What Does Smart Goals Stand For? Learn How to Set Them and Achieve More with Our Free Template

Goal setting in general provides new behaviors and guides focus by setting your sights on a specific outcome. They hold you accountable for your actions and help to propel you forward by aligning to the bigger picture. Some common goals relate to advancing or developing your career, increasing your network, or completing projects more efficiently. 

When setting goals, there’s a SMART way to do it to ensure that you’re putting yourself on the path to success. By using the SMART framework, you simplify your objectives and gain more clarity about what you want to achieve. This method is proven to be highly effective and can be used for both organizational and personal goals. SMART goals stand for: 

S - Specific 

M - Measurable

A - Achievable

R - Relevant

T - Time-Bound

Each goal that you set should include these elements to ensure that your goal can be reached. Let’s see how these can be put into action:

1. Specific. Goals need to be clearly defined and specific so that you can focus your efforts and attention on a particular outcome. Setting broader goals can be tricky because it's more difficult to pinpoint their main purpose. Working on smaller, more specific tasks increases motivation and direction.

2. Measurable. Every goal needs to have a measure of progress. When creating a SMART goal, incorporate a measurement that indicates when you have met your goal. This could be the number of leads reached out to, or people you’ve sent networking emails to. A tangible marker of progression helps you stay on track and course-correct when necessary. 

3. Achievable. SMART goal methodology suggests that you make your goals realistic and reachable - that is, something that is a bit of a stretch but not outside the realm of reality. You should understand the full scope of your goal before starting to work on it, to ensure that what you have in mind can be accomplished. 

4. Relevant. When defining your goals, think about how they relate to your long term goals. Is your goal something out of left field, or is it aligned with what you want to achieve within the next year or two? Define how this goal is relevant to you and your success. 

5. Time-Bound. Give yourself a deadline for achieving your goal. By setting this boundary, you create a sense of urgency that drives action and a sense of accountability to complete the goal within a specific amount of time, instead of letting it drift off into the undefined future. 

Here’s a SMART goal template that you can use next time you’re creating a goal: 

Putting SMART Goals Into Practice: 

We've provided you with some employee goal examples of how to use the SMART methodology to turn regular work goals into specific actions that with be more successful!

Regular Work Goal: Boost new leads by revamping our old content to make it more relevant. 

SMART Goal: Boost total new lead acquisition by 10 percent over a two-month period by adding relevant CTAs and content offers to 50 pieces of existing content.

2. Regular Work Goal: Apply for the project manager role by the end of the year. 

SMART Goal: By the end of Q2,  pass the PMP certification exam to increase my project management skills and apply for a PM role by the end of the year. 

3. Regular Work Goal: Increase referrals through newsletters. 

SMART Goal: Get one new referral this month by sending out a weekly newsletter (four newsletters total) to all clients and offer a discount off their next purchase as an incentive.

4. Regular Work Goal: Decrease unnecessary department spending.

SMART Goal: End the quarter 10% under budget while conducting monthly audits of expense reimbursements and supply costs.

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