Smart Goals

Goals have a major role in all aspects of life, including corporate life. But how can we set useful goals to ourselves? We certainly have memories of making serious promises to ourselves, into which our goals and wishes have been compressed, but in the end they didn't really work out, did they?

What should the goals be for guiding our behavior to success?

Psychology calls these types of goals S.M.A.R.T. goals. The name consists of the initials of the term describing the properties of successful goals:

"S" (specific): This letter is for specificity and exact definition of the objectives. It is unfortunate if we formulate our goals in general terms. Define goals to be achieved in detail.

"M" (measurable): This letter draws attention to measurability. We should choose a goal in which we can quantify our progress and development. Feedback is an important part of every development process, if we know how we measure progress, that's a great help.

"A" (achievable): this letter represents accessibility, it is important to ask whether our chosen goal is feasible or not? Do we have the right knowledge and resources? It is not worth finding unreachable, too ambitious goals.

"R" (relevant): How important is our goal and how relevant? Is it compatible with our other aspirations?

"T" (time): this factor reminds us of the importance of deadlines, the timing of the goal to be achieved, and of revising our goals from time to time and, if necessary, modifying them.

S.M.A.R.T. goals are well serve goal-oriented leadership, the well-proven and useful practice known to many asMBO (management by objectives). S.M.A.R.T. goals can help to solve personal and organizational goals.