TOOLS

By Rob Abbanat

SMART GOALS REFERENCE GUIDE

A guide for defining goals that meet the GloCoach SMART criteria

Spring 2020

Defining SMART Goals at the beginning of each Coachee's program is a core element of our award-winning methodology. With well-defined SMART Goals, we are able to measure the success of our coaching against a set of parameters in agreement with the Coachee and his or her Sponsor.

CRITERIA
QUALIFYING QUESTIONS
WATCH OUT FOR

S: SPECIFIC
A goal that creates a shared understanding between the Sponsor, Coach & Coachee about the behavior to be improved and how it will be measured.

  • Does the goal reflect the pain point expressed by the Sponsor?
  • Does the Coachee recognize the goal as important for his/her development, and is willing to take ownership of achieving it?
  • Goals that are too vague, such as “better time management”.
  • Goals that are not connected to a behavior that can be changed.

M: MEASURABLE
A goal that addresses a specific behavior which can be measured for quantitative or qualitative improvement observable by at least the Sponsor and Coachee.

  • Will the Sponsor and Coachee be able to see an improvement in behavior?
  • Can they use either the quantitative (10-point) or qualitative (yes, no, maybe) scale to define the improvement?
  • Goals that won’t result in a behavior change which is observable by both the Coach and Coachee. If you can’t see it, you can’t measure it.

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A: ACTIONABLE
A goal that addresses a behavior that can be changed measurably through coaching, as demonstrated by the Coachee performance on the job.

  • Is the Coachee able and willing to change this behavior?
  • Am I confident I can help the Coachee to change this behavior?
  • Goals that rely on the action or behavioral change of someone else.

R: RELEVANT
A goal that is relevant to business outcomes within the Coachee's sphere of influence.

  • If we achieve this goal, is it likely to have an impact on business performance?
  • Is it important to the talent leader?
  • Is this goal appropriate for this Coachee and not someone else?
  • Goals that don’t have impact on the Coachee’s business outcomes.

T: TIMELY
A goal agreed upon at the beginning of the program that can be completed by the last session with measurable improvement.

Can you and your Coachee get this done by the last session?

  • A goal that doesn’t have a behavior which can be changed by the end of the coaching program.
Example SMART Goals
Goals that are NOT SMART

Example 1: Develop the confidence to engage in unemotional, confident, 2-way communication with the key managers in the US who have influence on her role in China. Demonstrate this ability by presenting and getting buy-in for a China-appropriate strategy in monthly meetings before the last session of the program. During the meeting, demonstrate the ability to push-back against criticisms that are posed by US-based team, or ask for deeper clarification of their position.

Example 2:In 3 months, to people who are incompetent or incapable, I will make the developmental or transitional decision, as best as I can, to benefit for both the people and the organization.

Example 3: For each member of his team, John will create a quarterly work plan with clear KPIs (for the remaining 3 quarters of the year). The plan will be reviewed with each team member for buy-in. By the end of the coaching program, each team member will be evaluated by John on a 10-point scale for performance during the next quarter, and a summary report will be shared by John with his Talent Leader. John will commit to his talent leader in writing to continue this practice going forward.

Example 4: Improve communication within three months. The specific actions are as follows:

  1. Regularly submit project progress reports to superiors, team subordinates and external customers every week.
  2. Communicate with superiors, discuss and reach a consensus on doubtful issues, and serve customers well.
  3. According to the experience, sort out the overall project process overview and introduce it to the company leaders for reference.

Example 5: By the end of the program, get 15 interviews from people and be able to validate or invalidate through the interviews if the idea is good for the market or needs to be changed at all.

Example 6: Within 3 months, be able to communicate ins such a way that, in less than 10 minutes, 80% of people are able to fully accept my ideas/proposals/thoughts as well as execute them accurately under non-faceto-face circumstance.

  1. Be more strategic in my job responsibilities
  2. Try to get Inner peace/happiness
  3. Build effective networking and strong team
  4. Develop speaking abilities in meetings with confidence
  5. Be more actively participate in business change
  6. Improve effective time management
  7. Move from doing to delegating
  8. Project confidence with senior management in meetings
  9. Improve influencing power to senior management and team members.
  10. Work out some strategy to gain support from CEO