What is a good goal? How should goals be defined?
SMART is an acronym for:
Specific. A generic goal is useless as you don’t know how to match it, it’s too much ambiguity. Which markets are desired? Do we know which products are considered? We need more details to do a good job. If the details are not provided, an agile approach with short research cycles would provide the necessary opportunity to align with customer expectations.
Measureable. Is it quantifiable? With a measurable objective you can identify when it was reached.
Achievable. The challenge must be adapted to the skill level. Above skills we generate stress (burn-out) while going below it may demotivate the team (bore-out). The Flow Model is a great visual representation of the match between challenge and skills.
Realistic. The complexity of the work should be adjusted to the timeframe and available skillset. Setting unrealistic expectations demotivate the team if they expect to have no chance of winning. Some companies sometimes require impossible work just to create a case against some of the team members. This is unethical but unfortunately quite common.
Time bound. Deadlines are necessary because people tend to procrastinate and deliver work ALAP (as late as possible). A deadline provides a clear target to focus our efforts. By delimiting time to work, we also indicate the expected level of quality: a report done in 4 hours is necessarily shorter and less detailed than one that requires 5 full days (40 hours). If the deadline is not explicited, ask, clarify expectations.
To delegate work well some preparation is necessary to delimit the requirements and clarify how the work will be assessed. Successful delegation happens through SMART objectives.
