Having a clear business direction is important. By setting company goals and targets with a SMART goal template, your business will be on the road to success in no time.

SMART goals not only aid in the management, planning, and crucial business decision-making process, but they also serve as an excellent instrument for monitoring advancement and gauging achievement.

If you want to keep your employees aligned, involved and driven, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll cover how to create and implement your own SMART goals template.

Smart Goals Templates

What is a SMART Goal Template

A SMART goals template is a ready-to-use document that assists you in planning and achieving your business or, sometimes, personal objectives. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-specific.

By defining these parameters in relation to your goals, you can ensure that your goals are realistic. This method removes any vague ideas and guesswork, establishes a clear timeframe, and makes you aware of any milestones or progress you’ve missed.

Example of a SMART goal statement: 

We aim to (specific – quantifiable goal) by (measurable – steps you’ll take) to (relevant – benefit or result). To accomplish this goal by (time specific – timeframe or deadline), our key employees or teams will (achievable – steps, realistic expectations, and resources/tools needed.)

Smart Goals Examples

Breakdown of the SMART Goals Acronym

The biggest goal of using the SMART method is to write meaningful objectives. SMART objectives create the best route when it comes to business direction. To ensure that you create the best SMART goals templates, consider the following breakdown:

  • Specific
    By being specific, we avoid setting goals with lots of grey areas. This means that we eliminate the possibility of distractions that will set us off track when wanting to accomplish our objectives.
    To ensure the purpose of your goals are goal-relevant and specific, ask yourself the following questions:
    Who can define and write management’s goals?
    Who is best suited to pursue this goal?
    What do you intend to accomplish with this goal?
    When would you like to achieve this goal? (Be date and time specific)
    What are all the steps that need to be taken to accomplish this goal?
    Why are these steps necessary?
    What sort of potential challenges could you face?
    Why is this a necessary goal?
    Are others required to participate to reach this goal? (Be specific about who)
    Example:
    Susan is motivated to enhance her comprehension of workplace inclusivity. Initially, she must pinpoint her area of interest in comprehending this subject, outline her inquiries about it, and chart out her strategy for self-education in order to cultivate the abilities required to become a more inclusive leader.
    Susan can then conduct research and decide whether she can implement inclusivity programs in the company or if a mentor will benefit the company more.
    From there, she should highlight when this new program is set to commence, what techniques and tools she wishes to teach employees, how she will distribute the mentor, etc.
  • Measurable
    Measurable goals allow you to track your progress and achieve your goals. Ensuring your plan is quantifiable means you’ll need to identify the metrics, targets, and benchmarks needed for your SMART goal framework.
    Example:
    The IT department needs to track website traffic and conversion rates. Team members must choose the metric that enables them to understand where the traffic is coming from and what kind of audience is involved.
    This way, they can measure the impact of any changes by comparing stats and checking the quality of the website’s traffic.
    They can then base their choices on website leads before determining how many changes they want to make to the website.
  • Achievable
    Unattainable goals can easily lead to feelings of discouragement or a loss of motivation among individuals. To prevent this, it’s crucial to ensure that you have set attainable goals. This can be accomplished by assessing whether you possess the required time, resources, and tools to successfully accomplish them.
    Example:
    Let’s say your company wants to increase its marketing tactics. To do this, you’d need to understand how much time your team has, the quality of the tools available to them, and the caliber of their networks.
    Try setting many small, manageable goals to stretch their abilities and motivate them. This way, when they reach their more challenging yearly goals, they’ll be more motivated to achieve them.
    In addition, you should explain to your team how you plan to support them in stepping up their efforts to reach their targets.
  • Relevant
    To understand how your goal is relevant, you can examine whether it’s consistent with your overall business objectives. If you find that there are gaps too big to ignore, you can alter your goals to connect with the broader objectives of your company.
    Example:
    A company’s primary business goal is to expand its brand and open new stores nationwide. This means that creating new products or offering different services falls on the back burner while the company utilizes the tools they have to drive sales and find potential rental units to open up a new shop.
    While the former is important, it’s not in line with the company’s main objective and could be a potential setback when wanting to reach goals that are relevant to where the company finds itself.
  • Time-specific
    A SMART goals worksheet includes a time-bound completion date that encourages progress and inspires team members to keep pushing towards the final goal. Having clear deadlines for goals helps prevent any confusion and ensures that projects remain on schedule.
    Example:
    Consider a scenario where a company is gearing up to introduce a novel product. Having refined their initial demonstration, they are now embarking on the task of promoting and showcasing their offering to the intended audience.
    Amidst this process, a pivotal objective is for the production team to generate a specific quantity of products primed for market entry.
    Subsequent to the product launch, the magnitude of incoming orders can vary based on the company’s scale.
    It becomes imperative for companies to guarantee an adequate product inventory for their clientele, ensuring not only availability but also the readiness of these products by the designated launch date.

Why are SMART Goals Important

SMART goals have proven to be very successful in both business and personal lives.

Whether you want to lose weight or run your own business, utilizing the SMART framework can improve your professional and personal development.

Smart Goals Worksheets

How to Write a SMART Goal Template

To create a unique SMART goal, you can choose your platform of preference (e.g., Microsoft Word, Google Docs, PowerPoint, etc.) and start designing your template by opening a new document.

Your SMART goal template should include some of the following elements:

  • Header
    The title of your header is entirely up to you. You can keep it simple and put “SMARTGoals”, or you could be more specific with the goal you have in mind. (e.g “SMART Weightloss Goal)
  • Table
    When you insert a table into your template, ensure it includes at least five rows for each letter and two columns. In the first column, starting at the top, you’ll insert the SMART acronym words, starting with “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-specific.

You’ll write a short description for each word in the second column. Here’s a brief example: 

  1. Next to specific, you’ll enter information about what you want to accomplish. For example: “I want to run my own business.”
  2. Next to Measurable, you’ll enter information about how you know when you’ve reached the goal. In other words, what evidence is there? This could look like: “I will have five staff and work a half-day from home.”
  3. Next to Attainable, you’ll enter information about the steps you can take to achieve these goals. E.g., “Quit my full-time job and use my savings to start a business.”
  4. Next to Relevant, you’ll enter information that explains why your goal is worthwhile. This could look like this: “It will allow me to work from home and spend more time with my children while still doing something I’m passionate about.”
  5. Next to Time-specific, you’ll enter information about the goal date by which you’d want to achieve this goal; in this example, this section could read: “By December next year.”

How to Write SMART Goals

Using the information above, iron out any grey areas by adding precise details. In other words, use the word specific to your advantage.

Looking at the examples in the previous section, you can make your goal more specific by saying: “I want to start and run my own fashion business with unique hand-made products.”

In the measurable section, you can include KPIs, OKRs, or other tools to measure your performance.

In the attainable section, include things that prove the goal is achievable. This could consist of spending 1 hour a day working on a business plan or 2 hours a day writing a business proposal.

In the relevant section, explain why this goal is essential to you. How does this appropriate goal align with your personal or professional life? How will achieving this goal benefit your work and personal life?

In the time-specific section, be precise about essential deadlines. For example, you’ll need a business plan set up at least six months before you launch your company.

This section is intended to help you establish a schedule to help you stay on track to reach your objective.

Things to avoid

Creating a successful SMART goal requires careful planning, implementation, and adaptability. Here are a few things to avoid when setting your SMART goal sheet:

  • Setting goals that are too ambiguous, unrealistic, or irrelevant.
  • Failing to involve your family or team in the goal-setting process.
  • Failing to monitor and review your goals regularly.
  • Being too rigid or inflexible with your goals.
  • Forgetting to celebrate your victories and acknowledge the contributions of your team.

These are just some of the possibilities for challenges and pitfalls you’ll face.

All the above-listed challenges can result in a loss of focus, lack of progress, numerous missed opportunities, unforeseen difficulties, and lost morale, motivation and satisfaction.

On top of that, they can also cause demotivation, confusion, frustration, reduced involvement, and a lack of commitment and ownership of the goals if not utilized correctly.

Smart Goals Samples

How to Use SMART Goals to Your Advantage

To take advantage of the SMART goal process, you should involve your team or people in your life and request their participation, feedback, and suggestions.

Clarifying your expectations and appointing responsibilities is easier when you put them in writing and share them with everyone involved.

In addition, it’s essential to stop and look at your goals and see where you can update and modify them.

Last but not least, don’t forget to praise and award yourself when you’ve achieved a milestone. Doing this will help you and your team to raise your spirits, contentment, and motivation.

Who can Benefit from SMART Goal Templates

Well, if you want to set clear and realistic goals, a SMART template is right for you.

That said, if there’s a specific requirement you’re looking for, or if you work in a department and need a reason to use a SMART goal template, here are a few:

  1. Marketing: Use a SMART goal template to raise brand recognition, produce leads, or boost client retention.
  2. Sales: SMART goals create an increase in your income, close deals, or increase market share.
  3. Human resources: Find talented candidates, boost employee morale or lower turnover.
  4. Finance: Control spending, cut expenses, or boost profits.
  5. Operations: Streamline procedures, raise standards, or boost productivity.

Conclusion

No matter how big or small your objectives are, knowing how to create them using the SMART framework can help you achieve them more efficiently.

Achieving your SMART goals will help improve performance. This is due to increased self-satisfaction and the motivation to find strategies that push your personal skills to the limit.

Forming good habits or improving your relationships are good places to start at home. At work, think about how to enhance your use of the abilities you haven’t yet fully utilized.

After you’ve located an opportunity, utilize the SMART Goals method we’ve provided to help you decide the next steps to reach your goals.

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Tagged:BusinessGoal SettingPersonalPlanningSmart goals
TemplateLab September 25th, 2023
Rita Akekelwa
Rita Akekelwa