How to Create Opportunities and Drive Results: 8 Examples of SMART Goals for Project Managers

How to Create Opportunities and Drive Results: 8 Examples of SMART Goals for Project Managers

Have you ever sat through a company goal-setting session and come out feeling less motivated that you did going in?

Maybe you came up with a list of personal goals that looked something like this:

• Network more.
• Be a better communicator.
• Stop going over budget all the time.

When you shared the goals, everyone approved. They seemed to demonstrate a commitment to succeed as a project manager.

Except they’re the exact same goals you set the previous year. And even though you may have attended some networking events, and read a book about listening skills, you feel as though you haven’t made any significant progress toward achieving any of them.

It’s discouraging to set goals that lead to nothing but dead ends, stagnation and zero growth.

If they never worked in the past, then how can you muster the motivation to try again? Aren’t goals supposed to enable growth and advancement? To shine a path to innovation and possibility?

The truth is, they can do all of these things. The secret lies in how the goal is written in the first place.

Are you aspiring to level up your project manager career, build a team and improve output? Then this is your guide to creating SMART goals to get you there.

The Skinny on SMART Goals

“SMART” is a goal setting process that provides a framework for creating goals that generate momentum and drive results. The process emphasizes specificity and metrics. The name is an acronym for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.

How does this process work, exactly? Let’s break down each of the five parts.

Specific

The first step to a SMART goal is specificity. This means being crystal clear around what is to be accomplished. It sounds pretty basic, yet this characteristic is oftentimes omitted from goals, making them worthless and ineffective. It’s impossible to achieve something that’s unclear or undefined.

Being specific means answering these key questions:

• What needs to be accomplished?
• Who is involved?
• Where does the work take place?
• What are the limitations on the work?

This fist step means clearing away ambiguity by fleshing out all the details around the goal.

Measurable

This is about setting metrics to determine when a goal has been achieved. Depending on the nature of the goal, the metric may be a number, a percentage, a measurement of time or a dollar amount.

For example, a team may have the goal to increase gross sales. A measurement to clarify this goal might be: increase gross sales by 15% over the previous year’s sales. Or a team might have a goal to increase rapport. A measurable goal for this might be to spend the fifteen minutes before every meeting in casual catch-up conversation.

Metrics boost momentum. They provide something specific to aspire to, and allow a team to identify when a goal has been achieved, or how close they are.
If a goal isn’t measurable, this is a sign that it needs to be revised.

Achievable

Goals are all about stretching and aspiring. This step, however, is about taking a reality check and figuring out if the goal really is possible.

An unrealistic goal is a set-up for discouragement and burnout.

Taking a close look at the company’s constraints around budget, resources and time helps to determine a realistic and achievable goal.

Relevant

This step should probably be first, as it’s about clarifying the “why” of a goal. This means identifying the benefits a goal brings to the organization, the client, the team or the individual.

In order to determine if a goal is relevant, list the benefits created by the achievement of the goal. Next, align these benefits to the client’s requests or the company’s mission statement to see if they align.

Projects rarely follow a linear path, and having clarity around the “why” makes it possible to adapt, twist, pivot and turn, yet still remain on track to achieve the goal.

Time-Bound

This goal is similar to measurable; it means placing a goal within a time-frame. You may have a goal to read Vanity Fair, but you don’t want it to take seven years. This step further sharpens the goal to clarify just when it’s slated to come over the finish line.

A due date gives everyone clarity about what they need to do, and when they need to do it. It’s about efficiency, conserving resources and saving time.

One way to determine a reasonable time frame for a project is the critical path method. Once the critical path is determined, a project manager can incorporate efficiency tactics like crashing and fast tracking to ensure the team reaches the goal by the scheduled date.

Benefits of SMART Goals

These five criteria allow a team to create a realistic goal that achieves growth. SMART goals benefit a team in several key ways:

Increase Value

SMART goals are focused on creating benefits for the client and the team.

Motivate

Whereas a vague goal can zap a team’s energy, a SMART goal stretches people to expand their skill sets and grow.

With a goal like “make more money,” a team doesn’t even know what it’s set out to achieve, nor how to achieve it. A goal with a clear finish line, however, provides the team something specific to work toward, as well as the drive to get there.

Improve Processes

A SMART goal measures results. This makes it easy to identify processes and behaviors that work, and those that don’t. Once a team comes up with a winning formula for improving output, it’s able to use it again in other projects.

With this explanation, let’s now take a look at some examples of SMART goals that allow a project to soar!

8 Examples of SMART Goals for Project Managers

Ready to level up in your career? Here are eight examples of common goals for a project manager. First, we’ll look at a weak goal then reframe it using the SMART formula.

1. Improve Communication Skills

Projects are made up of so many moving people and parts that strong communication skills are a must. This is particularly the case with remote teams, as communication breaks down so easily without person-to-person interaction.

Setting a goal around communication may entail sitting down with the team and pinpointing what isn’t working. Listening to feedback identifies areas to improve, whether it’s a new meeting agenda or improved status reports.

2. Eliminate Scope Creep

Scope creep feels like an inevitability in every project. There’s always add-ons and adjustments, and before long the project manager is writing change orders. Can it be eliminated entirely?

3. Increase Team Collaboration

Teams that like and support one another produce better deliverables. Yet building a team with strong rapport is no small feat.

4. Reduce Project Risks

Some project managers would just as soon deal with issues as they transpire. Others know from experience that anticipating risks and issues ultimately saves time, money and resources.

5. Stay in Budget

This goal is kind of a no-brainer; it’s at the top of the list for any project manager.

6. Improve Quality of Deliverables

Without a system for quality control, it’s so easy for embarrassing gaffes and slip-ups to end up in the final deliverable.

7. Build Professional Contacts

Project management can be isolating. Rubbing shoulders with other people who have earned their stripes in the field provides an outlet to learn from others and air concerns.

8. Find New Opportunities to Expand Skill Set

As we all know, doing is the fastest way to learn. Growing as a project manager means finding opportunities to stretch skills and lead new teams.

These examples demonstrate how to shape realistic objectives that improve both a working environment and a professional career.