S: Specific

First I will give a brief explanation of what SMART goals are as a whole before diving into the aspects of “S.” The SMART goal-setting strategy holds much merit in the world of business, education, communication, and many other fields. The reason it is used is because it is a relatively simple format to use in setting good goals. Notice that I said good goals not just a general goal. One of the main purposes of this strategy is to create goals that are useful and attainable. According to Stoner and Stoner, “This approach asserts that goals would meet five conditions. Goals should be: (S) specific; (M) measurable; (A) attainable; (R) relevant; and (T) timely or time-specific. Keep in mind that these conditions must be assessed from the perspective of your people...Accordingly, careful communication that explains and clarifies each of the five conditions is a must. And, perhaps most important, put all of this in writing” (Stoner, 2013, p. 63). 

Now that we know what SMART goals are as a whole, we are going to dissect SMART and discuss each part individually. So we will start today with “S” for specific.

As stated, “S” stands for specific. This term actually encompasses the entire process and should be involved in every letter of the acronym. Specificity is one of the most important aspects of SMART goal-setting, in my opinion at least. Because without specificity, one cannot understand or will not remember all of the aspects of the goal. 

For “S” one will utilize the 5 W’s, which are: who, what, where, when, and why. The who can change because it could be yourself, or it could be someone else like a colleague or a business department. The what is the overall goal you’re trying to reach like raising your sales by _% or becoming a dancer. Where is exactly what it sounds like, where will you go to make this goal a reality. When is tied into time-specific, which is exactly what I was talking about when I said the “S” will encompass all the steps. Answering the question “why” is important because it gives a purpose behind the goal. No one wants to reach a goal that has no purpose behind it, most would find that to be a complete waste of time, energy, and resources. Therefore, the why is important. 

Another way to be specific, as stated in the video “How to set SMART goals” is to use a verb at the beginning of the goal such as increasing or decreasing. This creates a sense of movement or change, which is generally the aim of most goals. When setting a goal and aiming to be specific, one needs to consider the question: What movement am I trying to see or make happen? As Olsen says, “A good goal says what dial we’re trying to move.” 

As you can see, specificity is extremely important in goal-setting! Without a specific goal, you or your people won’t know what direction you’re going or how to get there and the purpose won’t be clear either. Specificity should be involved in every aspect of SMART goal-setting which is something we’ll need to keep in mind as we move through all the letters of SMART. 

Stoner C. R., Stoner J. S. (2013). Building Leaders: Paving the Path for Emerging Leaders. New York, NY: Routledge.

VIDEOS:
How to set SMART goals
SMART goals

Why Goals Are Important

Why are goals important? Well, let’s think of a few reasons that goals are important. First of all, everyone has goals; whether big goals, small goals, important goals or simple goals everyone has goals and is making more constantly. Another reason goals are important is that most people would like to be successful. Now, success is not extremely defined and is quite subjective, but for now that is alright; we will get more specific in later blogs. Since success is subjective though, people will have different opinions on what success is and how to get it. However, for now the point I am making is that most individuals desire success in some form. 

Goals are also important, or at the very least helpful, because they provide a sense of direction and eventually accomplishment. Why is this important? Well, a good majority of individuals legitimately desire a sense of direction because it is the feeling that one is fulfilling a purpose. I’ve personally never met anyone who did not want any purpose in their life. Of course, someone’s purpose could end up being not exactly edifying, but the fact remains that there is the desire for purpose. Accomplishment is important because apart from the fact that things are getting done, accomplishment leads to more confidence. Confidence is a good thing and is something I personally wish was more prevalent among our society. Now, understand that having confidence and being prideful are not the same thing. One can be very confident and sure of themselves and their work without being prideful or arrogant. I only want to highlight that difference because some hear confidence and immediately associate it with arrogance, and I do not believe that to be an accurate or fair association. 

I'll provide a quick intro on SMART goals in this blog and my next as well (as a bit of review so we don't forget our subject matter!). 

According to Day and Tosey:  Goal setting often employs the SMART framework (or similar heuristic), in which a goal is commonly designed to be specific, measurable, achievable/agreed-upon, realistic and time-based. The construct of SMART goals, targets or objectives appears to have originated in business and management contexts, having evolved from the ‘management by objectives’ movement...The SMART framework has become a popular means of focusing on performance at institutional, departmental, and individual staff and student levels (Day & Tosey, 2011, p. 517).

As you can see, SMART goals (and goals in general) are quite important and useful in our everyday, academic, or  professional lives! Goals are everywhere and we are almost always making them whether consciously or not, so we might as well be making smart goals (ha, see what I did there?). (Yes, I know I have cheesy humor; I like it that way.)

I have highlighted a short list of reasons that goals are important and I have also given a very brief info on the validity of SMART goal-making. To review, the reasons I have given are: 1) Everyone makes goals; 2) Most people want to be successful; 3) Goals provide a sense of direction; 4) Goals provide feeling of accomplishment which leads to confidence. Now that we have discussed the importance of goals and laid the foundation of this topic, future posts will focus on goal setting. The specific goal setting strategy I will focus on are SMART goals (duh). Each week, I will focus on one of the letters in the acronym so each aspect of this strategy will be clear and recognizable.

Day, T., & Tosey, P. (2011). Beyond SMART? A New Framework for Goal Setting. Curriculum Journal, 22(4), 515-534.