SMART Objectives
Most managers are familiar with the setting up of goals or
objectives for their teams or departments. However there remains
a lot of speculation on why Objectives are needed, who needs to
have objectives and finally how to go about forming the perfect
objective.
Objectives are generally a list of one or more statements, each
statement a clear definition on what has to be achieved. There
can be Overall company objectives, department objectives, team
objectives and even personal objectives. Objectives, especially
short term objectives brings immense clarity about the immediate
future to the team and how they are going to be affected.
For example, an Olympic 100 m sprinter knows her goals. If the
sprinter were to run without purpose or objectives, she would
have been mentally exhausted. By knowing the objective of the
100 m dash, she is able to maintain the tempo and the focus
needed.
Some examples closer home. An R&D wing may focus on a higher
degree of purity of their product, or a better tensile strength
. A sales team may focus on better sales numbers or growing
market share. An HR department may focus on better employee
satisfaction or lower attrition rates. A maintenance team may
define a higher degree of machine uptime or service
availability. The Customer relation representatives may aim for
better Customer satisfaction levels.
Each team striving to achieve set and clear Team objectives
leads to overall improvement in the company, in small ways but a
clear push forward has been established. Managers no longer has
to rely on vague notions of good work. The performance of a team
is clear and measured by verifying if the objectives are
achieved.
A company would do well to have all teams and levels to define
objectives for themselves and to make sure that they complement
each other. Why is it necessary to have the entire company in
it? Consider the Sales Manager has set sales goals for 2005, and
the Product Development Manager has not made any goal to release
the product on the beginning of 2005. The lack of the Product
development manager's objective is going to affect the Sales
managers goals.
How do objectives benefit the team members. The best boost a
team can have is "knowing" that it achieved its objective. I
said this earlier in the case of the 100m sprinter. For this
boost to happen, it is important for the manager to clearly
communicate the objectives to team members at the appropriate
time. For example, if the objective is for the year 2005, the
manager should have communicated this to the team at the start
of 2005.
It is important for the manager to periodically communicate to
members the progress of the objective. For example, a sales
manager should communicate the acheivement of the annual sales
figure to his team, at least monthly.
And finally, the manager should tell the team whether the
objective was achieved or not at the end of the time period. If
it was not achieved, a good manager would know it prior to the
actual end of the time period. Corrective actions and preventive
actions would be taken.
Lets assume that the manager realises midterm that the objective
is tough to attain. She may change the sales strategy if the
strategy is at fault. She may change personnel if required.
Maybe the sales brochures were inadequate.
In some cases, the sales may be falling behind due to reasons
beyond the sales managers control. For example, the product has
some problems. She will then notify the product development
department who will initiate corrective actions. In this case,
the Objectives set by the Sales department, has actually helped
drive corrective action and eventually helped the company save
its sales figures.
Managers should involve team members in the setting the
objectives process. Team members may have the grass root
knowledge in knowing whether a objective is actually achievable
or not.
How to formulate objectives? Ideally objectives should be SMART,
having 5 characteristics
S - Specific M - Measurable A - Achievable R - Realistic T -
Time Bound
S - Specific
The objective should be specific and not vague. For example, an
objective of "99% network uptime" makes it specific to a Network
Maintenance team than a "High network uptime". A receptionist
can have an objective of "Picking up calls by the 3rd ring"
M - Measurable
It should be possible to measure the achievement. This is the
area where managers get confused. An objective of "Achieve
Highest possible speed" for a car is not measurable, "Achieve
250 miles an hour" is measurable. It follows that if an
objective is set, there has to be a method to gather data and
prove that the objective has been achieved.
A - Achievable
Always set objectives higher than what has been achieved, but
not so high that it can never be achieved. That is why a 99%
uptime is more achievable than 100%. Or a 0.5% error rate is
more achievable than a 0%. Thats why, setting achievable
objectives improves confidence in a team than an unachievable
one. The closer you get to a near perfect score, the more
difficult it becomes. It may be very difficult to get from a
tolerance limit of 99.2% to a 99.7% figure.
R - Relevant
The objective should be relevant to the team or department it is
being formulated for. For example can a Maintenance team achieve
99% customer satisfaction? No. They can probably keep the
network up. But in doing so, they are helping the Product design
team achieve customer satisfaction. The Maintenance wing would
be better off having a Relevant objective for their team like
"99% uptime" T - Time Bound
Managers should set goals which are time bound. A Sales Manager
can set a goal which says "Annual sales figure of 30,000 washing
machines". The "Annual" part makes it time bound. Otherwise, the
team wouldn't know when it has to achieve the target.
Here are some sample objectives - For a teacher - "90% pass
marks for yearly batches" - For a bus driver - "99% on time
scheduled stops every month". For a CEO - "50% market share by
2006", For a product development manager - "Getting down
customer maintenance requests by 50% by 2006 end"