A SMART plan for reaching your business goals

Setting goals is an important way for businesses and organizations to reach desired objectives. But setting goals that are vague or difficult to measure can set individuals and teams up for failure.

One time-tested method for setting effective goals is called the SMART principle. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Using the SMART approach, quality goals can be created by asking yourself these five questions:

• Is your goal specific enough? You’ll be more motivated to attain a goal if you spell out exactly what should be accomplished. Instead of a vague goal of increasing traffic to your organization’s website, for example, you would want to set a specific goal in terms of unique visitors or page views. Specific goals are not only easier to measure but they provide specific criteria that individuals and teams can aim for. Vague goals can create uncertainty and stress.
• Is your goal measurable? Make sure you can monitor your progress and ultimately measure whether you have accomplished what you set out to. Goals that aren’t measurable can be difficult to assess.
• Is your goal achievable? You don’t want to create goals that are too easy to reach but you don’t want to set yourself up for failure by making goals exceedingly difficult or impossible to reach, either. Creating goals that are somewhere in between is a great way to go.
• Is your goal relevant? If you accomplish your goal, will it further your organization’s objectives or mission? Is the goal important to the organization?
• Does your goal have a timeline? Having a deadline can be motivating and give you an exact date in the future to work toward. Otherwise, you might not feel the urgency to put in the required effort.

At the Utah Association of Special Districts, our mission is to promote the proper and efficient operation of all Local Districts and Special Service Districts in Utah. We do that by providing training to board members, management and staff; legislative input and advocacy and updates of current laws and regulations. We also work hard to create awareness of Local District and Special Service Districts. Learn more about us on our website: http://www.uasd.org/