has been achieved and monitor successes and failures along the way. If your goal is going to take a few months to achieve you might want to put in some shorter milestone markers along the way.
Achievable – this means looking at the resources and skills that are needed within your business to be able to reach the goal. If you need to bring in more resources and find financing or upskill your staff, you may need to put some earlier goals in place first.
Relevant – this means focusing on the longer-term and wider business goals that you have set yourself. This could be looking at ways to diversify your business or bring in a new product. You will want the other goals you set to help you achieve this longer-term vision.
Time-bound – having a timeframe set for your goal means that you are more likely to achieve it and you will be able to monitor your progress along the way. This is important so that you can change tack if the project isn’t running as you had hoped and to assess whether you need to extend the time period if you hit any issues and setbacks.
