Goal Setting Tips for 2011
As a new year begins, it is a new opportunity to set goals and objectives and plan for results in 2011. Below you will find my goal setting tips to help you realize your results and avoid wasting your valuable time and money!
Specific – reduce the tasks and goals to specific items that can be seen, felt or measured. Some examples goal could be increase new clients by 5% this calendar year, or increase net new sales 3% in fiscal 2011.
Metrics that can highlight hat you are making progress or to indicate that adjustments to the plan may be required to ‘right the ship’ on course toward the overall goal or objective. Some examples may be to endeavour to make 20 prospecting calls per week, and to track against this goal. Then, of the prospects contacted, how many appointments or follow up contacts were made? Then of these follow-up contacts, how many lead to a close or sale? Having these results to review will allow you to identify successes and failures in the process and any areas for adjustment along the way.
Achievable and Realistic– is the goal achievable in the stated timeframe provided? Given the current uncertainty in the economy, are the goals realistic? Goals should stretch just beyond what would normally be expected to provide some incentive or motivation to strive, however goals that stretch too far will be discouraging when results appear to be beyond reach.
Time-based – Goals should be created and plotted against calendar milestones, weekly and daily tasks to provide you with some manageable tasks on a daily basis to keep you on track toward your goals for 2011. Once the tasks have been defined, you can use calendar tools such as a PDA, or Microsoft Outlook to create repeating tasks, milestone tasks and daily tasks to keep you organized, motivated and focused on the tasks to be accomplished.
Note that smaller more specific goals in a shorter timeframe are more easily managed than larger, multi-year objectives where progress and results along the way may be harder to measure and may reduce momentum, motivation and ultimately miss the desired results.
Following these steps will certainly put on the path to success in 2011!
References:
SMART Goals – detailed guidance notes and tips for effective SMART goals:
http://www.smart-goals.org/
Download a free SMART Goal setting worksheet – tailor this to your particular situation.
http://www.executive-and-life-coaching.com/support-files/smartgoalsettingworksheet.pdf
As a new year begins, it is a new opportunity to set goals and objectives and plan for results in 2011. Below you will find my goal setting tips to help you realize your results and avoid wasting your valuable time and money!As a first step in your goal setting process, start with the end in mind – defining the end state you seek
What outcomes or goals do you want to achieve? By starting at the end and working back to your current state, you will be able to visualize the milestones, processes and actions that will need to be put in place to achieve your goals.
The goal setting process can be defined using SMART goals – in order to avoid disappointment and wasted valuable time and effort, ensure that you define a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based (SMART) goal.
Specific – reduce the tasks and goals to specific items that can be seen, felt or measured. Some examples goal could be increase new clients by 5% this calendar year, or increase net new sales 3% in fiscal 2011. Measurable – how will you know if you are on-track and how will you know if you have succeeded?
Metrics that can highlight hat you are making progress or to indicate that adjustments to the plan may be required to ‘right the ship’ on course toward the overall goal or objective. Some examples may be to endeavour to make 20 prospecting calls per week, and to track against this goal. Then, of the prospects contacted, how many appointments or follow up contacts were made? Then of these follow-up contacts, how many lead to a close or sale? Having these results to review will allow you to identify successes and failures in the process and any areas for adjustment along the way.
Time-based – Goals should be created and plotted against calendar milestones, weekly and daily tasks to provide you with some manageable tasks on a daily basis to keep you on track toward your goals for 2011. Once the tasks have been defined, you can use calendar tools such as a PDA, or Microsoft Outlook to create repeating tasks, milestone tasks and daily tasks to keep you organized, motivated and focused on the tasks to be accomplished.Note that smaller more specific goals in a shorter timeframe are more easily managed than larger, multi-year objectives where progress and results along the way may be harder to measure and may reduce momentum, motivation and ultimately miss the desired results.
Following these steps will certainly put on the path to success in 2011!
References:
SMART Goals – detailed guidance notes and tips for effective SMART goals:
http://www.smart-goals.org/
Download a free SMART Goal setting worksheet – tailor this to your particular situation.
http://www.executive-and-life-coaching.com/support-files/smartgoalsettingworksheet.pdf
Stay tuned for more Small Business Tips for 2011!
Regards,
Stephen Beech MBA, CMA
Padgett Business Services
(905)949-4388 ext. 24
Thanks for share about Developing SMART Goals for Personal and Business Success 2011 . Your content is really useful for us.............
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