How To Set SMART Goals - Start With The Ideal In Mind

Setting worthy SMART goals can be a real challenge. SMART is the acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Time framed. For a lot of people, getting to goal statements that meet those criteria is tough.

So where to start in this process of establishing SMART goals?

Start with the three to five most important things that cannot be left to chance - the things that are most important - the things that action and focus can make happen - right now.

Then identify the ideals. The very best outcome, the best that could happen, the best possible solution. Write down, in detail, what you believe to be the ideal solution to a problem, the ideal spouse or partner, the ideal vacation, the ideal boss, the ideal client, the ideal outcome of a sales campaign.These are the "perfect world" descriptions that we all have about many different things. We're reluctant to share them - we don't want to be seen as dreamers. And yet, creating the ideal - whatever it may be - is the first step to goal setting and accomplishment

The following is the process we use in helping clients define goals to use in people selection. It's an example of how starting with the ideal and then working to a clear set of expectations works - in all kinds of goal areas.

The very first step is to have the client stakeholders state the goal for the selection process- a SMART goal.

The next step is to create a model of the ideal candidate. Start by listing the key accountabilities for the position, then the technical skills, attributes, education, experience, behaviors, values and personal skills the ideal candidate would have.

When that process is completed ask if anyone has ever met a person who could fill the complete description just developed. None ever say they have. But taking the time to arrive at this description is crucial. Without agreeing to the ideal the chances of arriving at the best selection decision are very low.

What the ideal does is set a bar to focus on and strive to reach. Without it everything is relative. "They are the best we could find, given the circumstances." Those words describe the rationalization used to make some perfectly awful selection decisions.

At the same time that it's critical to start with the ideal, it's also critical to not let the ideal become the expectation. As Peter Senge states in The Fifth Discipline, "Scratch a cynic and you'll find a person who made the mistake of letting their ideals become their expectations."

When using this process to identify candidate requirements, once the ideal is established, most stakeholder groups are tempted to make all of the requirements top priorities. That's unrealistic - it's also a copout. Making everything a top priority is just a way of avoiding tough decisions. This is when the hard work of prioritizing the must have's, the want to have's and the nice to have's is done. This is always the toughest step in the process - regardless of the type of goal involved. Different stakeholders have different views of the requirements - and different views of the desired outcome.

But when prioritizing and valuing is done, a clear set of expectations emerges, and everyone can work on the same page - and increase the probability of successfully hiring the right person for the right job by thirty percent to fifty percent. Most organizations would kill for that kind of return on the level of investment involved. The same kind of increase in effectiveness can happen in other goal areas as well.

And the door remains open to modifications based on the experience and action of striving to meet the goal. And modifications happen frequently. But since the process started with the ideal, modifications are kept at a high level.

The next time there is a situation requiring action, create the habit of thought of starting by identifying the ideal - the best possible outcome. Then use that to set goals. Starting with that ideal results in accomplishments far beyond what might otherwise be achieved.

Written by Andy Cox

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

Overcome The Wall Through Goals

See if this sounds familiar.

It's halfway through the year. Time for a goal review. No surprises - in good shape on some, and hitting the Wall on the tough one or two. Unfortunately, those one or two always include really important stuff. They're goals that have to be met. And yet, every time a certain point is reached this Wall gets in the way. It's a Wall you can't see, it's built of things like fear of failure, fear of unworthiness, fear of lack of ability, fear of fear, lack of resources and commitment - things that keep accomplishment from occurring.

The Wall and worthy goals go together. Sometimes it's so tempting to set easy - to - reach standards of performance. But setting goals that don't demand stretch means accepting the status quo - the great demon of progress and success.

Notice how the Wall only appears on the truly important, demanding, stretch goals? The goals that spell real progress, real success and real accomplishment? The Wall saves itself for the really important things.

Talk to any championship athlete in any endurance sport about the Wall. Some describe it's effect as being hit by a fist, others describe it as an irresistible force - hard to define, but even harder to move through. Every athlete has experienced it - the top ones have somehow fought through. And at the end of their challenge they are changed people - they have a sense of their capabilities that they did not have before. They have used their goal to go from hope to belief to a level of personal confidence they never knew existed.

Talk to a Navy SEAL who has endured their training and succeeded in graduating, and you will talk to a person who has found new limits to their physical and mental endurance. And they know they can go longer and further with less than they had ever imagined. They know their mental toughness made the difference - even the best conditioned will fail without the ability to keep their heads down and take one more step. One more step toward their goal.

Few of us will have the opportunity to experience what the world class athlete and the Navy SEAL experience - on a physical level. But we all have the opportunity to experience the Wall and overcome it on the mental level - the level the athlete and the SEAL agree is the most important for success.

Back to the Wall keeping you from your important goal.

Banging your head against the Wall doesn't work - it only feels good when you stop. Trying to visualize what it will feel like when you get through it gives good feelings, but feeling have never carried the day. Avoiding the Wall with activity and little"goals" and stuff that isn't that important helps for a little while, until you wake up at 3 AM and realize all that sound and fury really didn't mean much. Telling yourself that the Wall isn't really that important and turning your back on it doesn't help - all you're left with is an empty feeling of failure - of being less worthy and less able. Going around it and avoiding the challenge leaves the same feeling. And the longer you do these things the bigger the Wall becomes.

The athlete and the SEAL will both tell you that on their journeys there came times when they just wanted to lie down and quit. But they didn't. They took one more step. The same thing with your worthy, tough, goal. One more step may not seem like much but by the time you've reached the stage where one more step is important you've already come most of the way. Since you can't see over the Wall, you don't know how much longer your journey will be. So you have to remain convinced of the value and contribution of the goal - it's what sustains effort in the worst of times.

So take one more step - with the end in mind. And then another. Focus on the truly important and don't question your ability and worthiness - that's a destructive habit of thought. Recommit to the important stuff. And watch the Wall move, or crumble, or slowly reduce in size. Walls don't just disappear - just like bright flashes of inspiration rarely occur that save the day. The hard work of one more step overcomes the Wall.

And on the other side of the Wall you will find your own success - and transformation - and change. The reward of hard work and accomplishment provides the energy for continued success.

Review your goals today. Make sure you have a goal worthy of the Wall. Then persist. Be changed and grow by overcoming your Wall. You will be in the top ten percent when you do. I guarantee it.

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