Use SMART Goals To Get Through Tough Times

The most effective thing any of us can do right now is to focus on our goals - define them, refine them to reflect changing realities, test them to see if they remain realistic and relevant, and act to achieve them.

It's hard. The steady drumbeat of news - about the economy, about the elections, about man's inhumanity to man - delivered with passion by so many talking heads on the 24 hour news cycle, can really divert attention from the really important things.

Rudyard Kipling, in his poem "If" has a verse that reads:

"If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs,
And blaming it on you..."

The last verse of the poem reads:

"Then you will be a man, my son"

Rudyard Kipling lived from December 1865 until January 1936. Had he lived now I 'll bet the last line of "IF" would have read

"Then you will be a leader, my son or daughter"

An example of just how panic stricken and negative some people have become over current events showed up recently in a letter on the Wall Street Journal Op Ed page. It was written by a New York attorney who feels, while outward appearances remain the same, and people still consume $900 dinners at top restaurants, we as a nation are in denial. She feels that the US has lost its place in the world, that we are no longer the pre - eminent engine of commerce that we have been, that we will never regain it, that we are headed for economic disaster, and the reality of that has not yet sunk in. And while she admits she has no experience or expertise in things financial or economic, she writes that she was so upset by her conclusions that she got up at 2 AM to E Mail her mother to tell her to take all her remaining money out of the stock market and invest it in silver, or precious metals, or the mattress. Talk about losing your head! Unfortunately, she's got lots of company. Her emotional state has been affected by what is going on. It can be contagious - it is contagious. It's a contagion you want to avoid.

It's caused by FEAR - an acronym for "Fantasized Events/ Experiences Appearing Real."

And when FEAR sets in, people can be immobilized - or so mobilized that they feel they have to act - do something - anything - like the attorney telling her mother to act and put her money in silver - or in the mattress. I hope her Mom didn't follow that advice.

I read that Op Ed piece just before I took off on my daily 5 mile run/walk. Halfway through I realized I had spent my time thinking and worrying about politics, the impact of the next President, the impact of the credit crunch and sub prime loans. The realization that I was doing that made me stop - it made me ask myself what the hell was I doing? I was giving in to the contagion. I was working myself into a lather about things I had no control over, and not focusing my thought on the important things in my life. And I suspect I have a lot of company

How to overcome those negative emotions, avoid that contagion and move forward? SMART goals provide focus on the main things. Goals that are SMART, an acronym for Specific/Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant/Realistic, and Time framed can scrape us off the ceiling and keep us pointed in the right direction. The goals may have to be modified - no one should suggest that the events of today should be ignored - but isn't that a positive exercise in reality?

Replace the hysterical talk we hear on the news about having to live in our cars - about being unable to access our funds because the financial institutions have failed - about losing savings or jobs. We will be subjected to that kind of extreme negative news for a long time - it's what the media lives on. But for most of us, hanging in there, not giving in to despair and fear, not selling and putting what's left in the mattress, is the right thing to do.

Two pieces of advice that can help:

1 - In Og Mandino's book "The Greatest Salesman In The World" he advises when things are good, or bad, or indifferent - remember " This too shall pass." It's true. It's important not to let circumstances and events outside our control end up controlling our lives and causing us to make decisions on F.E.A.R., rather than on hard headed reality.

2 - Dale Carnegie, in "How To Stop Worrying and Start Living" offers another piece of advice that is so relevant to today. He advises, when faced with stressful situations, to "Live life in daytight compartments." Live in today, and work in today, slam the doors shut on yesterday and tomorrow, and the future will take care of itself. With all the negative stuff swirling around, living in daytight compartments creates focus. And SMART goals help make sure the effort put into daytight compartments is focused on the important few.

Use goals to direct positive effort to the things that can be accomplished - and to finding and acting on the opportunities and possibilities that are sure to present themselves.

If you don't have SMART goals for yourself, take the time to develop them. It can be tough when you start, but focus only on the three to five most important things in your life. Watch the cloud of negativity and doubt be replaced with positive energy and the motivation to accomplish. Use your SMART goals to keep from letting events and people wear you down. Start today - it's the only daytight compartment you have.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com;Website:www.coxconsultgroup.com; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

SMART Goals Reduce Ambiguity And Increase Commitment

One of the core competencies for leaders is the ability to deal with ambiguity - that condition where things are not what they seem. And the higher in an organization a leader goes, the more ambiguous things become. Leaders know ambiguity is the enemy of commitment. They know it can't be eliminated. They know the majority of people work best in an environment where expectations and contribution and recognition are well defined.


Leaders know ambiguity kills initiative - it creates a compliance culture rather than an aggressive commitment culture. It keeps people off balance. It enables weak managers to protect whatever turf they may have. Ambiguity is the friend of the indecisive, the maybe yes maybe no mindset, the uncommitted.

Reducing ambiguity is a goal of successful leaders.

But reducing ambiguity is a real challenge. As leaders become more skilled and successful at dealing with ambiguity, it can become more difficult for them to recognize how critical it is to their people to have a clear understanding of what is to be accomplished. Why? It's the Curse Of Knowledge at work. That condition, defined by the Heath brothers in their book "Made To Stick", says that once you have a piece of knowledge it is almost impossible to think or act as if others don't have it as well. The Curse includes skills. Once a skill is gained, it becomes hard to act without assuming that same skill exists in others.


So this tug of war is at work. While leaders develop the skill and ability to operate successfully in highly ambiguous situations, at the same time they need to work to reduce ambiguity for their people.


That's where SMART goals come in. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Time framed. The establishment of goals based on these criteria reduces ambiguity and creates a climate for comittment.


What follows is a story from my experience that illustrates how critical SMART goals are to reducing ambiguity and increasing the chances for success.


I worked in a large, multi national company with a small corporate staff -a really flat organization. While there was a lot of financial oversight, there was also a lot of operational freedom at the business unit level. The relationship between the business units and corporate was clear - make your numbers and we'll leave you alone. Fail to make your numbers and close control and changes in business unit leadership will occur.


A critical part of the relationship between corporate and the business units was in arriving at annual budgets and objectives. The corporate people were convinced that the business unit level people were holding back to earn maximum bonuses for their organizations - and themselves. The business unit people were convinced that the corporate people were trying to suck them dry. Both had reason to believe as they did. In that ambiguous situation the annual budget dance was played out and resulted - sometimes smoothly, sometimes not - in a set of financial goals for each business unit.


One Division President I had to work with considered the budget to be his organization's goal - it's only goal. He and his controller developed the budget based on what they thought would fly at corporate. It was the equivalent of throwing a whole lot of balls in the air and then trying to run under all of them. In this business unit, once the budget was approved no further goal setting was done as a means of communicating that budget's requirements. As a result, his business was a complete compliance culture. "Tell me what to do and I'll do it" was a phrase heard often in his business. He lasted three years - never made a budget - and was fired.


In another business unit I had the good fortune to work with a Division President who was committed to involving all his functional heads and their direct reports in developing the budget. All the opportunities, problems and issues were put on the table. By the time the budget was ready to be presented at corporate all the functional heads in his business unit knew what was in it, had participated in defining the numbers and had agreed to it.

In this business, the goal setting process started during the development of the budget. The key goal setting question was "What are the top 3 to 5 actions that must be taken to ensure exceeding the budget? " Every functional head asked that question of their people. SMART goals were developed at all levels. The result was a goal driven culture with people knowing what were the important few goals they needed to work to ensure success.

Regular performance to goal meetings were held, adjustments made, no surprises allowed. It was a very demanding place to work - but turnover was almost non-existent. That Division exceeded its budget for five years in a row and the Division President was promoted to Group Executive. There were many ambiguous situations that required work - but the top 3 to 5 SMART goals kept everyone focused on the important few.


There were many factors that contributed to the success of that business unit. But it started with the leader. He took the potential ambiguity of budget setting and turned it into a clearly defined process that involved input from the the experts. Then he turned the abstraction of a budget into a set of operating elements that could be defined, measured and reported on. He used SMART goals to do that. And the very human tendency to bite off more than could be chewed was controlled by insisting that the goals be limited to the 3 to 5 most important - at all levels of the organization.

The one addition the Division President made to the SMART formula was to add "Simple". His SMART acronym was modified to Simple/Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant/Realistic and Time Framed. Simple is a critical element of goal setting. He had seen too many goal setting processes that morphed into administrative processes that missed the real meaning and intent of goal setting.

Ambiguity is a fact of life in all organizations. In many cases it can be an advantage. But in most cases, the clearer the requirements, the better. Use SMART goals, keep them simple, and watch people respond with a high level of commitment to the enterprise. They can be, as in this case, the difference between success and failure.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved