How S.M.A.R.T. goals failed this leadership team

Part 3/4 in a video series of reflections after a team workshop. A cautionary tale for leadership teams…

A common mistake managers make is creating goals that are intended to inspire massive action, but don’t provide clarity on how to prioritize activities.

This happens a lot. When we aren’t getting the performance you want from your team, most people know to create a S.M.A.R.T. goal - one that is specific, measurable, actionable, results-oriented, and time-bound. 🤓

Leaders run into a couple of problems with goals - including making them too big to accomplish in the specified time, not involving stakeholders in the goal setting process, or rushing to set them too quickly. 🤦‍♀️

In this video I shared about a leadership team I’m working with that jumped to “We are going to be #1 in our market in the next couple of years!” 🥇

But if your team doesn’t believe it is possible, or if that goal isn’t helping them to prioritize initiatives and get clear on the next right step - you aren’t done with the goal setting process.

⚠️  Be careful not to jump to a goal too quickly.

We do this because we feel itchy in the uncertainty and want to exercise some more control over our situation. Often we are tired and confused about what to do next, so we rush into action to get people moving. “Just do something!” 📣

But the goal isn’t the thing that is going to accelerate your results! 🫢

The thought process that you go through as you make the hard decisions on what to focus on is what sets your team up for success.

And if you are too quick to jump out of discomfort and uncertainty and try to force clarity - you are going to miss something important (some piece of data you don’t have yet, some insight it wasn’t safe enough to surface, some new idea that hasn’t had space to breathe, etc.).

Want someone to bounce ideas off of or review the goals that you’ve drafted? Contact me and mention ‘goals’ and we can chat.