Lara Reurns !

Yes, My favorite "Brain Lara" returns as West Indies captain (third time) !!

Congrats and ALL THE BEST Lara !

: news :

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Blog roam !

Recently read blog of "Effective Goals", It’s a great read.

.. a friend (who shall remain anonymous) vented to me about his “day of meetings.”

“We are talking about ‘goals,’ but, I don’t think we are making progress. We will never be able to achieve these goals. This is a real waste of time.”

I asked him, “When your team is setting goals, what are they using to measure the goals and to make sure they are achievable? Are you using the SMART system?” He had not heard of this, and after I described it to him he said, “I need to have this; we need to be using this!”

SMART is an acronym one can run through to look at a goal, personal or work; it does not matter, and make sure it has a chance of being successful:

S = Specific - Be very specific about your goal; don’t make it vague. You may want to take a vague, or a complicated goal, and break it up into smaller, specific goals.

M = Measurable - Don’t do ANYTHING unless it is measurable. If you do not have something to measure against, how will you know when you have reached your goal? For example, “Our goal is to increase sales” is not only vague (see “S“) but has no measure. “Our goal: to increase sales in the next 6 months by 25% over last year’s sales numbers.” That is measurable and you will know when you have hit that goal.

A = Achievable - Don’t set a goal that’s “pie in the sky” and not achievable. Set a goal that is actionable (another “A” word sometimes used for this step); a goal that steps can be defined for.

R = Realistic - We all have big dreams. However, if you set a goal that is not realistic, you are setting yourself up for failure from the start. Look at the Measure (see “M”) you have set for the goal. In the example above, is 25% realistic?

T = Time-Specific or Targeted - When you set a goal, make sure you have a target. When do you want to achieve this goal? In the example above, we said 6 months. If the sales force just knows “25%” but does not know by when, they will have no target and no motivation. Yet, if they know “how much” and “by when,” they will have a goal they are shooting for; they will be running in a race that has a finish line. Motivation is the name of the game with goals.

In addition to my friends venting, Guy Kawasaki wrote an excellent post that motivated me to write about this. His post is called the “Art of Execution.” It touches on SMART, but, adds more to look at goals from a variety of angles. Though written towards an entrepreneur who has received funding for their company and now needs to know “what to do next,” this post is extremely applicable to any team or any project you might be working on.