Goal-Setting: The SMART Way (Download FREE Goal Planner)

With the start of a new month, I wanted to would kick off by talking about Goal Setting! Setting goals for yourself in your career is extremely important. It's important to not only fuel your ambition but to also help you create a realistic framework to achieve your goals. But setting goals, especially for yourself can be a challenge. Whether you are just starting out in the corporate world or are a seasoned vet crafting realistic but aspirational goals can help set the direction for your career development.

SMART GOAL SETTING

I like the SMART Goals setting framework when I am working on my goals. This focuses on creating goals that are:

S - set a specific goal

M - make sure its measurable goal

A - set challenging yet achievable goals

R - set goals that are relevant to your life path

T- set time-frames to goals

Here are a few examples of a SMART goal:

Manager: Schedule time to give feedback to the team at least twice a month

Blogger: Increase my twitter followers by 25% by the end of the year

Start-up: Build out new feature set by December 1st

BUILDING YOUR GOALS

When you start to build your goals list you will need to do a true self-assessment on your skills and weakness to identify what you should be working to improve and develop. What will help you in your industry or career? This will help you determine goals that are realistic and achievable.  Review the below and determine if your new goals align with the following:

Scroll down to download my FREE Career Goal Planner!

SHOP THE LOOK

Self-Assessment

What are skillsets that you struggle with and what are you passionate about? This will help craft specific goals that will be motivating for you to work on. If you aren't entirely sure - Asking for feedback to get an outside perspective on your strengths and weakness. I recommend scheduling time with your manager, coworkers or friends to get feedback. Could your presentation skills need work? Do you need to work on your communication style? What can you do to better support them?

What Makes You Valuable?

I am a big believer in the saying "knowledge is power" the more knowledgeable you are - the more valuable you are a client or organization. The more valuable you are, the more you can negotiate your earned value. So figure out what makes you valuable to the industry you are in.

My Goal Setting: When I started in the media world my first client was a massive financial bank. We placed millions of dollars in media for them but were only responsible for the digital portion of their media advertising. All of the offline media was done by another team in New York. I wanted to understand how the whole plan came together - not just a portion of their spend. I learned fast in meetings with clients that being able to have insight cross-channel and holistically was key. That helped create my earliest goal when I first started in the media world.

Career Goal: My career goal was to learn every paid media channel: Search, Social, Digital, Print, TV, Radio etc.  So I went out and found a new job that would let me do both! My new job still had me focus on digital media which I really enjoyed and was training me on the offline channels. That move proved invaluable later on in my career.

Take Action

Whether you just need to schedule a meeting to get feedback from your boss or to address an issue with a co-worker - take the first step. Unless you stay committed to your goal and take the steps to make it happen, it can easily get lost in the daily grind. Priotizie your goals and make sure you are taking specific actions to make them achievable.

Expand Your Comfort Zone

The goals you come up with should take you outside of your comfort zone and push you. That is what growth feels like and it's important to always keep challenging yourself. If you feel very comfortable or safe in your current role that is a sign you could be pushing yourself more for your own career development.  Push yourself and your employer to help develop your career, this could mean asking for a raise or to be given leadership training.

   Outfit Details: Trove Menswear blazer from Nordstrom, Equipment blouse, J Brand black distressed Jeans, Leopard Pumps, Backpack c/o  Sole Society

photography by Michelle Moore

What are your current work goals??