Setting SMART Objectives

The value of setting objectives to help individuals, teams and the firm achieve their goals is well recognised.  They can help clarify expectations, motivate team members and provide a useful benchmark to identify development needs and a basis upon which to assess performance.

Yet setting an objective is not easy, which is why the SMART acronym can be a really useful guide to follow in making the objective effective.

SMART stands for

·        Specific

·        Measurable

·        Achievable

·        Relevant

·        Time-framed

The first step in setting a SMART objective is to determine what it is that needs to be achieved as far as the individual, team, department or firm is concerned.  For instance, it may be a skill or behaviour that an individual needs to learn or improve at (e.g. Improve your personal organisation - sometimes known as a ‘soft’ objective). Or It may be a strategic or financial goal that the department or firm is looking to achieve (e.g. Increase our fees -sometimes known as a ‘hard’ objective).

Having determined what it is that needs to be achieved, this then needs to be framed using the SMART criteria.

Specific

The objective should be outlined in a clear statement of precisely what is required, describing the outcome in a detailed and focused way that leaves no room for doubt as to what it means or what it is that is to be achieved.  Try and frame the objective using action-based words (e.g. reduce, improve, increase, establish etc.)

Using the examples above, the ‘soft’ objective of ‘Improve your personal organisation skills’ would be too vague. ‘Ensure receipt of all emails is acknowledged within one working day’ would be better, assuming that aspect of the individual’s organisation skills needed improving. For the ‘hard’ objective, ‘Increase our fees’ would need to be made more specific, such as ‘increase our fees from Academy clients by 20% through organic growth or acquisition’.

Measurable

The objective should be framed in such a way that progress can be monitored and its achievement established.

For the ‘soft’ objective above, the time to acknowledge receipt of both internal and external emails would need to be monitored. Feedback from colleagues and clients can be gathered as to whether the objective was being achieved.  For the ‘hard’ objective, the firm would need to ensure the fee income from Academy clients could be monitored and any increases separately identified.

Achievable

Objectives need to be challenging but achievable. The context, resources and abilities of the individuals or teams concerned need to be considered in this regard.

For the ‘soft’ objective, is it reasonable to expect an individual to acknowledge receipt of an email within one working day? The objective may need to be refined for instances when the individual is not available (i.e on holiday) when appropriate out of office messages would need to be set up.  

For the ‘hard’ objective,  consideration needs to be given to whether a 20% fee increase in the Academy sector is achievable. This would need to be assessed in terms of previous growth levels achieved within that sector and where that growth came from as well as what opportunities for organic or inorganic growth currently exist.

Relevant

For the objective to be relevant it must be aligned to what is needed from an individual in their role and aligned to the overall goals of the department or firm.

The acknowledgment of emails within an appropriate time frame is an essential element of service delivery, so the ‘soft’ target would be relevant.

For the Academy sector fee growth target to be relevant, fee growth would need to be part of the overall goals of the firm.

Time-framed

The time-frame by which the objective needs to be achieved also needs to be established.  This will also help in making the objective measurable.

For the ‘soft’ objective of acknowledging receipt of emails, the time-frame could be with immediate effect from the setting of the objective.  For the increase in fee growth objective, it would need to established what was a reasonable, yet challenging, time-frame for this to be achieved.  So the objective would need to be drafted with the time-frame included (i.e. ‘increase our fees from Academy clients by 20% through organic growth or acquisition by 31.12.20XX’.

Other tips for effective objective setting

Ensure the objective is mutually agreed rather than imposed on an individual, team or department.  Getting buy-in to the objective has a significant bearing on whether the objective will be achieved.

Be prepared to offer the necessary support to help in the achievement of an objective. This support could involve additional training, coaching, mentoring to an individual or team in the relevant area.

Review the objectives on a regular basis, perhaps quarterly rather than half-yearly or annually.  Regularly monitoring of progress towards the objective is an important element in their ultimate achievement.  It can allow for objectives to be adjusted where needed, perhaps where circumstances have changed or for new objectives to be set where the original objective has been achieved.  It can also help identify where additional support is required, as referred to above.

Don’t set too many objectives at any one time for an individual, team or department to achieve.  This tends to dilute and distract their focus. This is obviously dependent on the inherent difficulty of the objective and the time-frame in which it is to be achieved but a useful benchmark is to set between three and five objectives for any one individual, team, department or the firm as a whole.

Recognise objectives can be valuable as either input-based and output-based objectives.  The ‘soft’ target above is an input-based objective (the timely acknowledgment of emails) in order to achieve an output-based goal (improving the individual’s overall personal organisation skills).  The ‘hard’ objective of increasing fee income is an output-based objective in itself.

Setting SMART objectives is a valuable management tool in helping individuals, teams and the firm improve performance and achieve potential.

Our Manager Toolkit ‘Achieving Effective Performance Development Reviews’ provides further guidance in this area of performance management and development.  

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Get in touch with us at info@3qhub.com if you would to discuss how 3Qhub can help you get the best from your people.

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