A tried and tested way of achieving organization, team and individual success is by setting goals. Hence, in the context of current economic challenges, this is a good time for the HR folks to strengthen the goal setting process of their companies. Strengthening this organization process will not only help in enhancing current productivity levels, but also future productivity levels. As a manager this is also a powerful way to motivate yourself and your team members.

Aligning Individual Goals with Organization Goals

For goals to produce desirable result for your organization, first and foremost all goals, be it individual or team, should be aligned with organization goals. Let’s look at how this can be done with an illustration for a Sales Officer.

Knowing the target is the first step in achieving the target. The goal therefore should comprehensively and completely define what the role holder needs to target to achieve success. The clarity of the goals set also provides the role holders a higher level of control in their jobs leading to high levels of engagement. One of the methods found very useful across organizations to make goal setting more effective is the SMARTER goal setting.

About SMARTER Goal Setting

SMARTER goal setting entails making the goals one sets SMARTER ie., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time bound, Engaging and Reaching. Let’s see what each of this means.

Specific: The expected result should be stated explicitly. A vague goal like "Take initiative”, has limited motivational value and has lesser chance of being accomplished than a specific goal. Determine “What exactly do I want to accomplish and How?” Use action words such as direct, organize, lead, develop, plan etc. For example the goal of "Reduce costs" can be made specific by saying "Implement two initiatives to reduce overhead costs across the company by 5% in every quarter in order to attain overall 10 % cost reduction for the year."

Measurable: What cannot be measured cannot be attained. Hence the goal should be such that it allows you to clearly measure your progress. When you reach your short term targets you feel a sense of achievement motivating you to put in the efforts required to reach your long term goal too. To determine if your goal is measurable, ask......How much? How many? How will we know if we’ve accomplished the result?

Attainable: An important characteristic of a goal is the level of challenge, related to whether the resources and skills needed to accomplish the goal are available. The need for achievement is strong among people. Therefore one is best motivated by challenging, but realistic goals. Setting a goal that one will fail to achieve is possibly more de-motivating than setting a goal that's too easy.

Relevant: This criterion is related to whether the goal fits with the overall strategy and goals of the organization and department. The goal needs to be relevant for you and your team. For example a goal related to “achieving high customer satisfaction”, maybe more relevant to a service team than for a research and development team.

Time bound: A goal should say by when it will be achieved. Otherwise there will be no sense of urgency and planning for its achievement and prioritizing between goals will be difficult. If you want to launch a new product, by when do you want to launch? "Some time in the year" is not good enough. But if you anchor it within a timeframe like "by August 15th", then your plans for achieving it will be guided by this time limit.

Engaging: The goal should be devised in such way that it is interesting and motivating for you and your team member. You will not mind putting in that extra effort for such goals.

Reaching: A goal should provide a growth opportunity for the individual. Although it should be realistic, it should also be a challenge or a stretch so that in the process of meeting it the individual develops.

An exercise on SMARTER Goals: Look at the first column in the table below and see if you can determine whether it meets the SMARTER criteria. If not which criterion does it not meet?

Goal Setting - the SMARTER way