SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
Goal setting
A goal is a statement which describes what you, your team or the council is hoping to achieve.
Goals should be based on our strategy and in line with our corporate vision and values.
The process of goal setting can seem intimidating, but this doesn’t need to be the case. It can be as simple as sitting down with the departmental goals and considering how these can be met.
The SMART acronym can help set goals in an effective and productive way. Specific and measurable goals define the success of a project; achievable and realistic objectives engage and motivate individuals; time-bound goals ensure that all stakeholders agree timescales for the achievement of the goals.
What SMART means in summary
Specific:
- Detailed, focussed and well defined, emphasising the required outcome
- Keep it concise
- The what, why, who, when and how?
- Is it understandable to other stakeholders?
Measurable:
- Identify what needs to be measured
- How will you quantify this?
- How will you track the progress?
- What is your comparison?
- What does success look like?
Achievable:
- Stay motivated by making the goals achievable
- State goals in the present tense to increase the likelihood of behaving towards achieving your goal
- Identify an example of when this has been done successfully
Realistic (or relevant):
- You are responsible for communicating the goals in terms that are understood by other stakeholders
- Make it relevant to your role and express it in a language that can be easily understood.
- Decisions need to be made on available resources
- Are your proposed actions ethical?
- What are the implications for all stakeholders?
- Do changing circumstances affect your ability to achieve your goal? If yes, it is OK to update and amend? Goals that are achievable may not always be realistic and being realistic is about belief
Time-bound:
- Set specific timeframes to progress towards
- Consider the time, day, month and year
- Be specific and make a date
Examples of SMART goal setting
Example 1: "To reduce sickness absence in my team by 10% by 31 August."
This example would benefit from having a bit more detail about how this will be achieved. For example, how will you be engaging with your team?
Also, consider whether this is a realistic timeframe you are working to and therefore what support you might engage with to achieve this underpinned by regular 1-to-1s.
Good attendance contributes to strong team performances, so another helpful consideration is thinking beyond Quarter 2. Maybe as part of a separate goal you will consider maintaining a specified attendance level (possibly in line with the organisation target) and specifying the practices you will be conducting to maintain this level in your team.
Example 2: "I have no personal goals as I'm over 60 and will be retiring in a few years. However, I would like to pass on my knowledge to my colleagues to enable them to have the benefit of my experience once I have retired."
It's important for everyone still to have a focus no matter at which stage of their career and find ways of enriching their roles so another way of setting a SMART goal could be:
"During 2023 I will work towards supporting the achievement of all our departmental goals as well as engaging in innovative ways of sharing my skills and knowledge with my colleagues to ensure that the specific skills and knowledge that I have acquired over the years are retained by the team once I retire."
Example 3: "To ensure that my team are correctly filing historical paperwork by September"
This example could be more specific, relevant, and measurable and be rewritten in the following way:
"To review the current approach to filing and, in conjunction with my team, design and implement a new approach by September and have evaluated the impact of these changes in terms of saving time."
Example 4: "To establish a network of champions from all departments by 1 September."
This goal could be more descriptive (and therefore more specific) about how this will happen, for what purpose and to what standard, and could therefore be more specific and measurable. It could be reworded in the following way:
"To establish a cross departmental network of knowledgeable and skilled (name the course or standard achieved) champions, attracting prospective champions through an organisation-wide recruitment campaign who will provide appropriate information, guidance, and support to colleagues in need by 1 September."
Example 5: "To improve collaboration across teams within our service area, and wider community, sharing knowledge and variable skill-sets"
At this point we can’t be sure how realistic or achievable the goal is because of the lack of detail including a timeframe.
This goal would therefore benefit from acknowledging the specifics, the timeframe and measurement.
What does the collaboration mean in practice, and what would the improved collaboration serve to achieve, or in other words, what’s the outcome?
Some acknowledgment also needs to be given about how this will be achieved. And, what are the measures of success, or in other words, how will we know the collaboration has improved anything?
This might be about elaborating on whom the wider community are, which teams are in your service area, or being more specific about which knowledge or skillsets.
Example 6: "To improve relationships with teams across the service area"
This example is not specific, measurable or time bound and could be rewritten in the following way:
"By the end of April to have researched, agreed and discussed with my line manager the best approach to improving relationships with other teams across our service areas. This is to be followed with the implementation of the approach during the year and them seeking feedback about the improvements that have been made through my new approach."
Example 7: "Become more effective at developing others"
This example needs to be more measurable, specific and time-bound and could be rewritten in the following way:
"By the end of April, to have obtained specific feedback about my current approach to staff development, and to have researched approaches to effective development. I will then implement and evaluate a new blended approach to staff development seeking support and feedback from my line manager, staff development team and in house training resources."
Example 8: "I want to improve my ability to identify and bring out the best in those that report to me"
This example would need to be more specific, measurable and time-bound and could be rewritten in the following way:
"During this year I plan to seek feedback from my team and line manager about my approach to line management, have discussed my development needs during my PDR meeting and have agreed and implemented a thorough development plan that uses a blended approach to learning to support my development needs."
Example 9: "Smart Goal to support the team through change: What needs to be done? Manage expectations of the team. Be clear who does what and when. Set realistic goals which are relevant. Set a timescale for achieving the goals
This example could be improved by being more specific and being worded differently, for example:
"By the end of April to have designed and implemented a detailed plan to support the diverse members of my team with the change process including appropriate goal setting, regular 1-to-1s and ongoing support, and have evaluated the impact of the effectiveness of my plan."
Example 10: "To be the best manager I can be, supporting my manager, staff, and continuing to develop the service"
This example could be more specific, measurable and time-bound and could be reworded in the following way:
"By the end of April, to have agreed with my line manager and put a detailed plan in place to improve my management skills through attending relevant training, and asking for support and regular feedback from my manager to ensure that all my team are able to achieve their goals."
Example 11: "Build a better relationship with providers by increasing provider visits from once per year to twice a year from June onwards"
This example could be a bit more detailed and measurable and could be reworded in the following way:
"To aim to improve the relationship with the providers by increasing the frequency of visits to twice a year from June 2023 and introducing new approaches to include 'x' and a way of measuring the improvement of these new approaches."
Example 12: "To improve on my leadership skills by undertaking all training that is available to me before April/May and putting this into practice"
This goal could be more specific, relevant, and measurable and could be reworded in the following way:
"During 2023 I aim to identify my specific leadership development needs within leadership skills, discussed and documented my development needs on my PDR, investigate specific in-house and external training opportunities such as leadership apprenticeships and Inspiring leaders to improve my leadership skills and asked for feedback by the end of April 2024."
Example 13: "Service Planning – develop team plan including actions linked to our service plan, monitor and review on a regular basis."
This goal sounds like it could potentially encompass several actions linked to the service plan that each require planning, implementation, monitoring, and review. Identifying more specifically in this overarching goal, each area of the service plan, the team plan will impact will help to recognise core areas of work.
Consider the timeframe you are working with and ensure you have included a completion date for the approved plan, ready to discuss with your team.
The "monitor and review" could be considered as separate elements to the goal of developing a team plan, so consider breaking down the original goal into smaller relevant, more achievable goals.
Example 14: "To plan a schedule of 4 to 8 weekly one to one sessions with all staff for up to March"
The reference to "4 to 8 weeks" may be about recognising the individual needs of each team member and therefore the level of support required that meets their needs. It may also be a subtle acknowledgment that a 4 weekly rotation may be interrupted.
This example would therefore be more robust if it recognised the challenge that is consistently achieving an uninterrupted sequence of scheduled meetings over an extended period.
Highlighting some contingency options or a rescheduling process that has been agreed with the team would ensure this goal is more realistic and therefore more achievable. It could also involve the team in making preparation for service demands and unforeseen challenges, after all this process requires their input and is one where all involved benefit from the time together.
This goal would benefit from a shorter review period such as, after the first quarter at which point you could identify how often 1-to1s have and haven’t happened and turn it into a percentage rate to include in your schedule and your goal. It's OK to update or amend goals as and when services encounter change and challenge.
Remember changing circumstances affect your ability to achieve your goal and it is always best to acknowledge when this is likely and ensure stakeholders (in this instance your team) are aware or have been involved in the resolution.
The goal could be reworded to read: "To plan the team's 1-to1 rotation schedule (consistent to recognising their individual needs) for the remainder of the year, including an initial 20% contingency to allow for changing service demands and conduct a review after the first quarter."
Example 15: "Increase the uptake of users registered with the ability to reset their password by x amount by October."
This example would benefit from a little more detail and could therefore be more specific.
While the outcome is emphasised, what will happen, or how will it happen for it to be achieved? Consider how this could be communicated to the employee population – what methods will be used to get the message out there?
This goal could also become more measurable by including month by month statistics which could be useful in providing actionable data.
The goal might read something like this: "Increase month by month, the uptake of users registered with the ability to reset their password by utilising internal communication tools and working with the relevant colleagues to apply those to maximum impact, by x amount of employees by October 2023."