When you set goals, I suggest you try to set SMART ones. SMART is an acronym. It stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. These are the key characteristics of a good goal. Now there are multiple versions of SMART out there, but they all get to the same thing: creating clear and actionable goals that matter.

In this article, the first of a two part series, let’s focus on the first two SMART characteristics: specific and measurable.

Specific

The first characteristic of a good goal that you should focus on is making it specific. Make the goal unambiguous. Tell people what to do, why they’re doing it, who’s accountable, and what the performance standards are. Don’t create nonspecific goals like, “We should optimize our performance.” What does that mean? How are people going to behave if you just tell them go optimize performance? They won’t know what to work on.

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