Ever heard of SMART goal setting? If not, I recommend that you read on.
Without a doubt, goal setting, particularly early on in a career will give you much needed direction and something to work towards/achieve. Unfortunately, not all managers can be relied upon to set goals or objectives, so instead check out this quick guide and set them for yourself!
SMART goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time bound
As a guideline use SMART to set your goals, meaning specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. I’ve found goal setting to be integral to the early stages
of my career. Every six months I set myself goals, aim to achieve them and
review them. In my role particularly, I have found it important to set goals. Unlike other media roles, a PA doesn’t have an assumed progression like say a
marketing assistant to a marketing executive. Instead, I set myself
goals, to give me some direction and encourage my thoughts about how I would
like to progress in the future. Even if your role is not like mine and does have a specific career path to follow, goals are still important to progress and develop in an organisation.
However, if you're going to start setting yourself goals, you need to ensure that you set them correctly (using SMART). If there’s one thing you need to understand about SMART goals it's that they need to
be specific and should be based on the ‘how’ not the ‘what’. That is the
difference between goal setting and SMART goal setting. Here’s an example of
what I mean. A goal that wouldn’t be considered SMART is ‘I would like a career
change’. It is not specific enough as it only starts with the ‘what’. Instead
think about the ‘how’ you are going to get there, e.g. ‘to work with people in
departments x, y and z, to establish myself and get my name recognised’, could
be one aspect of how you are going to achieve that greater long-term goal of a
career change. Thus, aim to make your goals as specific as possible.
Once you have a specific goal, the rest of the criteria
should be relatively easy to check off. Next, measurable just means how are you
going to measure your goal or how are you going to know that you’ve achieved
it. Then, as long as the goals are achievable and realistic there’s only one
criteria left to cover - time bound. It’s vitally important that each goal set is timed. As I’ve already said, I like to set my goals every six months, so after
six months I review them, check them off if I’ve achieved them, or cross them
off if they’re no longer relevant.
Once you're happy with your goals (don't set yourself too many), commit to them and don't forget about them! After your chosen time period, review them, celebrate any achievements and then create more goals. The great thing about setting SMART goals is that they give you something to aim for and achieve. It encourages you to think about the direction of your career, which is crucial to starting out in any organisation.
