What Do Great Performance Goals Look Like?

Each year most of us start out having set at least a few new year's resolutions or goals. And that's a good thing. Goals are essential to our success. They give us purpose and our brains are drawn to them like a magnet. Having clear goals helps give us the drive to achieve the success we want in business and in life.

The same is true for our employees as well. They should begin each new year with clear and purposeful goals. But since some of your employees might not know how to craft good goals, here is a summary of how to create good performance goals so you can help them.

You may have seen this concept before: that a good goal is a SMART goal. It's hardly a new concept, but it works. The letters stand for the key elements of a good goal. My favorite description of SMART goals comes from my friend, Sid Smith. This comes from Sid's newsletter, Ordinarily Exceptional, which he no longer publishes (unfortunately). Here is Sid on SMART goals:

Specific - To be effective, a goal must be fully clarified. More on this below.

Measurable - Each element of your goal can be measured. For example, if it is a monetary goal, you can measure your progress according to how much money you've made. Other elements, such as the ease at which you achieve your goal, must also be measurable. Rather than simply saying you'll achieve your goal "with ease", you want to be specific about how easy, perhaps by using a scale of 1-10. Then, you can measure your progress on a daily basis by indicating where you are on your 1-10 scale.

Actionable - You must be able to take specific actions toward your goal. Having a goal of "feeling better" is a little vague. What actions will you take that move you toward a measurable and specific target?

Reasonable - How reasonable is your goal? There are processes and methods available for achieving fairly unreasonable goals, but even these are within a framework of reason. A good way to measure this is by evaluating your own experience in attaining similar goals, perhaps in different areas of your life. Or, look at others who have achieved similar goals and use them as models for what is reasonable for you.

Time specific - This is a very important aspect of goal setting. Not only should the end result be time specific, but you'll identify certain milestone points along the way. Each of these is time specific. For example, you might complete your goal on or before May 1, 2004. Then, phase three is complete on March 1, and phase two on February 1. Phase 1 is complete on January 1st (so you'd better get going!). Each component is time specific, giving you a very specific and measurable target.

Sid makes a very important point about how you must really clarify your goals and make them specific enough to let your brain work on them even when you are not aware of it. Here is what he has to say about this:

There are four major parts to our brains, each responsible for a different aspect of our being - logical, creative, emotional, and physical. So, the next step in clarifying a goal is to add elements that activate each part of the brain.

Logical - Are there steps or stages to the goal? Will I increase my income by 2% per month? Will I need additional resources (people, money, or other things)?

Creative - How easily will I achieve this goal? Will it require a new way of doing things?

Emotional - How will I feel WHILE I am moving toward my goal? How will I feel when it is completed?

Physical - What does my life look like at the completion of the goal? What smells, tastes, or physical activities occur during and after the goal is completed?

As you can see, the process of crafting good performance goals means more than dashing off a few sales or productivity targets and passing them on to your employees. While it's important to have business goals, in order to meet them your employees will need to craft their own performance goals. Otherwise, what they have is a quota received from above and not a goal they will believe in and strive hard to achieve. For the goal-making process to work best, each employee should be involved in writing his or her own goals.

Let's put this all together to create a couple of model performance goals similar to ones your employees might write, again modeled after Sid Smith's example.

Sales: On or before December 31, 2004, I have consistently produced at least 5% more sales volume than the previous month, and have a total increase in sales volume of at least 20% over the previous year. I do this easily, using whatever resources I need to meet my goal. Each day as I think on my accomplishments, I feel excited, competent, and grateful. I complete at least one major action toward my goal at least five of the seven days each week, with a level of effort not exceeding five, where ten is extreme.

Service: On or before December 31, 2004, I have reduced my comeback ratio to one half the rate of the previous year. I do this by using whatever resources and by drawing on whatever people I need to meet the goal. Each day as I reflect on my accomplishments, I feel pride in my work, competent, and excited. I complete at least one major action toward my goal at least five of the seven days each week, with a level of effort not exceeding four, where ten is extreme.

These may seem like long and overly complex goal statements, but notice that they include everything the brain needs to keep us focused on our goals. Each could be put more simply, but would not be as effective over the long term.

To have a successful year, each of your employees should be working to achieve several goals, one in each key part of their job. And if you help them create SMART goals, ones they can reach with some effort and take pride in having met, I'm sure you will see improvements in your business results that will make this a great year.

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