there is a "golden rule"--smart principle for setting goals. Smart is a summary of the first letter of the 5 words in English. A good goal should be able to conform to the smart principle.
s (specific)--clarity
The so-called clear is to use specific language to clearly explain the standards of conduct to be achieved. A clear goal is almost identical to the characteristics of all successful teams. One of the important reasons why many teams are unsuccessful is because the goal is ambiguous, or the target is not communicated to the relevant members effectively.
Example: Goal--"enhance customer awareness." This description of the goal is very unclear, because there are many specific ways to enhance customer awareness, such as: Reduce customer complaints, the past customer complaint rate is 3%, and now reduce it to 1. 5% or 1%. It is also an aspect of customer awareness to improve the speed of service, to use standard polite terminology, to adopt standard service processes.
There are so many ways to enhance customer awareness, what do we mean by "Enhancing customer awareness"? There is no way to judge and measure without being clear. So it is suggested that such modifications, for example, we will raise the front desk cashier's speed to the normal standard by the end of the month, the normal standard may be two minutes, it may be a minute, or a sub-period to determine the standard.
m (measurable)--Measurement
measurement means that the goal should be clear, not vague. There should be a clear set of data as a basis for measuring whether or not to reach a goal.
If a goal is not measured, it cannot be judged whether it is achieved. For example, the leader asked one day, "How far is this goal from the realization?" "The team member's answer is" we've already achieved it. " This is a disagreement between the leadership and the subordinates about the team's goals. The reason is not to give him a quantitative and measurable analysis of the data. But not all goals can be measured, sometimes with exceptions, such as the objective of the general direction is difficult to measure.
For example, "to arrange for further management training for all the old employees". Further is a concept that is neither clear nor easy to measure, what exactly does it mean? is not as long as the arrangement of this training, no matter who speaks, also whether the effect is called "further"?
improve: Exactly, at what time to complete the training of all the old staff on a topic, and at the end of the course, the students scored at more than 85 points, less than 85 points that the results are not satisfactory, above 85 is the expected results. Such a goal becomes measurable.
A (acceptable)--acceptability
The goal is to be able to be accepted by the executive, if the boss use some administrative means, use the power of the influence of the wishful thinking to the subordinates, the typical reflection of subordinates is a psychological and behavioral resistance: I can accept, but whether to accomplish this goal, there is no final grasp, This is not a good thing to say. Once one day this goal can not be completed, the subordinate has 100 reasons to shirk responsibility: You see I have said, this goal must not be completed, but you insist on pressure to me.
"Control" of the leadership like their own goals, and then to the subordinates to complete, they do not care about the opinions of subordinates and reflect, this practice is increasingly no market. The level of knowledge, education, and quality of the employees, as well as the degree of individuality they advocate, are far beyond that of the past. Therefore, leaders should be more involved in the goal-setting process, even if the overall goal of the team.
R (Realistic)--practicality
the practicality of the objective is whether it is feasible and operable under realistic conditions. There may be two situations in which the leader optimistically estimates the current situation and underestimates the conditions required to achieve the goal, including human resources, hardware conditions, technical conditions, System information conditions, team environmental factors, etc., so that a higher than the actual capacity of the indicators. In addition, it may take a lot of time, resources, and even labor costs, the final goal of the target is not much practical significance at all.
Example: A restaurant manager's goal was to increase the breakfast sales by 15% on the basis of last month's breakfast sales. To figure it out, it could be a thousands of dollar concept, and if it's converted to profit it's a pretty low number. But how much is it going to cost to achieve this goal? The investment is much higher than the profit.
This is not a realistic goal, it is that it spends a lot of money, and finally did not take back the capital invested, it is not a good goal.
sometimes actual needs are measured by the team leader. Because sometimes the leaders say that they put so much money in order to beat the competition, so despite not being so high, defeating the competitor is the main goal. The goal in this situation is real.
T (timed)--time limit
The time-limit of the target characteristic means that the goal is limited by the temporal. For example, I will finish something before May 31, 2005. May 31 is a definite time limit. There is no time limit to the goal of the assessment, or bring the assessment of injustice. The level of awareness of the goal priorities of different degrees, the boss worried, but the following do not know. In the end, the boss can rage, and subordinates feel wronged. This lack of definite time-limited way will also bring the assessment of injustice, hurt the work relationship, hurt subordinates work enthusiasm.
-smart Principles of Time management
