Any business team, whether it’s just a few people in the early stages of development or a huge, sprawling team of many employees across a huge business, will all have one thing in common. And that is the need to set goals so you can easily and quickly monitor your team’s progress. Sharing goals and adopting a new innovative framework like those on offer from https://just3things.com/ is a great way to do this.
But alongside that, there is another clever approach you could take. That is setting up S.M.A.R.T. goals. No, S.M.A.R.T. goals are not the same thing as just setting a regular target goal; there is a lot of thought and strategy that goes into setting up S.M.A.R.T. goals.
So, what are S.M.A.R.T. goals exactly? Each letter stands for something you need to think about when setting up your team’s objectives. They can also be adopted as a form of communication and clearly set out what you’re trying to achieve with your goals. So, without further ado let’s look at each of the main points that make up S.M.A.R.T. goals.
S Stands For Specific
The S is one of the most important areas to follow when setting up a goal for your team. It means you need to be specific when outlining what your goal is; this is very important when a large team of people are working towards something.
To use another acronym, the specific point of setting up your S.M.A.R.T. goal should cover the 4 W’s. It should cover what your goal is, why you’re doing it, who is responsible for what in the team and where it’s all taking place.
M Stands For Measurable
This part of the goal will help you monitor your success; it should outline how long you expect the work to last. How expensive you think it will be and how you’ll know if you have succeeded or not. This part of the of the S.M.A.R.T. goal is one of the most important, especially where teamwork is concerned.
It will help you keep track of your progress and expenditure which are two of the most important parts of any businesses work.
A Stands For Agreed Upon
This part of the goal is all about what you actually want to achieve, but it goes further than that. It examines what your goals are and how you can achieve them. It also looks to measure whether they are realistic and affordable.
This part of the goal is all about what you’re looking to achieve and the agreement of what you will do to succeed in reaching your goal.
R Stands For Realistic
This part of setting up the goal looks at how you’re going to do it and who is going to be doing what within the team. The R usually means realistic, representing the importance of ensuring you are considering everything important when it comes to the work.
It can also mean results as well because this area of the S.M.A.R.T. goal also carefully examines what you expect to get and achieve from your work as a team.
T Stands For Time Based
This is all about the duration of the work. How long do you really have to achieve your goal? This should be clear to the team so they know how best to approach their work and so they know what they need to achieve and how long they actually have to do it.
A More Detailed Look At The Benefits Of Teamwork
So, those are the main points of S.M.A.R.T. goals. When you put them all together, they work in pretty much the same way as OKRs. They give you a more detailed and comprehensive framework to work from when it comes to your teamwork.
OKRs give you a better way to examine your objectives and key results which is exactly what you’ll get when you set up high-quality S.M.A.R.T. goals too. Any business, regardless of size, will benefit from setting up and using S.M.A.R.T. goals when it comes to their teamwork and they are much simpler to set up than you might think.
Since you now know what each main part of the S.M.A.R.T. goal means, setting up your own should be relatively easy. Let’s take a more detailed look at the benefits of S.M.A.R.T. goals when it comes to teams, so you can really see just how your business can benefit from utilising them.
A Clear End Vision
Any goal should have a clear and concise vision, straight from the beginning to the eventual end. This is even more essential when you’re dealing with teamwork, especially with larger teams where lots of people might be working towards the same end goal.
By using S.M.A.R.T. goals, you will be able to better focus your team’s efforts on succeeding in your goals. They are a great way to avoid potential distractions and pitfalls and best of all they can be adopted by a variety of different industries.
Better Time Management
Without goals (of any kind) you are bound to struggle when it comes to time-keeping. Which is why your team should starting setting up S.M.A.R.T. goals as soon as possible. It will help ensure your team keeps on track and manages their time better throughout the process.
Promotes Creative Thinking
S.M.A.R.T. goals have many benefits as we’ve discussed and outlined but one benefit that is rarely mentioned is their potential to promote creative thinking. When you’re setting up your S.M.A.R.T. goals, your team will have the opportunity to think about new and innovative ways to reach their goals.
It will give your team a new perspective on things and will let all members of the team contribute and grow beyond their limits. When you’re setting up your S.M.A.R.T. goals, you might be surprised by just how much you’ll be able to help your team come up with new and innovative ways to reach your goals.
So, that’s a look at S.M.A.R.T. goals and everything you need to know about how they work and can benefit your team. Why just set regular goals when you can set S.M.A.R.T. goals instead?
