There’s an old saying, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there”. Now, I’m sorry to scoff in the face of conventional wisdom, but in business, that’s just not true! If you don’t know where you’re going, you need to sit down and figure it out, because no one else is going to tell you.

One of the primary responsibilities of leadership is goal-setting. You’re the one in the driver’s seat, after all, choosing the road you’re on and the route you’re going to take to get there. Many tasks in your business can and should be delegated to your employees, or even consultants like me who can help you along your way, but this is your business and your goals, after all.

Do you know where you want your business to be in a year’s time? How about two? No, well what about at the end of the month, or next month? Presumably you wrote a business plan when you were starting out — this might be a good time to re-visit that and see what you initially envisioned and then make some changes from everything you’ve learned since.

SMART GOALS

Have you ever heard of ‘SMART’ goals? It’s a popular way of thinking about goal-setting that isn’t vague, like a birthday wish or a New Year’s Resolution. SMART goals are:

S — Specific
M — Measurable
A — Action-oriented
R — Relevant
T — Time-Framed

Specific — What do you want your business to look like? Why? Who is involved in making this happen? Where are you aiming to be?

Measurable — How can you measure progress? Are there deadlines? Milestones? How will you know you’ve achieved what you set out to do?

Action-Oriented — What steps do you have to take to achieve your goal? How can you break it down into little tasks that will add up?

Relevant — Is this goal useful, worthwhile, applicable to the area/economic climate? Is it suitable for your business?

Time-framed — When is the deadline for your goal? What can you do today to make a start? How about tomorrow?

Every time you set a goal for you, your business, or anyone working for you, you should consider the SMART principles. They’re a road-map towards productivity and assist you in keeping everything properly aligned, and they’re an essential part of the toolkit I want to give you, as part of this six-part series of blog posts on ACCELERATING your business through LEADERSHIP.

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